{"id":7506,"date":"2019-02-19T22:49:39","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T06:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/?p=7506"},"modified":"2019-02-19T22:55:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T06:55:11","slug":"mouthbow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2019\/02\/mouthbow\/","title":{"rendered":"Mouthbow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After reading a biography of Buffy Saint-Marie, I got curious about one of the instruments she played: a mouthbow. After listening to listening to several Youtube clips of mouthbows, I decided to make my own. I went out and found a fairly straight twig about as thick as my little finger; and took the bark off and shaved the butt end down with pocketknife and block plane so it would bend evenly across its length. I used a 010 loop-end steel banjo string I happened to have, attached the loop end to a copper tack in one end of the stick, and tied the straight end of the string through a 1\/64&#8243; hole I drilled in the other end of the stick. It looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"535\" src=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919a-1024x535.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919a.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919a-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919a-768x401.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When you play the mouthbow, the fundamental note of the string sounds as a drone throughout, while changing the mouth cavity brings out overtones to produce the melody &#8212; that combination of melody and drone sounds to me a little like a mountain dulcimer. While I make no claims to mouthbow virtuosity, here&#8217;s an audio recording of the instrument I made today:<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since your mouth cavity acts as the resonator, you can hear the mouthbow louder yourself than anyone around you can hear it. So I&#8217;m thinking this might be a good instrument to make with children: fairly easy to make, fun to play, quiet enough that it won&#8217;t drive everyone else crazy. However, if I do make it with kids, I won&#8217;t use a steel string: it&#8217;s too easy to hurt yourself if a steel string breaks; and something like nylon monofilament or linen thread would make for a quieter instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mouthbows were used by Indigenous peoples in North America, including California Indians: &#8220;Southern Yokuts men sometimes played the musical bow after settling themselves in bed; the Chukchansi in mourning the dead. These may be but two expreissions of one employment. Modern forms of the instrument have a peg key for adjusting the tension\u2026. In old days a true shooting bow, or a separate instrument made on the model of a bow, was used. <em>Mawu<\/em> or <em>mawuwi,<\/em> was its name. One end was held in the mouth, while the lone string was tapped, not plucked, with the nail of the index finger; the melody, audible to himself only, was produced by changes in the size of the resonance chamber formed by the player&#8217;s oral cavity.&#8221; Alfred Kroeber, <em>Handbook of the Indians of California,<\/em> p. 542. Elsewhere, Kroeber says, &#8220;The musical bow is a device definitely reported from the Maidu and Yokuts, but probably shared by these groups with a number of others\u2026. [It] was tapped or plucked\u2026.&#8221; p. 419. Kroeber also reports the musical bow being used by the Pomo and other tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buffy Sainte-Marie is probably the best-known contemporary player of the mouthbow, mostly because she played mouthbow on several television shows, including &#8220;To Tell the Truth,&#8221; &#8220;Sesame Street,&#8221; and the folk-music showcase &#8220;Rainbow Quest.&#8221; Sainte-Marie makes her own mouthbows; while they may look primitive at first glance, they are tuneable, and she writes: &#8220;I like to tune my bow precisely and work with other instruments, so I favor a geared peg, like the Grover peg in the picture.&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/buffy-sainte-marie.blogspot.com\/2011\/12\/mouthbow-making-music-on-weapon-video.html\">Sainte-Marie&#8217;s blog post<\/a> on making and playing mouthbows is excellent. Here&#8217;s Sainte-Marie playing the instrument on Sesame Street:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LXkM11kp_tg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"774\" src=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919b-1024x774.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7508\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919b.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919b-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919b-768x581.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Notice that she holds the mouthbow at the end farthest from her mouth; that way, she can control the tension of the string, and thus adjust the pitch as she&#8217;s playing. By contrast, traditional Appalachian mouthbow player Carlox Stutsberry does not flex the tension of the bow to alter the tone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jdnIPxPICg8\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"746\" src=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919c-1024x746.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919c-1024x746.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919c-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919c-768x559.png 768w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919c.png 1067w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Stutsberry and Sainte-Marie pluck the mouthbow with a pick; however, the mouthbow can also be tapped (like the strings of a hammered dulcimer), or bowed. South African jazz musician Pops Mohamed plays mouthbow using a bow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Bq9l4AC-qEo\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"794\" height=\"794\" src=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919d.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7510\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919d.png 794w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919d-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919d-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/BlogFeb1919d-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you search Youtube for &#8220;mouth bow,&#8221; you can find quite a few modern practitioners of the instrument. But only a few of them are worth listening to, including Pops Mohamed, Carlox Stutsberry, and Buffy Sainte-Marie; clicking on the photos above will take you to videos by those three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After reading a biography of Buffy Saint-Marie, I got curious about one of the instruments she played: a mouthbow. After listening to listening to several Youtube clips of mouthbows, I decided to make my own. I went out and found a fairly straight twig about as thick as my little finger; and took the bark &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2019\/02\/mouthbow\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Mouthbow&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[129],"class_list":["post-7506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musical-arts","tag-diy-chronicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7506"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7518,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7506\/revisions\/7518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}