Love Letter to Plywood

I use a good bit of plywood in my marimbas. Here's why:

Love Letter to Plywood. By Tom Sachs

Phil Onishi's Wired Musicians

A few years ago I built a set of instruments for music teacher Phil Onishi of Edmonds Washington. He surprised me with this gift: a wired malleteer playing a marimba styled after my Lowrider. When he's not teaching kids, Phil creates all sorts of jiggling, wirey musicians and is featured at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TotallyWiredArts?ref=pr_shop_more

totallywiredmusicians@gmail.com

Solsbury Hill

A couple years ago I did a marimba arrangement for Peter Gabriel's classic Solsbury Hill. Very effective for any malleteer who can count to seven. Here is a shockwave file of the arangement, which will scroll and play as you watch notes fly by:

http://www.bournemarimbas.com/SolsburyVid.swf

...and here is the pdf. file:

http://www.bournemarimbas.com/Solsbury/solsburymarimba.pdf

Walt Hampton made some improvements on this arangement, notably a stop-time effect in the drums as everyone wails in unison on the notes lyricized: "BOOM BOOM BOOM". Now there's a good example of onomatopoeiaic arranging if ever there was one!

DIY Bari Modification

I've always been torn as to whether to install any kind of foamy or rubberized tone bar support on the baritone marimba. I've found that the usual foam support eventually gets mashed down from the weight of the bars. And the indestructible black rubber heater hose I install on my basses for bar support seems to be too unyielding for the bari bars. Option #3 is to just suspend the bars with the cord only, but I have had more than one customer complain about undue cord wearage as all the weight of the bars rests on the cord.

If your baritone has a cord-only suspension system, then here is a DIY (do-it-yerself) option that seems not to affect the sound while providing additional support for the bars. This is an easy and inexpensive fix, and worth a try if your cord gets worn down too fast.

Take a close gander at the serpentine foam strip snaking it's way around the posts and under the cord. It's 3/8" Poly Foam Calk Saver from the good folks at Frost King, hopefully available anywhere cold enough to need calk insulation. I'm not sure if tropical environs carry this stuff, but you might find something similar in a big hardware store. No glueing or other attachment seems to be necessary here, just wind it around the posts underneath the cord and it stays put, serving as a buffer for the bars, and hopefully reducing the weight and wear and tear on the cord. 

If this stuff gets mashed down after a year or so but works well otherwise, well, maybe you can consider it a cheap and normal bit of upkeep, like getting new brake pads on the car. Those bars exert A LOT of cumulative downward force on any kind of support during weeks and months of enthusiastic malleteering. The bar supports bear the brunt!

A customer asks:

"Should I buy the optional F# and Bb bars that are offered with your marimbas?"

My impression over the years is that lots of folks buy the extra bars to have them if needed or because their budget will cover that additional cast - and then never use them. The bars can take up space in a school closet for a loooong time! F#/Bb bars are handy in the Orff curriculum for the occasional songs in the keys of F or G, but the vast majority of music played on these instruments is in C or related modes with the standard bars. You can always order F# and Bb bars in the future if they are needed, so unless you foresee the specific need for those, it's OK to save the $$ and go with the standard set. If you teach the Orff curriculum, definitely get them.

What All Teachers Should Learn from Jazz-band Teachers

What All Teachers Should Learn from Jazz-band Teachers

Here is a GREAT article. Good jazz programs, as well as other performance based arts programs, are preparations for a meaningful adult life, where one must show up on time, be professional, be prepared, work with others cooperatively and creatively, be judged and most importantly be inspired by something really fun. Other than sports, what other school environments provide such preparation for a satisfying adulthood? This is why I like selling instruments to grade school marimba bands, which under the direction of a good teacher provide this very brand of good learnin'.

Customer feedback is nice to receive:

Tom,

I wanted to thank you for the instruments and working them into your

build schedule. First of all, they are beautiful! and they have a

great tone.

