Tiny Little Instruments
Let's hear it for little things, for Snow White's friends, for dormice and for tin whistles, mouthorgans and Jew's harps. For spoons and piccolos...
There was a CD called 'The Lark In The Clear Air' (sadly, not available at the moment) which features amongst others John Doonan, John Wright and Noel Pepper playing such instruments. If you ever get the chance, listen to John Wright playing the traditional Irish jig Banish Misfortune or John Doonan playing Miss Mcleod's Reel on that album and marvel at how instruments that only cost a few pence can make such great music.
The mouthorgan was the first instrument I ever played - it was too, as he tells us on his great new CD set As Far As I Can Tell, a compilation of extracts from Ralph's two volumes of autobiography. Again, the instrument only cost a few shillings, yet you could play everything on it, from jolly boy scouts' songs to blues riffs (guilty on both counts, me Lud!)
, the great Irish singer and whistle player, once said of the tin whistle:
"Isn't it amazing how a little bit of tin with six holes in it can play all the music in the world?"
Amen.
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Comment number 1.
At 7th Nov 2008, Jon Freeman wrote:I'm sure I'd have hammered badly on piano before but I think the mouth organ was the first instrument I owned.
I remember waking up early one morning and finding this present for me. I decided I could learn to do something with it and before everyone else got up, I'd got the blow/suck, blow/suck, blow/suck, suck blow worked out as a scale. It's possible I even had some Singing Together delight eg. perhaps The Shepherd and His Dog (Click Goes The Shears melody) worked out to show my parents by then.
Not quite so little but thinking of free reeds and an earlier blog of yours about kids and music, the melodica must be worthy of a mention.
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