This video has been making the rounds over the last couple of days. There is some disagreement as to the instrument being played. It resembles a Sheng, which is an ancient Chinese woodwind, but this is clearly a more modern instrument.
Regardless, watch the video, and tell me that this does not sound like the same instrument used to create Nintendo’s Mario theme music. Don’t care, just love it.
I always assumed they were using steel drums.
That was very cool.
The description in the video clearly says Sheng. However, this is a modernized version of Sheng. The ancient ones probably don’t have the same sound and tone range.
AWESOME! Thanks Jim!
The game where this theme appears most prominently (Super Mario Bros) does not use any instruments. It ran on the NES, which was not capable of playing samples from actual instruments in any kind of useful fashion.