Thanks to the folks at Farm and Wilderness camps, here's a lovely video of one of the campers and his new "axe," and more pix of music-making campers on FB, here. To make your own, download a pdf of the book, Make a Ray Jacobs Rocky Mountain Dulcimer, here. The paper version is on sale through the HP bookstore. My brother went to the Farm & Wilderness Camps in Vermont when he was a kid. Now his daughter is the camper, he helps out teaching woodwork. I sent him the dulcimer book, and he helped about a dozen musicians make their own instruments, not just campers, but counselors as . . .
beautiful kazoo
Doug Shafer was playing his guitar at the Portland airport this summer, on that rare day I got on a plane to goto CA (for a day! to build an oven for a writer at Sunset, but that's another story). I stopped to listen and talk. He had these beautiful little kazoos for sale, hand made from a small piece of bamboo, some duct tape, and a piece of an old plastic bag -- beautiful! He sold 'em for about $5. A deal not to pass up. Doug's website: http://www.doug-shafer.com/ . . .
Gift books for Christmas: Make a Rocky Mountain Dulcimer
"In the end, we shall have had enough of cynicism, scepticism and humbug, and will want to live - more musically." This quote (Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo), came to me from a friend, just before Christmas, 2012, as I was finishing this gift book about how to make a gorgeous-sounding 3-stringed instrument from scrap wood and cardboard. Details and story in the book, so more people can make their own music with their own neighbors. There's an onscreen (pdf) version below, and a youtube video of Ray and Shirley playing for you. A $10, (full color!) paper version is also available from . . .