I went to NEFFA where I attended the workshop on playing the bones. I can't pull the workshop leader's name out of my foggy memory just now, I think his first name was Steve.

Anyway, he had a room full of people, some of whom had never even heard of musical bones before. By the middle of the workshop he had them all successfully making some kind of regulated, controlled sound with the softwood sticks he handed out. He has been instrumental in setting up http://www.rhythmbones.com so I will go look there for his name.

By the way, it takes time to get to where you can play the bones. A friend showed me at a festival near my home once upon a time. I ran home, made up a set of bones and started trying. whenever I was alone in the car I would put a tape of fast fiddle music in the tape player and try to play along. My vindication came when my friends who make up Castlebay asked me to play bones on one of their CD's.