What to do:
Cut a 3-4 foot long piece of 2X4 for your
bottom or low note. To make progressively higher pitched pieces
cut the next ones about 2 inches shorter than the previous ones.
Or, use the Mark Shepard free-form, tuning method and either cut random
lengths of 2 x 4 or use various types of
wood, and various shapes and sizes. You can even collect driftwood to
make for a visually attractive instrument. If you do use 2X4's make sure
you sand them after cutting them. Now play!
Small hammers work nicely for mallets or youcan actually buy (gasp!) hard
mallets from a music store.
Other ideas:
Old Drawer Sounding Box - You can also slide the pipe insulation stuff
along the top edges of an old drawer. It should just slip right on over
the edge. Then, lay your pieces of wood across the drawer. the drawer
now acts as a sounding box and should make the xylophone ring louder...
Old Wrench Xylophone:
I pick up old wrenches at flea markets cheap and they sound really good in
a couple of different instruments. The key to
them ringing out clearly is the same as getting the wood xylophone to
ring - isolating the vibrations. You can make a temporary metal wrench xylophone the same as the
2X4 Xylophone or a more permanent one with a drawer as in the above
project but you might want to use a smaller drawer for your sounding box.
Old Wrench Chime: the other thing you can do is simply tie
some string to one wrench and gently strike it with another one. It makes
a nice bright ring. In my storytelling I use them for "distant
church bells" or in a creation myth when the creator has the
"idea" of what to create next.
Old Wrench Wind Chimes: Tie strings to several wrenches ( I use
waxed dental tape because it is easy to work with and gets less tangled.
Then suspend the wrenches from a wooden hanger. You can also suspend different size nails
from a hanger as well |