I received a Christmas gift from my West Coast friends today: a set of (musical) kitchen spoons they picked up on their recent trip to Newfoundland. The card explained the spoons were sent instead of the Ugly Stick as the latter wouldn’t fit in their luggage.
Oh ho, I said, delighted. I tested them on my forearm and promptly hit myself on the forehead.
I decided to wait until my retired music teacher of a husband woke up from his nap before risking further mishap.
« Look what we got. », I said, as he came down the stairs.
I handed him the spoons and he proceeded to percuss a lively rhythm all over his body without missing a beat.
Impressed, I asked him if he’d played them before and he said he had when he worked as a music therapist for children with autism.
I told him I nearly took out an eye and he laughed.
What else to do but practice while the music teacher sang this fun little ditty. I eventually got the hang of it, kinda, sorta. The trick is to loosen up a little, actually a lot when you’re as tightly wound up as I am, especially at the wrist, and let the rhythm take over. It’s a good work-out for the forearm muscles.
Kitchen music is so much fun. Apparently Newfoundland excels at it. Makes me long for the days when we used to host music jams at our house.
And who doesn’t love when Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show, along with the Roots, jam with their musical guests playing Classroom instruments? Musical guests The Who join them here.
It might be a fun project to make our own Ugly Stick. There are lots of how-to videos on YouTube.
In the meantime, we can all practice clapping on beats two and four the next time we feel the urge to percuss at a concert. It’s way cooler than clapping on the one and the three.
bogeyandruby 