I have long been fascinated by people who make musical instruments. I have tried my hand at it with a couple of instruments, not overly successfully, but I still maintain a lively interest in the designing and crafting of instruments. It is part of the old "make do with what you have or with what you can make using materials at hand" philosophy. Many folks in years gone by may not have been able to afford to buy musical instruments, but that didn't necessarily stop them from having an instrument to play. Rather than do without, they would set in to craft an instrument themselves, gaining skills as they went along.
I'm recalling that we boys, when we were young, used to make whistles. I think it was the elm tree that had bark which you could work loose so that the bark would slip off the stick intact. We would slip off the bark, then carve the stick with a proper notch and airway, slip the bark back on, and just like that, we had ourselves a tuneful whistle. OK, it didn't have the flutter sound of a whistle such as is used by basketball referees, but it was definitely a whistle, and special because it was homemade. Some people have made a sort of a flute by making a number of whistles of different lengths, each tuned to a note in the musical scale, then binding the whistles together all in a row. You play it by sliding your lips over the ends, choosing the right one for the note you want, as one does with a harmonica.
Lots of people have been innovative when it comes to percussion instruments for country bands. Even a block of wood can serve as a rhythm instrument if one takes a stick or two to it in just the right fashion. Some adapt table utensils to use in keeping time with the music. Even television performers in country bands have occasionally played the spoons. A metal pot or skillet in the right hands and with the right beat can be made musical. The old Number 3 washtub is capable of many uses -- washing clothes, taking baths, or it can be outfitted with a makeshift neck and a cord or strings to form a washtub bass, usually played by plunking with the fingers. Determined musicians have not been deterred by lack of money for instruments; they may set in to craft "something that'll do for now."
One of the most interesting instruments for self-crafting is the fiddle. Back in the 1970s I took a stab at fiddle-making myself, using my own design and materials, before beginning to read on how the better fiddles have been designed and made. My homemade fiddle looks more like an egg than it does a regular fiddle. It plays OK and one can make music on it, but I have had trouble keeping a tailpiece on it. They break under the pressure of the strings. I made my "fiddle" with a flat top and a flat back, which is not "right" of course, but it works. I used pieces of paneling, also not right, and it didn't work very well. I learned that the laminations give a problem when you try to bend strips of the paneling to make the curved sides of a fiddle. I should have learned more about steambending of wood before attempting to use paneling as my materials. But I got my sides bent and the whole thing varnished with a golden color, and it doesn't look too bad.
After making my "quick fiddle," I began reading books about violin making, some of them very old books. The greatest days of violin-making seem to have been in the early 1700s. Even in our highly technical age we haven't improved much on stringed instrument making over the old masters like Stradivarius in the early 1700s. Fiddles/violins today are still modeled after the designs of those old master craftsmen. Most are made with spruce tops, with arched tops and backs made by scooping and carving in precise ways. Sides are steam-bent and formed in molds which supply the right shapes. The old makers used to make their own hide glues and varnishes, cooking the makings over a fire -- a rather dangerous operation. Some believe that one of the reasons for the superior tones of the old masters' instruments was in the recipe of their finishes.
Some people ask, "What is the difference between a violin and a fiddle."
Here is my understanding. The difference between a violin and a fiddle is mostly in the way it is played. I had the interesting opportunity in Searcy, Ark., some years ago to join a small group of fiddlers and guitar players. One of the men was a professor of music at Harding University, an expert violinist, who was trying to learn to play the fiddle. Country fidd'lin' is just different from playing a violin in an orchestra and doing classical music from Bach or Beethoven. Some have pointed out that certain makers of violins make the bridge somewhat higher and more curved than the normal bridge on a country fiddle. Country fidd'lin' usually involves a great deal of playing on two strings at once, using certain strings as drone strings while playing the tune on others. A flatter bridge helps with the multi-string bowing. Here's to admire those fiddle-makers.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired minister and officer of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. The views expressed are those of the writer. Nichols can be contacted by email at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 04/18/2018