China

II: MUSIC

Making and Playing Instruments

Introduction:
Learning about the cultures of the world is extremely important, and all people—especially young people—should have opportunities to do so. Music is among the most accessible bridges between cultures. But learning about music by reading, discussing, listening or watching only gives partial understanding. For a person to experience music fully, he or she must make music. Since instruments can be expensive and many people have not had formal training, and since many people (students and adults) are afraid to try playing instruments without knowing how, there has to be a way to break down these barriers to experiencing the joy of making music. The links that follow will show everyone, from the youngest children to the oldest adults, how to build instruments from easily accessible materials with minimal expense. Some of them are "real" instruments that require some knowledge of technique to play. Others are fanciful or invented instruments, which allow their makers and players to develop techniques of their own.

Perhaps even more exciting than building instruments from the designs of others, students (and adults!) should try their luck at inventing instruments of their own, or adapting materials found around the house or school. Almost anything that can make a sound can make music of some sort. An open mind and creative attitude are the only requirements. Do not worry about what sounds "right." Focus instead on what sounds good, interesting, funny, surprising, or cool.

Extensions:
A few ideas and hints that have worked well in the past:

• Instrument parts are around us all the time. For example, among the best possible drum bodies are the large plastic pipes (often green or blue) used for drainage, sewer lines, or industrial plumbing. This pipe is quite expensive, but short sections of it are often discarded by work crews. Talk to contractors, public works departments, farmers and factories about setting aside such pieces for the schools. Gathering different diameters (anywhere from an inch or two to a foot or more) and lengths of pipe will allow students to construct a wide variety of drums (or other instruments) and to discover how factors such as diameter influence the sound an instrument makes.
• Another great drum body is the heavy cardboard tubes sold by home stores and lumberyards for use as concrete forms. They're cheap, tough, light and available in several sizes and any length.
• Plastic 5 gallon buckets are good drums without any changes, or they can have heads added to the open end.
• Be creative. Time spent just looking at instruments (and, ideally, listening to them) will give you ideas for your own creations. Some of the links that follow were chosen for this purpose. There are many, many more excellent sites on the web, as well as books in the library.
• Please make sure to photograph your instruments, while they are being built and while they are being played. In addition, try to find ways to record the sounds of your instruments. There are many free or inexpensive software titles available that allow recording directly to computers.

General Instrument Reference, including pictures and explanations:
(Links will open in new windows.)

The Instrument Encyclopedia! is"a sampler of some of the world's most interesting musical instruments. Beginning with more than 140 artifacts from the Stearns Collection at the University of Michigan, this resource features musical instruments from around the world."

Resources for Educators: Resources include a glossary of musical terms, information about museum instrument collections in Canada and the United States, and other WWW sites featuring instrument collections.

The National Music Museum and Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments at The University of South Dakota"is one of the great institutions of its kind in the world. Its renowned collections, which include more than 10,000 American, European, and non-Western instruments from virtually all cultures and historical periods, are the most inclusive anywhere."

The International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections (CIMCIM) International Directory of Musical Instrument Collections, provides links to the web pages of CIMCIM members' museums.

The American Musical Instrument Society is an international organization founded in 1971 to promote better understanding of all aspects of the history, design, construction, restoration, and usage of musical instruments in all cultures and from all periods. Their links page includes links to many instrument collections and to world and folk music links.

Lark in the Morning sells instruments from all over the world, and features hundreds of instrument photos.

For information on what is probably the oldest of all the world's wind instruments—one of the simplest to make but not as easy to play correctly—see Dreamtime: A Didjeridu Resource. The didgeridoo is an Australian Aboriginal instrument, and makes more cool sounds than just about any other instrument. It also has many spellings, so don't get confused.

The online version of the Sounds from the Vault exhibit at the Field Museum allows users to"play" many of the rare and delicate instruments in the museum's collection.

Wannalearn.com has links to free instructional sites for various instruments.

Information and links relating to the hurdy gurdy, an interesting instrument that is rarely seen these days.

Informative articles about instruments and musical forms from around the world.

Making Instruments

The Launeddas is the ancient musical instrument of Sardinia (an island in the Mediterranean Sea). There are pictures to show how to make one, but there isn't much explanation. The pictures are very good, though. There are also some hints about how to play the Launeddas.

