Boomwhacker

Boomwhacker are musical instruments from the group of Idiophone. They consist of different long plastic tubes. These are harmoniously coordinated. When hitting the Boomwhacker on various objects to different sounding tones arise.

Operation

Boomwhackers generate sounds when they are against each other hits the ground, the body, or any desired surface. Boomwhackers for different pitches have different lengths and are made of different colored plastic (the same tones in different octaves usually get the same color ), so you can assign them more easily. You can also with mallets in a holder fixed Boomwhackers play like a xylophone. By applying pressure to the outside of the pitch can vary. One octave down can be achieved by the so-called Oktavatorkappe.

Boomwhackers currently exist only in the pitch space of the C major scale and are mostly available in the pentatonic and diatonic set. In order to play or accompany other keys, a chromatic extension set is required.

Application

Boomwhackers are often used by performance artists such as the Blue Man Group. Music teachers use it to teach basic concepts of rhythm, harmony and melody. They are suitable to make music together in larger groups. So the teacher all the students or the artist can incorporate his audience.

History

The inventor Craig Ramsell from Sedona in the U.S. state of Arizona had to fill mid-90s, the idea for this musical instrument when he crushed cardboard tubes into a recycling container. He noticed the musical potential, experimented with various sizes and materials and developed a business idea. At that time, many artists used recycled materials for percussion performances. For music education purposes Boomwhackers final produced are better than improvised instruments made ​​from recycled materials, as the musical performance can be repeated easily.

In the early musical education to Boomwhacker have established such that some software manufacturers have functions for generating colored notes into their music notation programs.