Musical Bones

We continue  in nautical mode for at least this post. I have been on a  four week adventure to learn sea chantey music through a class at Mystic Seaport www.mysticseaport.org  It has been so much fun!!!

Any day that starts out looking this nice, well you just know it will be a good one!!  Today, our final class we were prepared to show off what we have learned. Each of us had a lead in  at least one chantey. I added playing Shenandoah on my harmonica to mix. Most of us joined Don Sineti on banjo playing bones.

                                                                      
              This image shows the bones in hand ready to play. This pair came with the class and are made of Rosewood. The are slightly convex and look like over sized tongue depressors. The bone nearest the thumb is anchored ( held still in place) by the middle finger an the second bone taps out the rhythm through motion of your hand and snap of the wrist. Think of using a fly swatter and you will get the motion.    
         Here is a video clip ( under a minute) of our first attempts at the bones, the banjo background music really helped.

            
 Wikipedia has info on bones and some pictures:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bones_(instrument)

There is a Festival for bones players: http://www.rhythmbones.com/