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 One of the instruments that you will be hearing in today's concert is an ancient Chinese mouth organ called a “Sheng”. The Sheng is a very old instrument, existing in one form or another for at least 3,000 years. The Sheng is a "free-reed" instrument, in which a thin tongue of metal or wood vibrates when air moves through a tube. Free-reeds also have the ability to make sound either by inhaling or exhaling through the tube. Other free-reed instruments include the harmonica and the accordion. |
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 The Sheng consists of a bowl-shaped "wind-chest" made of metal or wood on the bottom, with a blowing tube coming out of the side of the wind-chest. Coming out of the top of the wind chest is a series of bamboo pipes of different sizes, with the tallest pipes on opposite sides. There can be as few as 17 pipes, or, on more complex instruments with a greater range, as many as 36 or 37! Not all of the pipes actually sound, however - some are just to keep the pipes in the proper shape, so that, according to 2nd century CE Chinese writings, they look like the folded wings of the phoenix - a giant mythical bird.Each bamboo pipe has a finger hole drilled in the side. When the player closes the finger hole, the reed (located below the finger hole) vibrates and the pipe sounds. When the finger hole is open the pipe is silent. The Sheng is an astonishingly loud instrument, and can be played continuously, since it works both when the player is inhaling and exhaling. |
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| Sports bottle straws are hard plastic ridged straws. I got mine from a "party supply store" as part of funny-looking drinking cups for birthday parties, but you can also find them in sporting goods stores. The sports bottle straws belong to an unusual kind of instruments called "corrugaphones". Corrugaphones make sound when air moves through a ridged tube. You may have seen corrugaphones called "whirly-tubes" which are long ridged plastic tubes that you spin around over your head. While the sports bottle straws that we are using are not free-reed instruments, they work in a similar fashion - you can make sound by inhaling as well as exhaling. When cutting the straws to different lengths (you can use a scissors for this) be careful - sometimes if you cut them too short they will no longer work. |
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