The "Bullroarer"....

- musical instruments -

Howdy! ^_^

Today we are going to make something extremely simple, but fun nonetheless. Many people call this the "Bullroarer".

This type of instrument isn't often used in music, but sometimes it is - as a background instrument, it makes a cool sound. Usually however, it is a communication device, used to send out a call. This is used by many "natural peoples", such as Native Americans, Aboriginal Australians, and African tribal peoples as well.

You may have seen one of these in action, if you ever saw the movie, "Crocodile Dundee" - he called it his "telephone", and used it to call some of his aboriginal friends.

Take a piece of wood (or plastic, etc.) that is thin - like about 1/4" or less - it needs to be stiff, and not bendable. Dimensions don't need to fall into anything specific here, it could be around 1-2" wide, and about 10-15" long.

About 3/4" in from one end, make a hole through it. Now, taking a strong piece of string, leather cord, or twine that is around one to two yards long, put one end through the hole and tie it up.

How you make this sound out is fairly simple - you spin it around in circles, and it makes a sound.... but first, there's a little trick to it.

Before you start spinning it around in a wide circle, hold the string and let the wooden piece hang on it - now give that piece a good spin on the string, and then quickly start to whip the whole thing around in circles.

You see, this will only make a sound while you whip this around in circles, IF the main piece is spinning on the string itself at the same time.

Now that you have completed the whole mechanism, go ahead and decorate it with drawing, woodburning, paint, or whatever your heart desires.

This is a wonderful little piece of music making curiosity that children and adults can have fun with. Try it out!

That's it for today's post - have a nice night! ^_^

- musical intruments -