HOME MADE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
There is music in everything if you only know how to get it out without
cracking it. When a small boy beats a pie-pan with a stick, or drums on
a wooden fence he is making music, only the neighbors won’t believe it.
This is because he sets up the same note in succession and after a
while the constant repetition of this single note gets on a grown-up’s
nerves, especially if he is writing a book; hence he thinks the sounds
are _noise_ but it is really _music_ of a _bombastic[103] order_.
[103] The gong, drum, bell, and cymbals all set up sound by
concussion and these are called _bombastic_ instruments.
By this I mean that what we call _noise_ is sound set up by uneven _air
waves_[104] in time and volume while _music_ is made by a tone, or
tones, of even air waves. Any musical instrument that produces sound by
shock, or _concussion_ as it is called, is said to be bombastic.
[104] For the theory of air waves and sound see _The Magic of
Science_ by the present author, published by Fleming H. Revell and
Co., New York.
When a bombastic instrument is played alone the sounds set up by it
are not very sweet or musical but if you will use a set of eight
of them, or _octave_ as it is called, and _tune_ them so that the
_pitch_--which is the number of air waves that are produced and heard
in a second of time--of each one is a note higher than the one before
it and then make first one and the other _vibrate_ you will produce
pleasing tones, and by combining these tones properly you will have a
resemblance of what we call music.
=The Musical Coins.=--_How to Make Them._--A simple and very pleasing
way to show that there is music even in cold brass is to take a piece
of sheet brass, or, better, sheet steel, about ¹⁄₁₆ inch thick and
_scribe_ on it with a pair of compasses eight circles whose diameters
range from 2 inches to 3 inches.
[Illustration: FIG. 106A. THE MUSICAL COIN]
Saw them out and file them down so that each one will ring out a _whole
number_, as it is called in physics; that is, if the largest and
deepest toned coin, or disk, makes 250 vibrations a second, the next
one must make 500 vibrations a second, the next 750 and so on until the
smallest and highest pitched coin will make 2000 vibrations a second.
When each coin rings out its whole number, or nearly so, you will have
what is known as a _harmonic series_. Now saw notches in the edges of
each one as shown at A in Fig. 106 and then file them until the tone of
each one is just right.
_How to Play Them._--To play a tune with the musical coins spin them on
the top of a table--a marble top table is the best--and as each coin
_dies down_[105] and its edge strikes progressively against the surface
of the table it will ring out in a clear, loud tone.
[105] If you will look closely at the spinning coin you will see that
when it spins fast at first the _axis_ about which it rotates is its
diameter and that the coin stands upright. As the coin commences to
_die down_ the axis about which it spins gradually begins to shift
from the diameter to the center of the coin until finally at the
finish the coin is spinning directly about its center. This motion is
the same as the processional motion of the earth.
[Illustration: FIG. 106B. HOW TO HOLD THE MUSICAL COIN TO SPIN IT]
The coins should be laid in a row on the table and whatever note you
want to ring out pick up the coin which will produce it, hold it as
shown at B, and give it a little spin. You can soon learn to spin them
with either hand and keep two or more of them going at the same time,
when you will have that agreeable combination of tones that is known in
music as _harmony_.
The musical coins are easy to learn to play and at a little distance
off they look like real coins and are a very pleasing novelty.
=The Musical Tomato Cans.=--_How to Make Them._--The musical tomato
cans make a bombastic instrument--very bombastic I should say. Be that
as it may, get eight tomato cans, soak the labels off carefully and
keep them. Next melt off the tops of the cans and paste the labels on
them again. Set each can on a piece of felt as shown in Fig. 107.
[Illustration: FIG. 107. THE CHOPIN TOMATO CAN]
Now by pouring water in the cans you can tune them so that each one
will send forth a whole number note and all of them together will give
the notes in the regular order of an octave. You do not need to put any
water in the first can but use this one for the _fundamental_ note,
that is the note on which the _chord_ is formed.
