Not too long ago, I was trying to figure out how a Tesla coil worked so I could write about it for Discovery Channel’s “Time Warp.” For a while, I was stumped, so I did what I’ve been doing for the last four years whenever I’ve failed at wrapping my brain around something. I IM‘ed my brother. In spite of what I used to tell him when we were kids, he is smarter than I am.

His response? “You should put the Tesla music in there.” I grew up during the ’80s, so it took me a minute to realize he didn’t mean the band behind the power ballad “Love Song.” He meant this:

It was, without a doubt, the best thing I had seen that week, and I spent more time than I should have watching Tesla coil versions of everything from the “Doctor Who” theme to the “Imperial March.” And being sad that I missed Tesla coil performers ArcAttack at Dragon*Con last year. (Fortunately, they’re now on the guest list for Dragon*Con ’09.)

The whole experience has been on my mind after hearing about “Weezer – The 8-Bit Album,” which came out this week from Pterodactyl Squad. It’s Weezer. It’s 8-Bit. And it’s free. So what’s the connection between it and the Tesla coils? They’re both very geeky ways of making music out of things that aren’t typically musical instruments, which got me thinking — what else is out there that’s in the same vein? Here are some samples.

Back in June, Neil Gaiman’s blog led me to The Magnetic Fields’ “All My Little Words,” arranged for voice and Game Boy by Tom Milsom.

And even earlier, Gaiman’s blog also led me to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” on old computer parts.

From there, it didn’t take long to find a 3.5″ floppy disk playing the “Imperial March” …

… and the “Super Mario Brothers” theme on stepper motors by YouTuber cmhiekses, who also has some instructional videos on how to pull this off.

How about you — what are some of your favorite ways to turn technology into musical instruments?

Read up on what this music’s made on at Discovery and HowStuffWorks.com:
Music Geeks Making Music: Once More, with Robots
Lightning, Circuits and Tesla Coils
How Electric Motors Work
How Floppy Disc Drives Work
How Game Boy Advance Works
How PCs Work
How the Reactable Works