Secondly, the money that I received as a donation was from a woman who

is a parent at this school. She was diagnosed a year ago with stage 4

breast cancer that had matasticized.  It has since spread to her

bones, and they have just found the first signs of it in her blood.

She is 45 years old. She wanted to donate the money to the music

program to "do what ever I wanted with," because she was greatly

impacted by something she witnessed in my music program about four

years ago. Four years ago, I borrowed a complete set of your marimbas

from Carinn Ormson, a good friend of mine here in Vancouver. The

entire school took a month off of our "regular" curriculum and learned

all about the marimbas. We then performed by grade level for the

parents. She was blown away that students could make such beautiful

music. Buying these instruments with her donation seemed fitting

somehow. And, they arrived just in time. She has been given about a

month to live, and is being honored this Saturday night at the Relay

for Life dinner here in Washougal. We got many pictures with the kids,

and of their faces when they saw the instruments! (priceless!)

I want to thank you for the build, but also for creating a very

special gift for a great woman to give to these students. I should

also thank you for the gift that you allowed my students to give which

was that of great music.

Thank you again, Tom.

Bryn Scamahorn

Music Cape Horn-Skye Elementary

Back to work

Back to work and on schedule now, I was out the past two weeks doing this:

NIST

Nice logo for the New International School of Thailand Marimba Ensemble

This just in from our nation's capitol

Here's some footage from long-time teacher/customer Premila Mistry of E.L.Haynes Public Charter School in WA D.C. Watch out, the first piece may revive memories of your formative teen years!

The second piece really shows how big marimbas and traditional Orff instruments can be combined - a great jangly sound. Very impressive ensemble playing by this group, I think!

E.L Haynes Public Charter School directed by Premila Mistry

Just in from Terrace Heights Elementary

Teacher Doug Carey of Yakima, WA sent in this video of his student choir backing two local stars, Dance Illuminate. I love kid choirs in pop songs, reminds me a bit of Ray Steven's "Everything is Beautiful".

yes, hook lamps make GREAT microphones

Island Dancing

Here's my guitar version of David Ruggiero's "Island Dancing", from his marimba collection "High Sticking"

Audio : Island Dancing by David Ruggiero

Drink, Sing and Sail

Here's some good beer drinkin' music from Brent Holl. Well done.

click and listen

Plucking Instead of Bonking

Along with video auteur Izzy Corey I've been busy this last week filming a combination "how to" video and entertaining peek inside the shop for students. The plan is to provide the production with a background of popular marimba music - played for the in-shop sequences on guitars by me! Here is one snippet, hot off Garageband: Walt Hampton's classic "Nyoka" played on my Tacoma "Papoose" mini-guitar for 7 tracks, plus a track of my Taylor acoustic for the bass, plus harmonica atmospherics at the end. Sounds very Americana-ish:

http://www.bournemarimbas.com/nyoka.mp3

Ash Bari

Here's a newly complete Baritone with Ash bars. That's American grown, you know, the stuff they make baseball bats and Fender guitars out of. Sounds really good.

More Painted Tubes

Maybe the best yet? From the collection of Val Barton Ellett:

Malleteers in Thailand

Last summer I shipped a batch of marimbas to the New International School of 

Thailand in Bangkok - here's the results, directed by David Cameron: 

http://youtu.be/qh5xjR1Pn4U

(the second tune is my fave - p.s. notice also how fast the stage is cleared post-performance!)

More Tube Decorating

I wonder how this would work on a set of white tubes...

instructions here:

http://megduerksen.typepad.com/whatever/2011/08/you-knew-i-was-going-to-make-one.html

Sowah Mensah Workshop - Bothell, March 17

Washington State clock hours available:

Don't Settle for Boring White Tubes!

I'd posted earlier about Heather Stoker's great Bass tubes:

Now here comes more painted tubes, from the collection of Val Barton Ellet:

The marimba was built by the Ellet clan. A veritable rainbow of colors.

Here is a set of Bourne Marimba tubes with tons of color, creatively 

dripped by one of Val Barton Ellet's 5th graders. WAY better than plain vanilla!