Always enticed by a challenge, online video maker Dan Ndombe said his latest work, in which he uses pumpkins as musical instruments, is yet another way to show that creativity has no limits.
"Creativity should be something that everyone develops," the 31-year-old Little Rock resident told Arkansas Online on Thursday.
Ndombe picked up the project, one of many he's completed using out-of-the-ordinary objects to create music, as a result of viewer feedback.
In the comments section on YouTube, where he posts his work, one viewer had sought a video using pumpkins, while another wanted a Halloween-appropriate song choice — the Ghostbusters theme.
The solution was to combine the two, said Ndombe, who goes by the YouTube screen name of Dan Newbie.
That challenge then took Ndombe to BoBrook Farms just west of Little Rock, where he selected 11 pumpkins to create the perfect pairing.
The pumpkins were each hollowed out and filled with a different level of water to create a different musical note — an unconventional method that Ndombe said required more tuning by ear than his previous videos that use items such as wine glasses and bottles.
"I have a musical background. That makes it easier to know what note it's supposed to sound like," he said of the process.
Ndombe added that synching multiple recordings into one cohesive video was particularly time-consuming.
About five days later, a video recording was complete using the pumpkins, including one what was cut to form a "pumpkin guitar" with rubber bands.
Since it was uploaded Wednesday, the video has garnered nearly 2,000 views.
Ndombe has been making music videos for about two years and has more than 30,000 followers on his YouTube channel.
As for his next project, Ndombe said viewers have been demanding a Christmas-themed video incorporating wine glasses, one of his signature instruments.