Sheryl -- I get beeswax all the time from the Honey table at the Farmers Market just downriver, here in Fort Myers, FL with 90+ temps.  I'll be stopping there tomorrow for some veg and fruits to write about in next Monday's food blog.

I'd tell you the name of that bonobo product, but this is a family oriented forum....

Wout, that's an interesting approach!   I certainly do notice that if one clenches too much it produces less of the nice triplets etc...but what you say is true as well, I just never thought of it that way too.

How very exciting Lisa! You must really be coming along with your bones playing. I can’t wait to see your skills in that video you promised Bob. (With a few stipulations)

Lisa, keep your bones as loose as possible in your hand. This will make you insecure about dropping the bones and will keep the movements smaller resulting in less sound. Play relaxed!

That's great Lisa. Keep up the good work.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

hahaha.

I sold three pairs of bones that I didn't care for much, and ordered two pairs that I really want to try out (made of ox shin bones but slender sized).   Wound up being about the same money, so that's always nice.   can't wait to get the new ones.

I practiced with Brian this evening...with him playing fiddle tunes.  I get nervous about that because he's pretty particular about accompaniment sound/noise, and it's so easy to sound too loud on bones.     Well, I made tons of mistakes, flubbing up left and right, but got a few good phrases in too.  So....he totally shocked me by saying that he LIKED our fiddle/bones "duet".   !!!  I asked him if he was just trying to be nice, and he said no, that he liked it and wanted to do more practice of fiddle & bones together, so I could improve more.    Woo-HOOO!

Despite all the awkward attempts and missed beats, I love that feeling of when you occasionally 'nail it' with a good crisp rattle that is perfectly timed and snapped shut at the end just right. 

Maybe while I’m at it, I can order some Anti-Monkey Butt Powder to go with my Gorilla Snot. TMI? Do they make anything with a disgusting name that includes bonobos? 

Good to know. Snot it is! Unless I can find a beeswas candle... The honey stand at the farmers market didn't have any. Guess they don't stock candles in an outdoor market in August in the SE. Go figure! 

Sheryl, you'll have a hard time using a hard dry cake of violin rosin.  Gorilla snot is rosin in a soft paste base, and rubs off easily when you're done.  I can't imagine the hard cake rosin would work well- it tends to be very brittle and crumbles, cracks, and powders off the cake if rubbed on something hard like the bones.

By the way, you are only supposed to applly a little sticky beeswax or GSnot to the EDGES of the bones- not on the big flat surfaces.

As I understand it, Gorilla snot is a form of rosin, so I guess a cake of rosin made for use by violinists would work too. I'm certain they will have that at my local music store. There is a pretty interesting entry for Rosin, which includes the many uses of rosin in our lives, on Wikipedia. If you’re interested.

(I am finding that as I improve my grip on the bones, there is considerably less slippage.)

If you can't find beeswax there is the Product Gorilla Snot.  Drummers use it to hang on to their sticks.  It comes in a small jar.  I know the name is a little rough but it has that stickin quality.

Hey that's a cool story, thanks!

Hi Strumelia:  This might be a helpful suggestions or a complete miss but when I started to learn the bones and I am by no means great at it I would take them with me when I walk my babies.  The cadence of my pace helped me find my rhythm.

I remember one day I had to pick my car up at the local national brand name auto repair shop.  I got my pep up to meet the boys..... I mean the mechanics and get my car back.  Well the walk is a 1/4 mile stroll which takes me about 10 minutes.  I was clicking away when I came upon the crossing guards for the local school.  Since being a former professional clown I have no problems looking absolutely foolish in public.  So while I waited for the personal excort (always want to set a good example for the kidos) I just kept clicking away.  The guards were fascinated and I got to share my limited new talent. 

Good idea Lisa, that sounds like a much easier way to obtain beeswax (and apply it) than I had imagined. I remember seeing beeswas candles at the farmer market... Thanks!

You can just buy a little beeswax candle- either a taper or a votive.  But make sure you buy it from a real beekeeper, cause lots of commercial 'beeswax candles' are only part beeswax, with lots of parrafin mixed in to be cheaper.  And parrafin doesn't have that 'sticking factor' that real beeswax has, that you are seeking for this purpose.

Novel idea Ken! Seriously, I’ll check the honey stand at our farmer’s market. 

Sheryl -- from bees   Your local Farmer's Market probably has a honey supplier who has beeswax for sale as well.  That's where I get mine -- from a beekeeper friend.

Just oredered a second pair of bones, went for the Minstrel style teak bones. Starting to rock the right hand, need to bring in the left. 

p.s. Lisa, where is a good place to get beeswax? 

