Using young culms green (to make musical instruments)

[kevinrl]

Hi all, I have a bit of a problem.
I have been asked to supply a large amount of simple instruments, marachas, guido, and stomping sticks, to a teacher who travels to schools teaching alternative music skills. He supplies one instrument to each pupil, who then paints it and then they have a music lesson and take the instrument home to annoy their parents for a day or two
before it is thrown away.
The trouble is that he needs these cheap, one-use instruments now, and I don't have enough mature, dry, bamboo to make all of these.
Has anybody tried using immature green material to make small items, and then hoping that they will dry in a few months and not crack or get eaten away by borer?
Any ideas or suggestion will be most welcome.
Regards,
Kevin

[Ran Lichtner]

Hi Kevin,
The trouble with fresh bamboos is that they don't sound , especially in percussion instruments, very well.
At my workshop the children produce the musical instruments by themselves, and we bring them the best dry bamboos or Arundo donax we can find. If we
dont have enough bamboos we buy imported very expensive stuff.
You can't compromise on that.
Hope you'll find the right solutions
Ran Lichtner

[CaroleMeckes]

Kevin,
Don't waste your immature bamboo before it is ripe.
Maybe some of us bamboocrafters can help.
What kind of quantity and dimensions is he seeking?
What are the international laws about shipping bamboo pieces?
Carole

[kevinrl]

Thanks for your replies to my query.

Carole, I have been harvesting Moso from a friend's patch that he wants to get rid of, so not only have I cut it all but have painted all of the stumps with Roundup. So these ones are not mature but the destruction of the grove is of
importance to the owner.

I have just come in from a hard day harvesting / thinning-out at another friend's plantation, Yes it is just after 6pm here in eastern Australia. In this instance he has all of the culms marked with their birth year, so it is a simple exercise to pick the older culms. These culms are mature, but just now is not
the ideal time to harvest, another two months would be better, but I need it now. Life is always a bit of a compromise.
I do not have the time to import, even though it seems to be relatively easy, another friend actually imports Moso poles from China, but are too expensive for this exercise.

Yes Ran it would be a great idea if the children were to make the instruments themselves, but I think it would be a problem with time in this instance, and also these children are very young I think. We are attempting to dry the pieces
before they are used by the children. The teacher guy said that the main thing is that they make a noise when they are shaken, hit, or scraped. They are only expected to last for a few hours, until the parents are sick of the noise.

Thanks again for all the input.
Regards,
Kevin.

[Ran Lichtner]

Hi kevin & Carole,
Late at night i remembered that i treated couple of times immature culms by drying them on fire.
I hold the culm above the flames, moving it back and forth, and turning it so it will heat from all sides at the same time. Each time i heat another internode. then , when some moisture covers the culm i clean it with a mop, ..
that action drys the culm rapidly and make it bright and shine.

rani

[CaroleMeckes]

Kevin,
I have heard how running bamboo grows so rampid in your country.
Many people in the US would love to be able to have and grow Moso. I am sad that more people have not been able to develop a relationship with their bamboo and their environment.

Too bad the teacher guy does not seem to understand bamboo either so that he could teach his students more about bamboo too.

Carole

[Mark Meckes]

Hi Kevin,
If a musical instrument can be made out of a blade of grass, then the sky's the limit with bamboo!

I get young green culms when:
- I'm digging up bamboo plants and some culms have to be cut out.
- When I do selective thinning of winter-killed, broken or
overcrowded culms during grove maintenance.
- When a whole grove or patch of bamboo is cut down, and it turns up at my doorstep.

How to use it?
The youngest, easily breakable stuff is cut up or chipped into mulch for the grove.
The next grade is used for biodegradeable garden stakes and trellis/fencing.
If it doesn't collapse or split open when dried, and this will also depend on the drying procedure, then the number of uses expands.

Actually the earliest use I have found for bamboo, is a musical instrument....usually some shoots grow, and then stop, and collapse, breaking into pieces at the node...
But one node-end is sealed, and it's possible to pick up the pieces of bamboo(1-2cm dia) and play them
like a pan-pipe...a very disposable pan-pipe!

It is possible to make pan-pipes from 1 and 2 year old Phyllostachys sp., and other bamboos, I'm sure.

Part of the process is to make clean cuts and finish the edges well.

...also light and/or thin bamboo can resonate sound well.

- If the material seems strong enough,
- if it can it be worked with tools at hand,
- if the material can be stabilized and protected from the vagaries of the environment.
- and for music, of course, if it will play the desired sound.

Mark

[kevinrl]

Thanks Mark, Well the project is well on it's way now.
We used various species, including Moso, P bamusoides, some dead culms in each of these groves, as well as green culms. Also some B. vulgaris 'Vittata", but this is doubtful if it will dry out in time for use.
The dead culms in the grove were a good find as they were still in good condition and not too much fungus attack.
So far we have made about 3000 simple instruments and hopefully they will dry quickly.
About 300 pieces to go out each week.
As well as the three types mentioned below I have made a slit drum out of dry B oldhamii (I think it is), and the sound is great and the music teacher was impressed.
Regards,
Kevin