Quote:
| Originally Posted by UsBlkgal Clough, what in the heck is this art that you mention? I am constantly amazed at what the human being can come up with in the field of arts and crafts! How do you go about learning this art? Where does it originate? |
Hi again, UsBlkgal!
Information and images about thumb pianos can be found on the following links:
Thumb Piano - Google Search Thumb Piano - Google Image Search
It originates with a desire to help others to understand about music and musical instruments and for one to find a way to achieve that goal.
Over many years, I have been teaching students about multi-cultural music. I have found that the thumb piano is one of the ideal instruments in which to show similarities as well as diversities between instruments contained in boxes and/or resonating chamber, as evolved from the basic drum which came from a hide stretched across a hollow tree trunk. Centuries later, it evolved into the marching drum, banjo, guitar, instruments of the violin family, etc. The list is almost endless.
I had trouble making my kits at first when I started this nearly twenty years ago. But, thanks to a friend who is a former junior high woodworking teacher, I was finally able to mass produce the parts for the kits.
Basically the thumb pianos that I make are a rectangular box. Then you have a bridge on which metal tangents of a certain length are placed. The metal tangents are held in place with some screws through another piece of wood above the bridge. I am trying to make this simple as far as a description, but it is hard to do. But, I think that you will get the idea of basically how they look if you go to link to the image search that I have provided above.
I love woodworking! Basically, they are masterpieces (If I might brag a little!) made out of junk! You can find damaged pieces of paneling that are ideal to use for the tops and bottoms of them, then you cut them to the size that you want. Inexpensive wood lathe planed down so that it is almost smooth works great for the sides. You can get oak for the bridge and fixture above it, from discarded pallets, that you just plane down and then cut to the sizes that you need.
The metal tangents for the notes are made from blued, polished spring steel. Making them is the hardest part of this whole process, because all of the notes must be individually cut and shaped accordingly so that they don't scratch the fingers when they are being plucked. The thumb pianos that I make are tuned diatonically, therefore, we can play pieces that we can recognize on them. (Guess who gets to tune the hundreds of notes when making a batch of the kits for a few classes?)
The kids learn how to use a screwdriver, (righty-tighty, lefty-loosey) sand, and also paint as well as being educated about the evolution of musically instruments according to the cultural traditions from which they have evolved. This has been a great experience for many that has involved art, shop and music teachers all at once. It is interdisciplinary as well as a sharing of the teaching talents of many people. A great way to get various departments working together towards one goal.
The same thing can be done with simple dulcimers.
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