Make a couple of _mallets_, as the sticks to beat the cans with are
called, of a pair of sticks about as thick as a lead-pencil and twice
as long and glue a wooden ball ⁵⁄₈ inch in diameter on one end of each
one.
_To Play the Tomato Cans._--When you have tuned the cans set them in
a row on a piece of felt, or a couple of thicknesses of thick woolen
cloth will do, and with a mallet in each hand tap them softly.
While some folks who have no ear for _melody_, _harmony_ and
_dissonance_[106] may say that both the instrument and the performer
ought to be _canned_ still the instrument is a great one to play
Chopin’s[107] funeral dirge[108] on. Undertakers are crazy about the
musical tomato cans.
[106] These are the three chief factors that make up the various
combinations of tones which we call music.
[107] Chopin (pronounced Sho′-pan) was a Polish musical composer.
[108] A _dirge_ is a tune expressing grief and mourning.
=The Musical Glasses.=--_How to Make Them._--Different from the tomato
cans, the musical glasses make about the sweetest music ever heard. To
make a set get eight very thin glass goblets and mount them on a board
12 inches wide and 2 feet long. An easy way to do this is to fasten the
foot of each goblet down with a couple of thin strips of tin or brass
placed across it and screwing the ends of these to the board as shown
in Fig. 108.
To tune the glasses pour water in them until each has exactly the right
pitch and together they form an octave. When you have learned to play
simple tunes on an octave of musical glasses you can build up the set
to 22 glasses or three octaves, which will give you enough notes to
play almost any of the popular airs.
[Illustration: FIG. 108. THE MUSICAL GLASSES]
_How to Play the Glasses._--Before starting in to play moisten the rims
of the glasses and rub your fingers with water in which you have put
some vinegar, or better, a little _acetic acid_,[109] until they feel
quite rough.
[109] This is the acid contained in vinegar that gives it its value.
Now when you lay the tips of your fingers flat on the rim of a glass
and rub them around it, the friction between the skin of your roughened
fingers and the edge of the glass will set the latter into vibration
and a wonderfully sweet tone will be sent out. By varying the pressure
of your fingers on the glasses you can produce a very beautiful
_tremolo_ effect.
It is a good scheme to put a few drops of acetic acid into each goblet
so that just as quickly as the volume of sound begins to fall off you
can dip your finger tips into whatever glass they are nearest to and so
increase the friction between them and the glass.
If you can play a set of musical glasses well your services will be in
demand for all kinds of entertainments.
=The Tubular Harp.=--_How to Make It._--This easily made instrument
gives out tones very much like those of the musical glasses but they
are much deeper and louder.
[Illustration: FIG. 109 A, B. THE HARP OF A THOUSAND THRILLS]
To make this harp you will need 12 feet of ¹⁄₂ inch _bell-metal_[110]
tube--brass tube will do but it is not as good--and cut it into eight
pieces; saw off the first tube 2 feet long and cut off each of the
other pieces ¹⁄₂ an inch shorter than the one before it. Cylindrical
sticks of wood can also be used for the tubes.
[110] Brass and bell metal tubing can be bought of the U. T.
Hungerford Brass & Copper Co., 89 Lafayette St., New York.
Get two strips of wood 1 inch square and 3 feet long and screw them
together as shown at A in Fig. 109 with a couple of thumb screws; this
done bore eight ¹⁄₂ inch holes in the sticks every 4 inches apart and
smooth them out with a half-round file.
Glue a strip of cloth on the side of each strip that is bored out, set
each tube with the middle in the groove so that they grow shorter in
steps and screw the strips together tight with the thumb screws to hold
the tubes in securely as shown at B.
[Illustration: FIG. 109C. HOW TO PLAY THE HARP]
To tune the tubes saw off and file off the end of each tube until it
gives forth the proper note. When you have tuned them make a stand to
hold the instrument and this can be of either wood, or metal tubing if
you want the harp to look nice and you don’t care about the expense.