OK Sheryl, no vids for you ... Yet.  Strumelia, game on!  I'll be practicing. 

Good to know, I'll give it a try!

Sheryl....yay!

I read that if you rub a piece of beeswax up and down on the EDGES of the bones only, it keeps them from sliding out or down.  I tried it and it works well.  doesnt take much, but may need doing periodically.

I got my bones in the mail yesterday; as I had hoped they are pretty mellow. Haven't had time to revisit Dom Flemons videos so I can start out right, but of course I have been "playing" with them. My ring finger bone keeps sliding down...but I have managed to do some clacking. It seems like the less I concentrate on them, the better I do. I tried them out in the car this morning, to the radio, and actually managed to hit a couple of beats on Hotel California. Fun times! 

Bob, before you ask, I am not ready to make a recording or produce a video. 

Only if the deadline is Sept 14th, and video doesn't have to be more than 1 min long.  And can be full of screwups.  

AND, that we can just embed the vids in this thread instead of throwing them the main video section.   lolol...  how does all that sound?

Bob I'm now suspecting that you are a secret virtuoso spoons player, unbeknownst to everyone here. 

Here's a challenge for you.  If you post a video of you playing bones, I'll post one of me playing spoons.  What do yout think?

Once I can get through just maybe a minute or two of rattling without totally screwing it up and falling on my face, i will try to make a little sample, Bob!  If only to help encourage others to be accepting of their beginner skills.      But of course as we know, I could do just great for a few minutes, then turn on the camera and suddenly I can't do a single thing!   -always a frustration...   ;D

Strummelia, we want to hear you play!

Tom, I see you over on MinstrelBanjo site.   

That's a lot to learn all at once!

Playing the clappers or bones isn't easy to learn, because it is a psycho-motoric thing. Even when you have some success creating a roffle, the next day it is less or even gone. Your body needs a good night sleep 'learning it'. Most of the time an introduction to the bones is given during a gathering or a situation like that, during your body will get a lot of information to cope with during the night after. Better is to get the instruction, just only playing the bones, in the beginning of the evening and a couple of hours later to go to bed and take a good night sleep.

And, most important, the older your age, the slower and longer the learning curve...

Mike Anderson tried to teach me to play the bones once--whew!  Maybe if I'd had a set of my own, I would have practiced and caught on eventually, but at that time (with Mike) I just wasn't getting it!

I liked that sculpture, too, Wout!

I read walnut bones have a mellow sound. So that's the wood I picked. We'll see. 

Looked the video twice: 1e information, 2 film technique. Love the sculpture in the background: it visualise the sound of the bones :-)

I don't think there was much editing in the film, because there are view point changes without any disrubtion of the spoken word, so at least 4 camera's were used: 1 fixed creating the overview and 3 hand held for each musician. That's a lot in a small room, where also the mic's and recording gear had to be in. What also surprises me is the sound of stamping feet on the wooden floor, which is completely gone when playing the song, although Hubby and Dom are moving as before... Just an observation, which I always do watching information video's on the internet: what's manupulated and what isn't.

Anyway, it is all about the bones, of course.

BTW Strumelia, can you hear the drop in the volume of the voices when the bones are playing? And Rhiannon admits their volume :-)

And there is indeed a lot of edited speech, although it is rather good work.

One pair to start. I don't want to get two pairs the same, and since I won't be able to play with both hands in the beginning, I thought I'd wait to decide what to get for my second pair. But I would really love to eventually play with both hands. 

There may be a song about a banjo playing repo man... 

I'm excited for you Sheryl!   Did you get one pair or two?

I found it almost impossible to practice to varying music and tempos at first, but I seem to be a bit more able to at least try varying tempos now.  I agree, it's great advice to just practice with all kinds of music, whether you're good at it or not doesn't matter...I'm sure it really helps build our skills.   :)

I have a beautiful repro minstrel banjo made by the same builder, James Hartel, that made the one Rhiannon is showing there.  Mine is a different model type though.  Rhiannon has such a graceful way about her hands when she plays banjo and other instruments...it's a real individual thing. 
Sheryl- I had to chuckle when you wrote repo banjo (as in repossessed) instead of repro (as in reproduction)  ;)  Jim Hartel told me he custom made her banjo for her, so we'll assume it was not repossessed.  Mine however might have been, I can't be sure!  

Great video Lisa, thanks for sharing. Very interesting repo banjo. I love how Dom points out that you can play along to any music on the radio. I already do that with my empty hand, while driving. My bones should arrive tomorrow. Can't wait!

I just found this nice video with some good bones history:

Jan, I know the link and it costed my a night sleep already!

