Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff

Subject: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 09:05 PM

I've been making kids tin whistles made from carrots this morning. Lindsay Pollack can whip up playa ble ones with a portable drill in a couple of minutes. It's great fun blowing the soft pulp out to clear the main bore and finger holes. The kids have had a ball and my youngest niece ate hers - "if music be the food of life". But I've got no idea how to make the whistle sound, my kids are just making various noises down their's. Any clues please?

To make it easier for kids to play pentatonic tunes on a real tin whistle which holes do you cover up with sticky tape?

You can see that I'm no whistle player. Thanks in advance, John

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Chocolate Pi
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 09:23 PM

Dinner at my house always became chaotic when there were ziti; if cooked to the right state, certain types of ziti (IIRC, the smooth ones but not the ones with lines down the sides) can produce whistling or honking noises. My brother, the bassoonist, could get various squawks and bass notes, while I, who play flute, was more likely to get high squeaks. That's the only musical food I have much empirical data on, though.

Chocolate Pi (who can go home for a week after finals!)

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Barbara
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 09:42 PM

Making a flute is probably easier than a whistle if your tools are a carrot and a drill. Whistles need a flat aperture and a slanted sharp edge to blow the air across (ask me how I know!).
For a flute, all you need is a slightly larger top hole to blow across sideways, a bit like making a bottle sound. The trick with the mouth hole on a flute is to have the edges sharp, at least the outside one. Then the sound would travel down the bore. No idea whether a carrot would be resonant enough either. Atlernatively, you could take the plastic fipple off a whistle and install the bored-thru carrot.
I used to make flutes out of PVC pipe, and stick a cork in the end -- the distance between the interior end of the cork and the blow hole is crucial. To make a flute play, place the curve of the barrel -- with the mouth hole on top -- in the hollow below your lower lip, and then rotate the flute slightly back and forth until you hear a noise.
Have fun!
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Bugsy
Date: 11 Mar 00 - 10:21 PM

I don't know if anyone outside Australia knows about Lindsey Pollack and his stage show "The Art Of Food", but if you get a chance to have him at your festival he is great value. I saw him last year at the National Festival in Canberra. He is performing here in Perth at the Fairbridge Festival. It's worth going there just to see this act.

As a bonus we also have Mose Scarlett here too.

Cheers

bugsy

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: wysiwyg
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 01:17 AM

Pi--

Good luck on finals and have a great trip home!

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 03:18 AM

This sounds promising. Anybody got any more ideas on wacky musical things to do with kids? I'm going to be at the Portland (OR) Folk Song Society's Singtime Frolics gathering in a couple of weeks, with my five-year-old daughter Shayna, and there will probably be a kids workshop or two. It would be fun to have fun stuff like this to do.
Shayna is excited about getting to play a game she made up called The Song Game. One person says a word, and the other(s) guess what song that word is in. Since she's just about memorized the Wee Sing Fun and Folk tape, she often stumps me.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: georgeward
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 03:49 AM

Seems to me tnat an end-flute, like the chalil Pete Seeger used to play, would be a lot easier to make with a carrot. Just bore the veg out as a straight pipe, and blow across the end as you would a soda bottle. It is trickier, really. You hold the pipe transversely, as with a flute, but not below your lower lip. Tuck it into one corner of your mouth, so that the airstream you are blowing strikes the inside edge of the opposite side of the pipe (the side away from you). As Barbara says, the edge needs to be sharp. Start with a tough carrot ? If you can get a tone with a straight pipe, then try some finger holes.

You can try the technique on a recorder, if you have one. A standard pennywhistle is too skinny (for me, I'm sure someone can do it). A fatter, low whistle would work. A low D is probably too fat. Once you yank the mouthpiece off your recorder or whistle, of course, it won't be in tune. You've lost some length. But, hey! You've created a new scale!

Knew a guy who played tunes on his tent poles this way at festivals.

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Barbara
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 04:53 PM

Say, Mark, one of the other Singtime mamas had my daughter Linnet(13) on the phone today trying to organize a big kids take care of little kids thing, and we passed on the suggestions from this thread.
Do you suppose Shayna will be surprised when they know her game? You are welcom to send us other suggestions, too. There will be other kids her age there as well as older ones.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Jo Taylor
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 06:29 PM

There was a programme on BBC Radio 4 a couple of weeks ago where someone made a parsnip bombard - core it, make holes, stick an oboe reed in the end. Just don't eat the reed!

Jo

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 12 Mar 00 - 06:44 PM

Thanks, Barbara, I'll tell Shayna -- I'm sure she'll be thrilled. This will be great fun, for both of us!
Jo, I know what a parsnip is. But a bombard? Is it something like a shawm? Not that I've ever seen a shawm, but I've heard them on records. Is this a Brit thing, or an early music thing, or both?
Keep those ideas coming, folks!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Crowhugger
Date: 13 Mar 00 - 06:19 AM

There are some grown-ups around who still like to play with food. Guess what we're having for dinner tonight: Soup from all the bored out vegetables, and veggies 'n' dip from everything that doesn't make a sound I like. Who can suggest a good dessert?

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: jeffp
Date: 13 Mar 00 - 11:48 AM

Mark - the bombarde is a double-reed instrument from Brittany. The tone is less shrill than an oboe, but it still can be heard a great distance. John Skelton of The House Band plays one and turns bright red while he's blowing it. Hope this helps.

jeffp

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: MMario
Date: 13 Mar 00 - 12:00 PM

carrot cake of course, crowhugger!

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Jo Taylor
Date: 13 Mar 00 - 06:24 PM

Less shrill?? :-}
The bombard is probably the loudest instrument in relation to its size; apparently they were originally conceived as a method for one stilt-walking shepherd to send messages to another in the misty marshes of somewhere in central France - "Oi, Henri, your ewes are over ici", transmitted in a series of parps and hoots, and Henri wound reply "OK, mon ami", parp-pip-parp. Something like that anyway, I'm sure there are more scholarly answers, theories and speculations. Whoever first thought of using them as musical instruments has probably been cursed by many neighbours of folk musicians and owners of intimate venues!

Jo

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 13 Mar 00 - 06:36 PM

Jo, that was a wonderful description! Who needs the scholars?

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Making Edible Whistles; Other Kids Stuff
From: Jacob B
Date: 14 Mar 00 - 01:53 PM

I have heard an unamplified bombard play louder than two amplified Scottish bagpipes. That means that the person who invented the bombard is twice as sadistic as the person who decided to play Highland Great Pipes through a Rock sound system.

It's interesting to hear about the French shepherds, and surprising. From its name, I assumed that the bombard was designed for knocking down castle walls by sheer sound volume.