The harp is shown complete at C.
_How to Play the Harp._--When you have made the stand get a pair of old
gloves and cut off the fingers; powder some rosin and rub it well into
the palms of the gloves.
This done, put on the gloves, grip the top of the tube and draw your
hand slowly down toward the sounding board, as shown at C, and a
beautiful tone will be emitted. Not only does the tube vibrate to
make the sound but as it is hollow it acts as a _resonator_, that
is, the sound will set up _sympathetic_ vibrations in the tube which
will reënforce the simple vibrations of the tube both in strength and
quality.
By waving your finger over the top of the tube while you are playing
it with the other hand a tremolo effect can be produced that is very
beautiful and if you are versatile you can make it sound almost like a
human voice.
=The Musical Push Pipe.=--_How to Make It._--This musical instrument
is an organ pipe but it is played like a _slide trombone_, that is by
pushing in and pulling out a slide that fits inside of it.
Spruce is the best wood to make the organ pipe of but you can use any
other kind you have at hand. Saw off four strips of wood ¹⁄₄ inch thick
and 16 inches long and have two of them 3 inches wide and the other two
2¹⁄₂ inches wide, as shown in Fig. 110. Saw off one of the 3 inch wide
boards so that it will be 12¹⁄₄ inches long and plane down one end to
a sharp edge as shown at B.
Take another board ¹⁄₂ an inch thick and make it 2¹⁄₂ inches high and 3
inches wide as shown at D. Cut out a board for the end ¹⁄₄ inch thick,
2¹⁄₂ inches wide and 2¹⁄₂ inches long and bore a ¹⁄₂ inch hole in it as
shown at E.
[Illustration:
_THE PUSH_
_THE PIPE_
_BACK BOARD_
_TOP FRONT BOARD_
_LOWER FRONT BOARD_
_LIP_
_SIDE BOARDS_
_END_
_MOUTH PIECE_
FIG. 110. PARTS OF A MUSICAL PUSH PIPE]
As you supply this pipe with air by blowing in it, take a common thread
spool and trim down one end of it as shown at F so that you can get it
into your mouth; then glue the large end over the hole in the bottom
board. Next glue the sides together to form a square tube and make and
glue into the lower end a three-cornered piece of wood 2 inches wide,
3 inches high and 2¹⁄₈ inches thick as shown at G. This will bring one
of its sharp edges just under and very close to the sharp edge of the
short side of the pipe.
Glue the thick piece of wood shown at D to the lower end of the pipe so
that it leaves a ¹⁄₄ inch space between its top edge and the sharp edge
of the short side of the pipe. Finally glue the mouthpiece in the lower
end of the tube and this part of the push pipe is done.
If now you will place your hand over the open top of the pipe and blow
through the mouthpiece, a soft note like that of a steamboat whistle
will issue from it. To play a tune on the pipe it must have a range of
an octave but if it will sound an octave and a half you can play many
of the popular airs on it.
To do this fit the organ pipe with a _movable stop_, or _push_, which
slides in and out of the pipe. Make this push of two strips of ¹⁄₈ inch
thick wood, 2¹⁄₂ inches wide and 12 inches long; screw one end of each
of these boards to a block of wood the size of the top of the organ
pipe and screw a knob--the head of a clothespin will do--on it in the
center for a handle. The stop, or slide, will of course be open on two
sides and must slip snugly but easily in the pipe.
_To Play the Push Pipe._--If now you will blow through the mouthpiece
and slide the stop in and out various tones and semi-tones will be
produced. It takes very little practice to learn just where to stop
the slide to make a given note--that is if you are at all apt in
playing musical instruments. A push pipe[111] is just the thing for a
black-face musical act.
[111] A push pipe can be bought for $4.00 of the L. E. Knott
Apparatus Co., Boston, Mass.
