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Our latest trip to the hardware store

My associate Len Barnett and I went to Elliott's Hardware store here in Dallas the other day, and got the ingredients for a big batch of new homemade percussion stuff. Here's what we bought:

The Ingredients

• Wood dowels: various diameters, in lengths of 4'

• Hoop clamps, also called tube clamps. these are adjustable to 6" in diameter, and can be joined together for bigger sizes.

• We bought yet another bushel basket, tin, but with a bottom like a giant bundt cake pan, rounded, with no lip to hurt the hands. This particular type of bushel basket has been a favorite for years, and I've used them in a wide variety of professional situations as well. They are fragile, so if one plays them with too big a stick, or too hard, they dent, and once they're out of round they're gone. while they're in round they are magnificent. More on this instrument in the near future.

• Quik-Tube building forms. these are very very heavy cardboard, normally used for pouring concrete for columns and footers. Stood on end, they are 5' high, and we got both available diameters, 8" and 12"

• A couple of rolls of rubbery duct tape. This came in bright colors, so we picked bright red and green to keep the kids awake. (With the exception of Border's Books & Music, all our upcoming workshops are for kids.)

• A couple of yards of 1/4" LATEX TUBING. This can be hard to find; nothing works better than the latex, which is bouncier than other types of tubing normally found at the hardware store. If your hardware store doesn't have it, try a surgical supply house.

• We broke down and got two copper toilet plungers and a couple of special screws that were wood screws on one side and a flat bolt on the other side. We decided to make the plunger maracas described in the book Sound Designs. They turned out great! 

• bb's

• Two feet of 4" pvc, and some plastic caps for both ends

The total was around $75, but we also bought a tube cutter that we needed and a couple of other things. From there. We went up to the supermarket and got some coffee beans, which make a fine shaker filler material. Then we stopped by the water bottle section, and were surprised to find a new type of bottle. Several of the bottles fit very well together, as a drum family if you will, so we bought all three, for a total of about $25. In addition, i have a nice selection of goat and calf skins. (If you need skins for any of these projects, let me know, and we can get them for you.)

The sticks and beaters

First we used some of the dowels to make beaters and drumsticks. We cut 12" sections of dowel for heavier beaters (1/2" diameter) and wrapped the colored duct tape around and around one end, letting the tape add bulk to the stick, and turning it into a big mallet of sorts. I have seen Baba Olantunji playing his drums with such a stick, and this was where I got that particular idea. It seems to bring out the fundamental tone in certain instruments, like the water bottles. 

Now we had the heavy beaters covered, but we needed some thinner sticks for varied tones, so we cut some 3/8" dowels i....(etc.). 2001 UPDATE: We are using unsharpened pencils with "pencil pillows", widely available, glued to the eraser end. They work like a charm, and offer two completely different sounds.

More is to come. We're still working on this stuff, and we'll post as things develop. Stay tuned! You can hear how some of the stuff sounds already on the Homemade percussion sounds page.

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