In the first of a series of blogs Andrew Bird wrote for The New York Times, he described himself as a musician “;mostly concerned with shape, tone and texture ... an instrumentalist who sings words.”;

You could also call him an inspired artisan, whose journey into sound began at age 4, when he started his training as a violinist using the Suzuki method. Its creator, Shinichi Suzuki, said the goal of his style of musical education was not to create prodigies, but raising human beings with “;noble hearts.”;

Bird cleverly titled his latest album “;Noble Beast,”; and the Chicago native concludes the Asian portion of his worldwide promotional tour with a solo concert here tomorrow.

Speaking by phone from his Hong Kong hotel room last week, he said he had sent his backup band away after their Australia tour dates earlier in the month. But Bird will be a veritable one-man band, playing with two rigs onstage “;which will separate and loop my violin playing, either pizzicato or arco.”;

Armed as well with a guitar, a fine singing voice and being an astute whistler that very well counts as another instrument, Bird said, “;I'll be doing as much multitasking as I do when I play with my band.”;

Bird was still in the midst of his first Asia tour—besides playing Singapore and Hong Kong, he was doing shows in Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo—and attributed social networking for helping get crowds largely made up of “;Anglo ex-pats”; to come see him play.

After the Honolulu gig he'll travel to Long Beach, Calif., to serve as a guest speaker during Thursday's “;Breakthrough”; session at the 2010 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference.

“;At something like this, I think they expect musicians like myself to just play, but I'll do more than that instead of being just a diversion,”; Bird said. He plans to relate the thought process behind his music writing “;and debut a new song that's about 75 percent finished on a subject matter that I think will be a surprise to my fans.”;

BIRD'S LATEST release is a live-in-studio session he recently did with his band for iTunes.

It's an entertaining sampling of songs from throughout his career, including “;Oh No”; from “;Nobel Beast”;; from the “;Armchair Apocrypha”; album, the poppy science/philosophy of “;Imitosis”; and the melancholy of “;Cataracts”;; “;Opposite Day”; and “;Skin Is, My”; from “;The Mysterious Production of Eggs”;; an old-time country version of Charley Patton's folk blues “;Some of These Days”;; and a reworking of two previous songs, “;Sweet Breads”; and “;Dark Matter,”; to make “;Sweetmatter.”;

While he's known to be careful in his creative process, Bird said, “;I've never been methodical in my music writing. I don't try to write the perfect song. It's not like getting up in the morning with the intention of writing what could be a classic pop song. I find songwriting very elusive and that's what's great about it.”;

For example, he took what he said were the spare parts of “;Sweet Breads,”; where Bird wrote about his concerns about eating animal organ meat and mad cow disease with the philosophical questions of “;Dark Matter”; to create something new.

“;I liked how the new song became nascent, in a magmalike state before it became 'Sweetmatter.'”;

When drawing on his earlier repertoire for concert material, “;it goes through cycles, with songs going in and out of favor—like with 'Heretics,' which I used to hate playing live,”; Bird said. “;But now I do it in a more folky version.

“;No matter how complicated in its original arrangements, all of my songs can be boiled down to its elemental things. Something like 'The Happy Birthday Song' has now become a polyrhythmic jam.”;

One aforementioned trait of Bird's music is his trademark whistling.

“;It comes second nature to me. Using my voice, singing lyrics feels more self-conscious to me. So when I'm playing guitar and where the melody comes up, I whistle it. I think it's a more honest way of carrying a tune.”;