[Illustration: FIG. 110J. HOW THE PUSH PIPE IS PLAYED]
=The Curious Xylophone.=--_How to Make It._--This instrument, which is
pronounced _zil-o-fon´_, is cheap to make or buy[112] and is easy to
learn to play.
[112] Can be bought of any dealer in musical instruments or of the L.
E. Knott Co., Boston.
To make one cut off fifteen bars of a stick of maple ¹⁄₂ an inch thick,
⁷⁄₈ inch wide and make the longest one 5 inches. To get the right
lengths of all the others you will have to saw them off a little at a
time and try them out for tone, because any variation in thickness will
make a difference in the length of them. Hence the above rule-of-thumb
method for determining the sizes of them.
Drill a ¹⁄₁₆ inch hole through both ends of each bar and string them
on a wire to keep them in place. Make two rolls of straw ³⁄₄ inch in
diameter and 20 inches long; fix the ends of these rolls on a board as
shown in Fig. 111 and lay the maple bars on them when they are ready to
be played on.
_How to Play the Xylophone._--The xylophone is played with a pair of
hammers. To make the latter cut off two sticks ¹⁄₄ inch in diameter and
8 inches long; get or turn two wooden balls 1 inch in diameter; bore a
¹⁄₄ inch hole in each one and glue in one of the sticks.
[Illustration: FIG. 111. A XYLOPHONE. THE BARS ARE MADE OF WOOD]
Take a hammer in each hand and hold it loosely; stand over the
xylophone so that the sticks of the hammers are parallel with and about
6 inches above the bars of the xylophone and with the ball ends in the
middle of the bar it is over. Now pound the bars for dear life and the
faster the tune the more musical it will sound. For this reason pieces
like the _Circus Life Gallop_ are especially adapted for the xylophone.
=The Peculiar Tubaphone.=--_How to Make It._--By using brass tubes, or
better, tubes made of bell metal, you can have a xylophone of another
order. Use tubing ³⁄₄ inch in diameter and have the first one 5 inches
long for the fundamental.
Keep on sawing them off and filing them down until you have them all
done and all in tune. Make a wooden frame of ¹⁄₂ inch stuff and have
the bottom 2 inches wide at one end, 4 inches wide at the other end and
17 inches long.
[Illustration: FIG. 112. A TUBAPHONE. THE BARS ARE MADE OF METAL TUBES]
Saw off two strips of wood ¹⁄₂ an inch thick, 1 inch wide and 17 inches
long. Bore fifteen ³⁄₄ inch holes 1 inch apart measured from their
centers in them; glue a strip of felt or thick cloth to the wood in
each one and slip the tubes in the felt lined holes as shown in Fig.
112.
_How to Play the Tubaphone._--To play this peculiar instrument use a
couple of felt covered mallets; these can be made by winding a little
ball of string around one end of each stick which should be about ¹⁄₄
inch in diameter and 8 inches long, and then covering it with felt.
Beat the tubes with the felt mallets in exactly the same way you do
when you play the xylophone.
=The Cathedral Chimes.=--_How to Make Them._--This is one of the
easiest musical instruments to make and the music produced by it is
impressive in its tone and depth.
To make it saw off a board, ³⁄₄ or ⁷⁄₈ inch thick, about 12 inches wide
and 22 inches long and screw a block 1 inch square to each corner for
it to rest on. Get eight _binding posts_[113] of the size shown at A in
Fig. 113; drill eight ¹⁄₈ inch holes in the board, 4 in a row with the
holes 5 inches apart and have the rows also 5 inches apart, and then
screw a binding post into each hole.
[113] These can be bought of the Manhattan Electrical Supply Co.,
Park Place, New York City.
[Illustration: FIG. 113. THE CATHEDRAL CHIMES
A. A full sized binding post.
B. The chimes on the sounding board.]
Make eight spirals of No. 14 spring brass, steel or, better,
_phosphor-bronze_[114] wire; you can do this by cutting off eight
pieces of the wire each of which is 20 inches long. Draw a spiral on
a sheet of paper as described in Chapter V so that the inside turn of
wire is about ³⁄₄ inch in diameter, the outside turn about 3¹⁄₂ inches
in diameter and each turn of wire will be separated from the other by a
space of ¹⁄₄ inch as shown at B.
