CHAPTER XIX

HOME-MADE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Girls, do you know that music lies hidden all around you, needing only the right touch to bring it forth? That everything is said to have its keynote, from a big bridge to a little wooden bench, and that when the keynote is struck the object will vibrate perceptibly? A

=Blank Piece of Paper=

does not suggest music in any form, and yet [Illustration: Fig. 482.] you can draw many and various notes from it. Cut a strip of writing-paper like Fig. 482 and whittle two pieces of wood according to [Illustration: Fig. 483.] [Illustration: Fig. 484.] Figs. 483 and 484; make the wood a trifle wider than the paper. Place the paper between the bits of wood (Fig. 485) and, holding the instrument tight between your teeth, blow through it; keep on [Illustration: Fig. 485.] blowing until it whistles like the wind.

Of course you should have a number of different instruments in the orchestra you intend to organize, so that each girl may play on her own special instrument. For the next one, try

=A Harp.=

Harps were valued highly in ancient Egypt, and later in other countries, some of which still retain them. Modern [Illustration: Fig. 486.] musicians, like Meyerbeer, Gounod, Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner, understanding the worth of the harp, introduced it in their music. Our instrument may not be as graceful in form, but you can have more real fun with it than you could with any of the big, costly affairs. Get some elastic bands and a deep, empty cigar-box; drive slender nails at intervals along the front and back edges of the box; then take ordinary elastic bands (Fig. 486), and stretch them across the box by slipping each one over two back and two front nails. The elastics must be of various widths; place the heaviest at one end of the box and graduate up to the lightest at the other (Fig. 487). With a quill (Fig. 488) test the instrument. You can tighten the elastics by looping them around and around one or more of the four pins; in this way the strings may to a great extent be keyed as you wish. Practise on the musical box with the quill toothpick until you can make the elastics sing a tune, then put the harp carefully aside where it will not be broken, and hunt up a piece of wood for a modern

=Dulcimer.=

Have the wood about an inch thick: on the top of it, lengthwise through the centre, draw a straight line as a guide. Along the line drive common white pins graduated [Illustration: Fig. 489.] in size, placing the largest at one end and the smallest at the other (Fig. 489). If you can only get pins of one size, graduate their height by sinking some deeper in the wood than others. To do so without danger of bending the pins, first make shallow holes with a large strong pin by screwing it into the wood; a hat-pin will answer the purpose. Should you happen to have heavy nippers, the pins may be all of the same height, and you can pinch off their tops, causing the row to slant down from one end to the other. All being ready, touch the pins lightly with the quill toothpick, running the scale first up, then down, the entire length of the pin row. After a few trials you will be able to play some simple airs on the pin keys.

Doubtless most of you have seen bells of glass which may be rung like those of metal, but probably you have have never tried bringing

=Music From Every-day Glass Finger-bowls=

and drinking-glasses. Try it. Collect as many different kinds of glasses as you can find, the thinner the better. Place them on a wooden table (Fig. 490) and with a wooden hammer made by pushing an empty spool on one end of a lead-pencil (Fig. 491) gently strike first one glass then another to find the different tones. Having ascertained these, make the glasses give forth the simplest chimes of [Illustration: Fig. 491.] the church bells. But do not stop here; experiment until you are able, with various taps, to bring out more music than you at first imagined possible. Let the glasses, like Tennyson’s happy bells, “ring out the false, ring in the true.” The same poet in “Locksley Hall” has the speaker ask his comrades to “sound upon the bugle-horn” when they want him. Few girls will ever try their powers on a real

=Bugle-horn,=

but all can readily make a twig sound an alarm. Get a piece of ordinary willow-tree (Fig. 492). Be sure it is flawless and perfect; with a sharp knife slice off a slanting piece at one end (Fig. 493), then cut a notch in top (Fig. 494). [Illustration: Fig. 494.] Gently tap the bark all over with one end of a penknife in order to loosen it from the [Illustration: Fig. 496.] wood. After carefully removing the bark without breaking it, cut the wood according to the dotted lines in Fig. 495, which will give Fig. 496. The wood is now ready to slip back into the bark, but before doing so place a pea in the hollow part (Fig. 495); then slide the bark back in place (Fig. 497). Now blow the twig and sound the alarm.

A roast of beef hardly seems promising in a musical way, and yet the roast, though it looks so sober and quiet, can help you with the orchestra. Save the smallest two of the long, flat

=Bones=

(Fig. 498) and, after cleaning and drying them, hold both in your right hand, one bone between the first and second [Illustration: Fig. 498.] finger, the other between the second and third, so that the convex or outward curved sides lie next each other and the top ends of the bones extend slightly beyond the knuckles. Then double up your hand, holding the first bone securely, the other loosely, and in this position give your hand a quick twist and jerking motion, causing the loose ends of the bones to come together with a click, click, clickity, click. The bones should not be cooked, as too much heat will crack them.

Another home-made instrument of music is the

=Crystal Flute,=

fashioned of small bottles. Any kind of bottle which sounds well when you blow into it will answer the purpose. Use coarse darning-cotton to sew the bottles in a row on a strip of pasteboard, commencing with the deepest toned and leading up to the highest toned (Fig. 499). Place the flute against your lower lip and blow into the open mouth of the bottle. Continue blowing as you move the instrument along, sounding each bottle in turn. After a few trials you can manage the crystal flute well enough to have all the bottles join in the grand chorus of the musical jubilee you intend to give with the home-made instruments.

A little ingenuity will enable you to made a fine fiddle, strings and all, of a common field cornstalk, and a good flute may be manufactured from a section of an ordinary pumpkin vine. Naturally you must think a little over the matter before you will be able to solve the problem.

Take some hollow door-keys of different sizes and use them to play on; they are well worth trying, because a hollow door-key, when blown into, will give much the same sound as a bottle. You might add the keys to your collection of instruments.

Even an

=Ordinary Comb=

can do duty as a musical instrument. Over one side of the comb lay a piece of common white tissue-paper; then hold this queer instrument to your lips, allowing the paper to come between the comb and your mouth; blow against the paper with lips gently parted somewhat as one blows on a horn or rather on a harmonica. Should the comb not respond at once, try again; when the secret is once learned, there is no limit to the tunes which may be played.

For giving a queer whistling noise there is scarcely anything better than an ordinary broad

=Blade of Grass=

laid lengthwise between the entire length of the two thumbs, one end of the grass extending beyond the tops of the thumbs and the other below at the wrist line.

Certain tribes of people are experts in forming

=Sea-shells=

into musical instruments, but for you the shell need not be altered. Take it as it is, and holding the pretty thing to your ear, listen while the shell tells of the far-away blue [Illustration: Fig. 500.] sea, which, singing gently, imparts to her children, the shells, power to transmit the sound of murmuring waves to those who will listen to the voice.

=The Musical Fountain=

is one of the prettiest and most interesting experiments and is a very simple one. Remember, you must use a goblet for the purpose, not a tumbler, as the latter will not work well. Choose a goblet of very thin glass, fill it almost full of water, dip the end of your finger in water and rub the edge of the glass quickly around and around until it rings with a humming sound. You will soon find the surface of the water shivering and wrinkling up its face in tiny waves, then it will become greatly agitated, sending up wee streams and drops of water. Wet your finger again and keep on with the circular motion until a little fountain of fine spray shoots up into the air, accompanied by the musical sound from the glass (Fig. 500).