I have only a vague memory of what Lonnie Donegan used to do with it. I use a washboard as a portable danceband drumkit, using the same rhythms as Scottish pipe band or ceilidh band drummers. To get this effect:

- hold the washboard fore-and-aft, along your thigh and held down by your chin. Beryl Bryden is the only other player I know of who used this position.

- hit it from both sides with five thimbles on each hand. For the thumbs I use the plastic "thumbles" sold for quilting - no shop seems to have these any more but you can still buy them mail order.

- use a technique like a five-string banjo - the thumb usually hits the wooden plate on the downbeats, the fingers do the tricky rolls, triplets and paradiddles.

- *don't* add extra noisemakers to it. It's much more effective to play *really fast*, like a tabla player, and you can't do that if you're moving your hands large distances to reach something hanging off the side.

- modify the board. The metal plate must rattle freely to get a good volume, so make sure there's room in the slot for it to do that. You will usually need to take the board apart and rebuild it to get a decent sound. I just take half the plate and build a light plywood frame around it to get a better wooden thwack.

- if the metal rattles freely enough, you can vary the tone by pressing lightly in one side to damp the plate while scraping with the other. (Compare what bodhran players usually do with their left hand).

- for the Scottish music I mostly play, it helps to think of a tune as having a fixed percussion part (like the way pipe bands arrange their material). Most of the time you will be improvising, but when a tune repeats a 4- or 8-bar section, repeat the rhythm you did for it. And make damn sure every section gets a different beating.

- know the tunes. Some tunes call for specific tricks. I rarely do a washboard part for a tune I can't play on the recorder.

- if you're a woodwind player you're *way* ahead of the game since most of the actions are the same, moving your fingers up and down as they traverse the plate.

- eggwhisks work as "brushes" when playing slower tunes, like waltzes, where the percussion part needs to be less assertive.