[114] Get it of the U. T. Hungerford Brass and Copper Co., Hungerford
Building, New York.
With your round nose pliers bend each length of wire like the pattern
you drew on the paper. When you have made the spirals screw the inside
end of each wire in the binding post and your cathedral chimes are done
all except the tuning of them.
Let the first spiral of the upper left hand side give the fundamental
tone and tune the others to it by cutting off the free ends of the
wires until they are all tuned in unison. Make a couple of wood mallets
and cover the ends with leather or rawhide.
_How to Play the Cathedral Chimes._--Strike the inside turn of wire up
close to the end that is fastened to the binding post, and a tone will
issue from the spiral that is long, deep and loud, for the wire with
its free end forms a very perfect vibrating body.
=The Æolian Harp.=--_How to Make It._--This harp is of very ancient
origin and it gets its name from _Æolus_ who, in classic mythology, was
the father of the winds, and very appropriately is it named, too, for
it is the wind that plays it.
Make a box of ¹⁄₂ inch thick wood, 2 inches deep, 5 inches wide and 3
feet long; use clear pine, or deal will do, for the sides of it but
the ends should be of beech to hold the _tuning pins_ and the _hitch
pins_. Cut a _sound hole_ 3 inches in diameter near both ends of the
board which is to be used for the top; then glue the box together and
screw up the ends with your wood clamps to hold it together tight while
it is drying.
[Illustration: FIG. 114. THE HARP OF AEOLUS]
When it is thoroughly dry, drill a dozen ¹⁄₄ inch peg holes ³⁄₄ inch
deep in one end, six in a row as shown at A in Fig. 114. Make a dozen
pegs to fit the holes and these should have _wings_ on them as shown
at B like violin pegs. Each peg should be about 1¹⁄₂ inches long and
each one should have a ¹⁄₃₂ inch hole drilled near the top of the shank
for the end of the string to pass through. The hitch pins can be brass
brads driven into the other end of the box and in a line with the
holes, all of which is shown at A.
Make two _bridges_ of hard wood ¹⁄₈ inch thick; have each one 1 inch
high and 5 inches wide and with 12 notches cut in one side. Now get
a dozen catgut strings of different thicknesses and put them on the
sounding board; to do this twist a loop on the end of each one; thread
the other end through the hole in the peg and tighten it up a little.
When you have all of the strings in place set a bridge under each end
and then tune the strings in unison, but don’t stretch the strings on
very tight or the wind won’t make them vibrate. This done, cut out
another ¹⁄₂ inch thick pine board and glue a block ¹⁄₂ inch square and
1¹⁄₂ inches long to each corner and set it on top of the harp. The
purpose of this cover is to make the wind blow with as much force as
possible over the strings.
_How the Wind Plays It._--To the end that old Æolus may play the harp
to the best of his ability set it on the sill of an open window so that
the wind strikes the strings at a slant. Pull the window down on the
harp in order to make all of the wind pass between the cover and the
strings.
When the wind blows softly beautiful tones will be emitted and when
the wind blows hard discords will be produced but as the wind subsides
exquisite harmonies will again prevail.
=An Egyptian Fiddle.=--_How to Make It._--The early Egyptians invented
the fiddle, or _rebab_ as they called it, but they did not play it with
a bow. Later in _medieval_ times, that is in about the 9th century,
this fiddle came to be called a _rebec_ and it was then played with a
bow. I’ll bet though that the fiddle I shall tell you how to make and
play sounds better than any Egyptian rebab ever made--though it is not
exactly a _Stradivarius_.[115]
[115] The priceless fiddles made by the famous old violin maker
Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy, in the early part of the 17th
century.
