Provides step-by-step instructions for making, decorating, and playing more than sixty string, wind, and percussion instruments made from gourds, along with numerous color photos and cultural information on the instruments' places of origin.
"If you're an artist looking to explore a versatile medium or are interested in making dolls, look to nature's bounty. Learn a variety of classic techniques as you create projects. Comes with a gallery of inspiring work by talented artists."--adapted from back cover.
The story of the banjo's journey from Africa to the western hemisphere blends music, history, and a union of cultures. In Banjo Roots and Branches, Robert B. Winans presents cutting-edge scholarship that covers the instrument's West African origins and its adaptations and circulation in the Caribbean and United States. The contributors provide detailed ethnographic and technical research on gourd lutes and ekonting in Africa and the banza in Haiti while also investigating tuning practices and regional playing styles. Other essays place the instrument within the context of slavery, tell the stories of black banjoists, and shed light on the banjo's introduction into the African- and Anglo-American folk milieus. Wide-ranging and illustrated with twenty color images, Banjo Roots and Branches offers a wealth of new information to scholars of African American and folk musics as well as the worldwide community of banjo aficionados. Contributors: Greg C. Adams, Nick Bamber, Jim Dalton, George R. Gibson, Chuck Levy, Shlomo Pestcoe, Pete Ross, Tony Thomas, Saskia Willaert, and Robert B. Winans.
This text has plans for 50 musical instruments, including over 100 drawings and photographs. It teaches the reader how to build their own musical instruments, using knowledge of a variety of diverse cultures from around the world. It includes instruments such as: oil drum gongs, thumb pianos, cowbells, tube drums and willow whistles. All necessary materials can either be purchased or found in nature or a junkyard.
New in Paper With a simple gourd, it's easy to make an astonishing variety of bowls, boxes, baskets, pitchers, and dippers, as well as musical instruments and toys. Choose from the many inviting shapes, from the kettle to the canteen, the bushel basket to the snake. Carve, burn, wax, varnish, and color them with paints, dyes, oils, and markers to work their smooth, three-dimensional surfaces. Basic, time-tested techniques for making practical works of art show you how to grow, dry, and clean them, or where to buy gourds readymade for projects such as a child's elephant pull toy, planters, lamps, and birdhouses. "[A] collection of uncomplicated, step-by-step projects for...large gourds, which are fun to work with and readily available...a good selection."--Library Journal
While the history of musical instruments is nearly as old as civilisation itself, the science of acoustics is quite recent. By understanding the physical basis of how instruments are used to make music, one hopes ultimately to be able to give physical criteria to distinguish a fine instrument from a mediocre one. At that point science may be able to come to the aid of art in improving the design and performance of musical instruments. As yet, many of the subtleties in musical sounds of which instrument makers and musicians are aware remain beyond the reach of modern acoustic measurements. This book describes the results of such acoustical investigations - fascinating intellectual and practical exercises. Addressed to readers with a reasonable grasp of physics who are not put off by a little mathematics, this book discusses most of the traditional instruments currently in use in Western music. A guide for all who have an interest in music and how it is produced, as well as serving as a comprehensive reference for those undertaking research in the field.