Music should always be fun. Anybody with an inclination to make music should be able to. But we are taught in school that to make music we need to study tablature, learn and practice scales and spend cash on expensive musical instruments and practice loads. But this isn’t true.
Have you ever see any African tribes people dancing to drums? The drummers have never studied at music college. They can’t read music and wouldn’t know a paradiddle if it bit them. But they are certainly having a good time. Making music on simple, home made instruments like drums and rattles is what music making is all about.
There is a one stringed Brasilian instrument called a Berimbau that has African roots. Its not surprising to note that the instrument looks like a bow that might be used for hunting. Now this simple instrument is the precursor to pretty much all forms of stringed instrument including guitars, harps and even pianos.
You may have heard of the Diddley Bow. This is a very simple and easily made African American one stringed folk instrument. These might be made from nothing more than a plank of wood with a length of wire stretched from end to end. The string is made taught with a bridge of some kind, maybe a can, and then fretted with a slide, often a knife, piece of bone or bottleneck.
One notable Diddley bow player, Lonnie Pitchford, would make his Diddley Bows by attaching a wire to a vertical support beam on the front porch of his house. Diddley bows were commonly made by poor field workers and share croppers in the Mississippi Delta region.
The sound of the slide and the Diddley bow is very much the sound of the blues. Many of the early blues orginators from the 1920s and 1930s got their start by twanging Diddley Bows. One modern day Diddley bow players who you may have heard of is Seasick Steve. So why not knock together a simple Diddley Bow and become a one string virtuoso today.
Tags: diddley bow, diddly bo, learn to play, musical instruments