Rob, as someone who usually prefers oldtime to jazzier or bluesier stuff, I really wondered whether I would like Dom's new trio, considering it had a 'real' drummer with a full drum set, and a bass fiddle player...sounded like a jazz trio to me.  But they actually played a wide variety of stuff including lots of 1920s-50s depression era songs I liked.  Even their modern stuff they did with lots home grown flair.  It was good!  Dom has tons of energy- the concert was 90 minutes with no break, and with much high energy dance, bones, harmonica, guitar, and some incredible raggy style plectrum banjo playing at warp speed by Dom that was amazing.  He really gives his all, and his two partners add to the fun.  They are all absolute sweethearts.  Rob I know they would enjoy playing with you, you are the real deal.      Their fiddle and bass player Brian found out I play limberjack and told me he always wanted to learn it but didnt know how to get one or get started.  I gave him a simple limberjack i had that was kind of an 'extra' I had, and I showed him the basics...he was so excited!   You can see him happily holding it in the photo I posted.  I bet he would have loved a little dulcimer lesson from you as well.   They are all three just like that- so open and excited about music and people.

Jan- that's a great link to some great music!   I bet you do still have some hidden 'special powers' though...one day you'll swoop into action and we'll all be saved and amazed! 

Nothing pitiful about your playing at all, Rob!  I think I saw the Chocolate Drops when they were on Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. (No, I don't have special "powers" to "see" radio.....the shows are taped in a theater in my hometown of Lexington, KY, and the tapings are then shown on TV.  The website also has an archive of all its shows....you can watch Sarah Morgan performing on the same show as the Two Cellos(Show #710, watch Jean Ritchie at a taping, as well as many other greats in the music world...many that are no longer with us.)  http://www.woodsongs.com/show-archives/

Sheryl, Dom has left the Drops and has his own group now.  I saw one of the last performances up here in Morgantown of the Chocolate Drops with Dom.  It was great!  His new group is probably not to the taste of a lot of old time music lovers, but I like it too.  I'd love to add a dulcimer to either group sometime, if they'd have a pitiful player like me.

Wout, just a little American humor, not unlike our Smileys. 

Not being a native speaker: what is playing bones hamster?

Yes, I know, but this drum was also before 1:47 in the mix... It is the loud clicking of the bones with many a roffle which triggers the automatic gain much too much and the drum isn't :D

I find that even if i practice the bones for 30 minutes a day or for an hour every other day...  well there are some days when everything seems to be clicking pretty well (pun intended) and other days when nothing goes right and I stumble through it all badly.  Ugh!  I get much more consistent practice experiences when i practice other instruments.   I suspect this is just because the learning curve is big for me on this, and am hoping to get more consistent practice experiences as I continue.  I've never ever been one of those kids who tapped their pencils on their desks, so percussion is kind of a challenge.  I did manage to get a pretty good foot tapping thing going after 6 months of determined practice...so i know I can get results with lots of practice.  But percussion has never come naturally for me.  It's real work! 

I think the obvious name would be Ham-Bones.    lolol   

Sheryl, love your new avatar!

Good one Tumbleweed. 

How about Demitrius  Bones, Or Dem Bones for short.

Gotta love the bones playing hamster! We should name him. Izzy Bones? Bubba Bones? Hamsta Bones? Bones being his surname, of course.  

I'm glad you got that private bones lesson from Dom, Lisa!  I'd like to get to play in a duo of Appalachian dulcimer with a bones player someday.  (Hint, hint) And also with fotmd member Abby Spoon Lady who is a master of the spoons.  :)

Sheryl that's so cool-  be sure to keep us posted here as you progress.   Brian still has a set of four walnut bones he carved when he was in college, several decades ago!   He can play a little, but chooses not to (a true gentleman? lol).   That set is bigger than average, and is too big for my hands, so I can't really play his nice vintage set.  I now keep a round can, like a 'vase' of bones, on my desk.  

I like to think this hamster is playing tiny bones: 

Lisa, you got me going. I ordered a classic style set made of walnut; I was looking for a mellow sound. I'll keep y'all posted on my progress.

Dom Flemons is one of our own, Durham, NC based member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I was hoping they were going to be at this year's Wide Open Bluegrass Festival in Raleigh, but no. I'll have to settle for Alison Krauss & Union Station!  

I was at a Renaissance faire years ago and saw people parading playing the bones along with bodhran players  It was cool but I didn't think I would ever play either. It looked way too complicated.  Several years to the future, I have both now and play ok.  I saw Dom's videos on the bones and bought two pairs of rosewood bones. I carry them with me everywhere, kind of like a talisman. When I walk my kids (canine versions) I play. They hate it and howl at me.  I think because I am scaring the jack rabbits away they like to chase.   I too, like Jan, have castanets. I bought a small pair from the locate nation brand name music store.  I also carry them everywhere.  I don't play them like traditional Mariachi.  I play them slower. They make a great companion to bllue grass traditional music.  I tried the spoons but because I need two hands where I don't with the bones and castanets I don't use them as much.  Anyone wanting to learn to play the bones should watch Dom's videos.  They are very helpful.

