Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas

Subject: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: wilco
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 12:19 PM

I volunteer in childrens' music programs in schools.
    I thought it would be nice to give them all a nice inexpensive insturment, and a kazoo came to mind. Any other suggestions? This will probably be at my expense, so I need to keep it cheap.

Thanks!!!!

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Leadfingers
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 12:48 PM

If you approach one of the cut price whistle makers -Generation for exammple they may well give you a decent discount on a reasonable number of D whistles.D would be a good whistle to start with,unless they are youngsters with small hands in which case the High G might be as good.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 01:07 PM

kazoos eventually 'break'...the little film needs replacing, and kids may not bother...whistles and harmonicas are a bit more durable, play tunes and teach 'music' better.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Barbara
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 01:12 PM

leadfingers, you are warped, seriously warped. One G whistle blown normally can remove the top layer of paint from a 20'x20' room -- can you even begin to imagine what 100 kids would do with 100 Gs?
If you play whistle you must know what happens when you hand a child a whistle, yes? Regardless of how YOU have been playing the whistle, the first thing any child does is blow it like it was an emergency whistle on a lanyard, as hard as they can. Dentists will be replacing fillings two counties away.
Wilco, other things that come to mind are a plastic pennywhistle D or C, I forget, that's pretty cheap, nose flutes(good luck there) and various plastic percussion instruments.
Someone makes a series of open ended plastic tubes (about 6" in diameter and 1' to 3' long) in different tones, that can be played together in harmony, or like bells in a bell choir.
I'd suggest checking with your local music store and asking them to cover part of the cost for a plug, or look for local donations toward the cost.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: GUEST,ET, Guest
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 01:36 PM

Bones? Spoons? Gourd rattles? Woodblocks? Getting parents involved with a "make-it" "take-it" instruments workshop. Involve the local library who may have a lecturer on tap (oops, sorry, this is likely to be you) or resources on how to make your own simple instruments.

Maybe even the comb and tissue paper - or as simple as two sticks or marbles/nuts or popcorn in a jar, shaken. Check out - the Chenille Sisters (Ann Arbor, MI) - they do some children's concerts and have "instruments" on stage the kids can play with no starting knowledge.

Best of luck! Elaine

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: GUEST,jennifer
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 01:43 PM

ocarinas?

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Homeless
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 01:44 PM

Go here, Oriental Trading, and do a search on 'kazoo' or 'flute'.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 02:01 PM

Years ago in a past life I did inner-city school programs, and what the kids always liked absolutely best of anything I did (harp, dulcimer, limberjack, singing) was finding out they could use spoons as a rhythm instrument. Way less raucous (hence less likely to get confiscated by parents) than whistles or kazoos, too. And cheaper, if you go to the right thrift stores...

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 02:07 PM

Can you imagine 100, typically slightly out of tune, Generation G whistles being blown at the same time????

You'll crash the space-time continuum...

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Leadfingers
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 02:11 PM

OK So I am a closet Sadist.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 02:18 PM

ocarinas! Brilliant idea. Go for it!

Sal

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Kudzuman
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 02:20 PM

Oriental Trading used to also have the little plastic birds that you put a bit of water into and then blow into it and it warbles. Mindless fun and not very loud. Fun in the tub too!

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 02:27 PM

Cheaper still, you could teach them how to whistle sans flageotlet hmmm ... 100 little buggers whistling Eric Idle's "Bright Side of Life"

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 03:43 PM

I remember buying a box of MANY teaspoons at a restaurant supply house for 5 bucks a few years back.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: jimmyt
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 04:04 PM

wilco, Last year, My wife and I and another couple decided to buy instrumentd for the boy's home here i nWhitfield county. We had about $1000 and were trying to extend it as far as possible. I got a few donated odds and ends, a keyboard that someone got for Christmas and didn't ever use, I had an old guitar, a couple more friends got a sort of set of drums together out of extra or non-matching equipment, etc. Then I started shopping. My local music store guys were not too helpful only trying to off-load a bunch of junk on me at about full price. I happened on to the fleamarket just East of I 75 right east of EastRIdge, Tennessee. THere is a music dealer there with lots of sort of knock off brands, etc but he was most helpful getting me some equipment together so the kids could start messing with music. These were all troubled teens who had been in trouble already etc, They seemed to really take to getting interested in music. I have a friend who threw in a few guitar lessons for the group for free. They seemed to really be getting a lot of fun out of it. Anyway, check this guy out, he is most helpful and will cut you a good deal on whatever he has. Tell him I sent you.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 04:15 PM

Spoons.

We have taught nearly one half million kids to play spoons and they love it because it provides instant positive feedback. We teach them one by one and can easily teach five kids per minute! (Adults take a little longer.)

Buy used spoons at thrift stores. Never pay more than twenty five cents for a spoon. Use tablespoons, not teaspoons. No hand is too small for tablespoons if held correctly. Before buying, gently try to bend each spoon with your fingers. If it bends easily, don't buy it because it will get broken.

Instead of giving kids spoons, we carry about 150 spoons to share and we always caution them about taking spoons at home without parental permission.

Try it. You'll love itd. So will the kids.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 06:33 PM

I'm Sorry!

I thought from the name of this thread that it was project to eliminate these "Weapons of Aural Destruction"....

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Joybell
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 06:58 PM

I have this recurrent nightmare about being among hundreds of little kids all banging things and blowing things. I can't help thinking that voices are the best instrument to start with, and they are free. Otherwise keyboards that don't do fancy things like play by themselves or add special effects are still a good way to show how music works.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Melani
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 09:37 PM

Get them some of everything suggested, and start a school band.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 09:57 PM

... and a pallet of ear plugs ... :-)

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: LadyJean
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 12:10 AM

I gave my then two year old nephew a whistle for Christmas. My sister threatened to call me every day and have him play it for me.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 12:13 AM

Oh, what would you do
With a hundred kazoos?
Would you play kazoo swing?
Would you play kazoo blues?

Would you only play one
Or play them all together?
Only play in the sun
Or in inclement weather?

I'd play jigs from old Ireland
And marches by Sousa.
Anything that I like
On my hundred kazoos, Sir.

I would give my kazoos
To the girls and the boys
And together they'd make
Such a wondrous noise

That the rafters would shake
And the pipes would burst loose
And the neighbors would scream
"Shaddup with the kazoos!"

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 01:50 AM

Go native...go "real folk"

Have your proteges bring in a pocket comb....you can provide the tissue paper....(if ya gotta modern substitute celophane plastic for the tissue)

Sincerely,

Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 02:20 AM

"I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas"...and a partridge in a pear tree.

"little plastic birds that you put a bit of water into and then blow into it and it warbles. Mindless fun and not very loud. Fun in the tub too!"

Now, a 100 kids in a tub warblin' would be a sight to see...

I think pennywhistles would be great, except you could not pass them on from one student to the next, year to year.

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 03:36 PM

Actually, Guest, the technology exists to disinfect intruments - if that's your concern. Lots of schools use plastic recorders which are washed (with a germicide solution) between students; I assume that the places that rent wind & brass instruments take sanitation into consideration in some way, too.

I assume Wilco is looking for something kids can keep, though...

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Help: I need 100 kazoos or harmonicas
From: Sam L
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 07:02 PM

spoons--I hadn't thought of that, but will have to try it with my group of munchkins.

I've given away many Bluesband harmonicas, which usually play okay til you wear them out of tune. I bet a nice retailer would let you bulk order with them, as I did once. I think they were about $3 apiece.