Music is meant to be fun. Really, anybody who wants to make music should be capable of doing so. Unfortunately we are taught that, in order to make music, you need to study music tablature, learn scales and chords, spend money on expensive musical instruments and practice loads. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Have you ever see any African tribes people dancing to drums? These talented drummers will have never been to music college. They can’t read music and wouldn’t know a paradiddle if it bit them. But they are certainly having a good time. Making music on simple, home made instruments like drums and rattles is what music making is all about.
The Berimbau is a Brazilian instrument that uses only one string that has African roots. Not surprisingly it looks a bit like a bow that could be used for hunting. Now this simple instrument is the precursor to pretty much all forms of stringed instrument including guitars, harps and even pianos.
You may have already heard or seen a Diddley Bow. This is a very simple and easily made African American one stringed folk instrument. These might be made from nothing more than a plank of wood with a length of wire stretched from end to end. The string is tensioned with something uses as a bridge and the pitch is varied by fretting the string with a piece of bone, glass or maybe a knife or some other form of slide.
One notable Diddley bow player, Lonnie Pitchford, would make his Diddley Bows by attaching a wire to a vertical support beam on the front porch of his house. Diddley bows were commonly made by poor field workers and share croppers in the Mississippi Delta region.
The blues is rooted in simple folk instruments like the diddley bo. Many of the early blues orginators from the 1920s and 1930s got their start by twanging Diddley Bows. One popular modern day Diddly bow player is Seasick Steve. So why not make yourself a simple one string Diddley Bow today and make some music.