To make a fiddle of this kind--it only has one string and only one is
needed by a master violinist--make a sounding box of ¹⁄₈ or ³⁄₁₆ inch
thick wood except the ends which should be of ³⁄₈ inch thick stuff;
this box should be 4 inches high, 6 inches wide at one end, 8 inches
wide at the other end and 12 inches long. Cut a hole 6 inches in
diameter in the center of the board which you are going to use for the
_sounding board_, and then glue all of the pieces together using wood
clamps to hold them tight.
For the neck take a stick of wood 1¹⁄₂ inches wide, 2¹⁄₂ inches thick
and 15 inches long; cut it down until one end is 1 inch thick and cut
a piece out of this end ³⁄₄ inch wide and 1 inch deep; bore a conical
hole through this end and fit in a peg. Next saw out the other end 2
inches deep for a length of 3 inches back and glue and screw this end
of the neck to the narrow end of the box. The shape of the neck with
the peg in it and the way it is fixed to the sounding box is clearly
shown in the top view A and the side view B in Fig. 115.
Cut out a _bridge_ of a piece of hard wood ¹⁄₈ inch thick, 1 inch high
and 1¹⁄₂ inches long as shown at C; and, finally, make a _tail-piece_
of a bit of hard wood ¹⁄₈ inch thick ¹⁄₂ an inch wide at one end, 1
inch wide at the other end and 2 inches long. Drill a hole in each end
and whittle or plane the large end to a sharp edge.
In the middle of the large end of the sounding box bore a ¹⁄₄ inch hole
and glue in a hard wood peg for a _hitch-pin_. Fasten the tail-piece
to the hitch-pin with a piece of catgut string. Slip the end of an A
violin string through the hole in the sharp end of the tail-piece;
knot it to keep it from pulling through, and bring the other end up
and thread it through the hole in the peg in the neck. Finally put the
bridge under the string and tighten it up. Tune it to the treble, or G
_clef_, if you know enough about music to do it, or if not tune it so
that it gives a pleasing tone.
[Illustration: FIG. 115. PLANS FOR AN EGYPTIAN FIDDLE]
_How to Make the Bow._--The best kind of wood to make a violin bow of
is Brazilian lance-wood or of snake-wood, but for this one stringed
fiddle of yours you can use a piece of beech.
Take a strip of wood ¹⁄₂ an inch thick, 1 inch wide and 24 inches long
and saw it out as shown at D; then round up the stick and sandpaper
it smooth. Cut out two blocks to fit the ends, or _frogs_ as they are
called: drill a hole in each one and screw it to the bow but not very
tight.
[Illustration: FIG. 115D. HOW THE BOW IS MADE]
Now comes the hard part and that is putting on the hairs; get 50 or 60
white horsehairs about 2 feet long; I do not advise pulling them out of
_Dobbin’s_ tail but rather to buy a bunch of them from Sears, Roebuck,
and Co., Chicago, Ill., for 10 or 20 cents.
Having got them somehow put one end of each one under one of the blocks
and when you have them all even and close together screw the block down
tight; this done fasten the other ends of the hairs under the opposite
block, and when you have them all drawn taut screw down the block and
put a little glue on the places where they go under the blocks.
If you will look at a horsehair through a microscope you will see that
it seems very like the scroll saw blade I told you about in the second
chapter, that is, it has a lot of fine teeth on it and all of them run
the same way. By rights then half of the hairs ought to be put on the
bow with the teeth running in one direction and the other half with the
teeth running in the other direction so that the friction of the hairs
is the same on the string on the up and the down strokes.
[Illustration: FIG. 115E. HOW THE FIDDLE IS PLAYED]
Do not use much rosin on the bow but rosin it often. You can buy a
piece of regular violin bow rosin for 5 cents but the kind that gives
the best results is the genuine _Bernardel_ imported from France and
which costs about a quarter. It bites hard on the string and makes a
large volume of sound. The way the fiddle is played is shown at E.