8o Nature in Recreation 



end, if it is too high, put it in the vise and plane off some of its thickness. 

 Do the same with another piece of your wood that is about l / 2 inch shorter 

 or longer. This should give you another tone. By experimenting a little you 

 can soon get several tones right along the scale and tune them to definite 

 pitches. 



To make a hammer, cut a small block of your wood and whittle it round, 

 or else just round off the corners and insert the end of a limber stick. A knot 

 might be used for the block. Wrap a piece of felt around the block if you 

 wish to soften the tones. 



Lay the rope on a table in a U shape. Place your tuned pieces of wood 

 across it. Find the nodal points by sprinkling sand or sawdust on your 

 sticks and lightly tapping them in the center. The sand will finally collect 

 in two little piles where the wood trembles the least. Mark the center of 

 these they are the nodal points. Place your rope so it goes just under these 

 points on each stick. By laying the shortest stick next to the loop in the 

 rope and the others about J/2 inch apart, from each other across it you will 

 have a loop to hold your marimba. The sticks will be graduated down it. 

 Make the tune as many sticks as you wish in your instrument. Mark their 

 nodal points, then nail the rope to these points with small brads on the back 

 of your sticks. Now you can hang up your instrument to play it or lay it on 

 a table. You'll find it more resonant to lay or hang against a large wooden 

 surface as on a table. Place a board on your lap and let it lay across, if 

 you choose. 



Petunia-Blossom Oboe 



Remove the pistil from the flower, put two pinholes in the side of the 

 tube, and by blowing through it a "three-note" melody can be played. 



THE SHEPHERD'S PIPE 



r 

 i 



The shepherd's pipe is another reed instrument in which, by the use of 

 holes, several tones can be made on one reed. The tone is generated by 



