Continuing in my quest to make jug band musicians out of each and every kid exposed to this blog, I’m going to follow up my previous post on making a cigar box banjo with something to fill out the low end – a washtub bass. This classic hillbilly instrument is easy to make, fun to play, and makes laundry just a little bit harder to do.

You need:

1. A galvanized metal washtub – get this at your local hardware store.
2. A wooden pole – a broomstick works fine here.
3. Two metal washers, two nuts, a large eye screw, and a bolt
4. A length of medium-weight rope.
5. You’ll also need a drill and bit that can get through the metal of the washtub.

Instructions:

Start off by drilling a hole in the center of the washtub to let the eye screw through. This is a grown-up job, as children lack the trigonometric knowledge to accurately judge the center point of the circle. Also drills and metal are a little bit dangerous. While you’re drilling, drill a hole in one end of the pole for the bolt.

Screw the bolt into the pole so it’s sticking out from both sides.  Put the eye screw into the hole with a washer on each side and the nut at the bottom, and tighten the assemblage. Cut a groove into the end of the pole that doesn’t have the bolt on it so it fits on the lip of the washtub.

Finally, cut your rope to about eight feet and tie one end to the eye screw. Wrap the other end around the bolt in the pole and tighten it until it sits at about a 30 degree angle when the pole is resting on the lip. Tie it off so it’s tight. Now you should be ready to play – drop the lip in the groove, pull on the pole to make the rope tight and pluck it to make the washtub resonate with that classic bwoom sound.

Have fun, jugheads!

K. Thor Jensen

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Brooklyn inventor Ranjit Bhatnagar uses all sorts of things to make his homemade instruments – from melting ice to pots and pans with electrical current running through them.

Even better, he provides sound clips of everything so you can listen and learn. It’s a great place for ideas for homemade instruments to make with your kids.

K. Thor Jensen

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Is there any better invention than YouTube for distracting a kid while still broadening their horizons? I doubt it. When your young one gets tired of watching clips of kittens falling over, take some of my suggestions for great things to show them.

Today’s feature is a cult classic short film from 1966 by musician, inventor, and generally great guy Sid Laverents. It tells the story of a gentleman (played by Sid himself) who receives a multi-track tape recorder for Christmas and proceeds to record the greatest one-man rendition of “Nola” ever.

At under ten minutes, it won’t strain a little one’s attention span if they can get past the somewhat slow beginning, and this tour de force of garage-level special effects still has modern filmmakers flabbergasted at how Sid did what he did.

K. Thor Jensen

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Sure, if your kid is already listening to the Cheetah Girls, the pageantry and magic of the American jug band tradition has probably already been lost on them. But if you catch them young enough, your little ones may be able to develop a love for the jaunty, clever music of the Kentucky hillbilly. And the best thing about jug band music is that you can make your own instruments.

Building instruments is a great way to teach your kids about how the physical principles of sound work – how stringed instruments make higher and lower sounds depending on the weight and tension of the strings, how the size of a resonator makes a drum deeper, et cetera. One of my favorite childhood jamboxes was my cigar box banjo, which my Grandfather made for me one mild April afternoon.

What You Need:

1. One cigar box. You can get these from any tobacconist for free or cheap. If your kid asks why it smells funny, tell them that that’s the smell of evil magic.
2. One yardstick
3. 20 inches of molding. This you probably don’t have lying around, so head to Home Depot.
4. 4 leather shoelaces. These will be the “strings” of the banjo.
5. A hacksaw and some glue. Probably not a good idea to let the kids use these.

Directions:

1. Glue the lid of the cigar box closed and cut a slit in the center front a quarter inch wide and six inches long in the front of the box.
2. Glue the yardstick to the back of the box in the center, so it runs along the longest side. Cut the molding into five inch-long pieces and three pieces that are five inches long.
3. Glue the short pieces lengthwise on the yardstick to be the “frets.” Glue one of the large pieces on the front of the box above the slit at the top front edge, and another about two inches from the bottom. They should all line up with each other.
4. Carve four evenly-spaced grooves in each of the two long strips. Tie the shoelaces around the top of the yardstick, above the first “fret,” and stretch them down over the body and through the grooves. Take the last five-inch wood piece and use it to glue down the shoelaces at the bottom of the cigar box. To tighten the strings, soak them in cold water.
5. You may have to remove the strings and trim them down to make them sound right. Remember that the shorter they are, the higher their pitch will be. Don’t try to actually tune this thing, you’ll just drive yourself nuts. Once it’s making good noises, hand it to your kid and let him go all Earl Scruggs.

K. Thor Jensen

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I can’t remember when I first discovered that records aren’t necessarily made by a bunch of musicians in a room playing live. It was before I was a teenager, because I still have cassette tapes that I made of primitive multi-track recordings using my mom’s answering machine and our stereo, little-fingered guitar pluckings and piano doodles buried in a wash of static. It can be fun when your kid has learned about what sounds different instruments make to listen to music with them and try to isolate each one, singing or humming along to just the sound they make. For an awesome and fun visual aid, check out the YouTube mixes of Israeli DJ Ophir Kutiel, aka Kutiman. Sampling, looping and layering video footage of dozens of musicians, it’s funky, funny, and educational.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA

See more at http://thru-you.com/.

K. Thor Jensen

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