Spoon (musical instrument)

Spoons can be played as a makeshift percussion instrument, or more specifically, an idiophone related to the castanets. A pair of spoons is held with concave sides facing out and with a finger between their handles to space them apart. When the pair is struck, the spoons sharply hit each other and then spring back to their original position. The spoons are typically struck against the knee and the palm of the hand. The fingers and other body parts may also be used as striking surfaces to produce different sounds and for visual effect. In U.S. culture, "playing the spoons" originated in Ireland as "playing the bones," in which the convex sides of a pair of sheep rib bones were rattled in the same way.

Spoons as an instrument are associated in the United States with American folk music, minstrelsy, and jug and spasm bands. These musical genres make use of other everyday objects as instruments, such as the washboard and the jug. In addition to common tableware, musical instrument suppliers make spoons that are joined at the handle.

Bobby Hebb is a well-known spoons player. In 1994, Seattle Grunge band Soundgarden had a hit with the song "Spoonman" that features a spoons performance by street artist Artis the Spoonman.

The use of spoons for music is also a Slav tradition, dating at least from the XVIII century (and probably older). Typically three or more wooden spoons are used. The convex surfaces of the bowls are struck together in different ways. For example, two spoons are held by their handles in the left hand, and the third, held in the right hand, is used to hit the two spoons in the left hand. The hit, in a sliding motion, produces a typical sound (4). One can also hold three spoons in the left hand and put a fourth into the bot or the pocket. A fifth spoon is then held in the right hand and used to hit the other four. Finally, one can hold the bowl of a single spoon in the left hand and hit it with another spoon. In this style, different sound can be emitted by holding the bowl more or less tightly.

These wooden spoons are commonly used in performances of Russian folk music and sometimes even in Russian orchestras (5). A video of a choir performing a Russian folk song with spoon and balalaika accompaniment can be found below.

External links

* [http://www.MusicalSpoons.Org/ MusicalSpoons.org] Site about Musical Spoons and Parsem School, Parsonsfield, Maine.
* [http://home.insightbb.com/~ferguson/spoonplayer.html You, too, can play the spoons]
* [http://www.world-beats.com/instruments/spoons.htm Spoons by Aaron Plunkett as heard in the epic film TITANIC] (4)http://slavyane.nnov.ru/index.phtml?lng=ru&id=44 , http://slavyane.nnov.ru/index.phtml?lng=ru&id=95

(5) http://folkinst.narod.ru/lozki.html

A video of a choir performing a Russian folk song with spoon and balalaika accompaniment - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saE7ihrTO7o