Dan Bruner's instrument plans include flutes, drums, panpipes, and a digeridoo, mostly from plastic pipe and other readily available materials. His diagrams and explanations are very clear and simple.

The instrument building Web site of Dennis Havlena is perhaps the most ambitious anywhere. It features dozens of instrument plans, ranging from washtub bass to whistles to bagpipes to hurdy gurdy. This is a truly excellent site. He also provides links to several other instrument making Web sites.

Roland Shambry provides information on building, tuning and playing flutes. He also has some links on the subject of shakuhachi and other flutes.

Mark Shepard invites visitors to his site to make a flute, play the flute.

Japanese flute making information.

Rolling Thunder Taiko Drum building

Plans for making a simple mbira or thumb piano

Dwight U. Bartholomew's ocarina making site

A World of Bamboo (Un Mundo de Bambu) is a workshop in Argentina. They make and sell bamboo instruments, including quenas, ocarinas, saxophones, and more. The site features a number of very detailed close-up photos of quena mouthpieces and soundholes, which will be useful to anyone making a quena (whether wood, cane, bamboo, metal or PVC). The saxophone section of the site also features nice, detailed photos of how the instruments are put together.

Let's Play the Bamboo Flute provides instructions for building a Japanese shakuhachi flute from PVC pipe, tuning the flute, and playing it.

Invented Musical Instruments From Discarded Materials

Experimental Musical Instruments is an organization devoted to interesting and unusual musical instruments of all sorts. The site has several useful areas, such as articles taken from past issues of Experimental Musical Instruments. There is also a good page of Links having to do with experimental musical instruments and more. Finally, the online catalog lists some good books for those interested in making musical instruments, as well as some interesting recordings. It may be possible to find these in a library, or to convince a library to find them.

At the Bash the Trash page, there are simple instructions for cheap and easy-to-make instruments like the 4-in-1 Coffee Can, the Happy New Year Noisemaker, Tube Horns, Tube Trombones, Finger Piano, Rubber Band Box Guitars, the Tube-tar and the Styrocello. There is also some information for teachers and curriculum designers.

The Gametone homemade instruments page features the slapaphone, made of juice cans and a smaller version, made of cardboard tubes and played with a piece of rubber from an old flip-flop; the table gong, consisting of can lids and hubcaps; various mbira-like instruments made of found objects; several other instruments made of easily available materials. Some of the instruments can even be played online. The links page is a good resource for instrument making and gamelan music.

How to build a musical instrument, from wannalearn.com

How about making music with clay flower pots or other clay instruments? Lots of good ideas here.

Interested in making a crumhorn? Here are instructions and links.

For those who would rather try a cornamuse—its reed is made from Scotch tape, some string, strips of a yogurt container and a short metal tube—try this site.

Lets make a yokobue! The yokobue is a Japanese bamboo flute. These are detailed directions with plenty of diagrams and photos, and even a short video. They are tough directions to follow, but those willing to try will have a very fine flute to play.

The In Harmony With Education program, from Bose. Instruments made by students, mostly from cheap or free materials. The site invites students"to explore sound, design and make instruments, and write and perform music of their own" and to use the site to"look for information on sound in music, science, and math." Instruments include the Nail Violin/Nail Piano, Multi-purpose bow, Slide clarinet, Dan Bau, Erhu, Tube Vina, and mbira, metallophone, koto, hoseaphone and splashaphone.

"Concerto for Pencilina and Sewer Flute": Part of an article about instrument inventors and the odd things they create. This article is highly recommended, especially if students or teachers can go to the library and read it in its entirety.

The Gravikord is another musical invention. It is similar to the West African kora. The site includes sound files and links to other invented instruments.

The Musical Instrument Makers Forum is among the premiere sources for links and information about instrument making.

Playing Instruments
These are just a few of the many sites with music instruction.

World Music Training shows you how to play rhythms from around the world, with links and bibliographies.

Djembe-L FAQ is one of the most extensive collection of links to information about African drumming, African music, music in general, drumming, and more. Truly amazing.

Percussion Information is a site with good general percussion information, including how to make drumsticks (designed for tympani), and lots of drumming lessons and links.

Information about circular breathing. Any wind instrument can be played with circular breathing, which means never stopping to take a breath. The player blows air out and breathes in at the same time. Some players who use this technique are able to play ONE NOTE for 45 minutes or an hour. It is essential for playing the didgeridoo. Anyone can learn how to do it.