Jan, I've never tried spoons, but thye seem to be a whole different dynamic than bones, in terms of playing technique.  Though in the end, it's all a clacking/clicking rhythm result.  

You silly!   See the big drum on the right get going at 2:00.  

Thanks for the cool responses guys!

Brian went out today for an hour, and because my bones practice is a bit irritating to hear, I did my practice while I was alone in the house.  Rattling away all carefree-like.... I then heard a voice calling up to my window...saying  YooooHoooooo!-I hear them Bones rattling!!!
I was rather mortified to realize that my nieghbor who brought us some maple syrup  had not been able to get a response to his door knocking and so he walked round the house and was listening to my bones practice through my second story window...       D'oh!!!  lol

He said it sounded fine but I was kind of embarrassed, since I am definitely not sounding good yet.   ;)

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones

Oh hear the word of the Lord

Lisa, the Dom Flemons lessons, were they on the net or in the flesh? I hope the first, so I can watch these too, allthough the later is my dream, but I wouldn't survive that: it would take my breath away ;-)

Why are so many bones players shot while performing? Take a look at

I think the bones make a good accompaniment for many fiddle tunes, like "Whiskey Before Breakfast", added to a verse or two to make it more interesting. I took a class on playing the bones and other rhythm instruments years ago, and found it a whole lot more complex than I thought it would be.  I don't have a set of bones to practice on, so I've never been able to get good at it.  (But then I have a set of spoons (wood, joined, from Canada) as well as castinets, and I've never become very good at either of those, too. !)  Takes a lot of practice!

Hi Lisa,

I play the bones too. First of all I want to warn you for 'over-practising', so watch specially the elbow!

I learned it 55 years ago (9 years old), and picked it up again recently... You know what? It isn't gone. Just like skating, your body will not forget. In my home town playing the clappers was a normal children's street activity, promoted by the town council due to a royal celebration: every child between 10 and 12 became a pair clappers (I was too young to get them, but my father was a schoolteacher) to preform on the queens birthday.

I make a study about the clapper/bones and created a nice collection, which I play if possible (can't manage the Indian karthal).
The matter is rather complex. Because the clapper (idiophone) is so easy to construct and very inexpensive it is used in many a social activity, like dancing, replacement for the church bell during lent term, warning signal for people having a contaminate illness, etc. The English and Dutch navy used the clapper on board the ships to accompany dancing the hornpipe keeping the sailors and marines in shape.

To the dulcimer music I find the rhythm bones a strange combination: to my ears they don't fit...

Much of my bones are bought from Scott Miller, who produces nice sets of ox bones. Adam Klein, the opera singer, makes nice ones too, with a very light sound. Ox bones have a marble like sound, much more tone, but they hard to get. Sanding ox bones is very dangerous to ones health.

What I find the most interresting is the individual aspect of playing the bones. Because I have probably larger hands than you, your bones will sound different when I play them.
I know most American players place the bones one between index-middle and the other one between middle-ring finger. Sometimes the hand is almost stretched out completely. In Europe and special The Netherlands the clappers are set between the thumb-index and index-middle finger. The fingers are held in an open fist to create a resonator body. When the second clapper is placed between the middle-ring, the sound is much lower, which is nice using both hands. Also changing the length of the 'bell-clapper' (hitting the 'bell') by changing the grip result in a different sound.

To me the most troublesome is the repertoir: which songs work and which don't? Of course all sailor songs can have rhythm bones in the arrangement.

Playing spoons? Castagnettes? Maybe a special group about bones?

Wout

(Now awaiting if I get an e-mail warning new replies ;-)

Aw, Lisa, now you've gone and made me want to dig out my bones and give it a try again. I have one set made of walnut and another set, I think, of cherry. Glad you are trying the bones again.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song.

I'm practicing regularly now at home to get better at playing the rhythm bones.  Been trying to learn off and on for several years, but kept running into a wall.   Finally I had a great 2 hour lesson from Dom Flemons last month and am now making slow progress.  Boy, it's way harder than I thought it would be!  But hey, I'm working hard at it and each week I seem a tiny bit better.

If I can get better, it sure will be a good added skill to have at big campout gatherings and of course at 1800s music gatherings with Civil War era repertoire.

Anyone else here play the bones?