Play a Diddley Bow Like Seasick Steve
Music should always 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 this is far from the truth.
Have you ever see any African tribes people dancing to drums? The drummers have never studied at music college. They obviously can’t read music and wouldn’t know a scale or chord if it hit them on the head. But they know how to have a good time. Using simple instruments to make music, maybe a home made drum or rattle, is really great fun and what music should be 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 an African American folk instrument that uses only one string or wire. 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.
Lonnie Pitchford is one well known Diddley Bow player who would make his Diddley Bows by attaching a wire to an upright on his front porch. Making simple diddley bows by attaching a wire to the side of a house or shack was a common way that poor share croppers and field workers would make instruments in the Mississippi Delta region.
The sound of the Diddley Bow is very much the sound of the blues. Many of the early blues orginators from the 1920s and 1930s got their start by twanging Diddley Bows. One modern day exponent of this simple instrument is Seasick Steve. So why not make yourself a simple one string Diddley Bow today and make some music.
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