Primitive music 4: Limestone lithophone 🎵

A lithophone is a musical instrument, similar to a xylophone, but the bars are made of stone. I noticed that some of these limestone slabs could produce a nice sound when I used them to make tools on my earlier videos.

Potter's wheel:    • Primitive pottery 1: Potter's wheel from l...  
Stone axes and hatchets:    • Stone tools 3: Primitive stone axe progres...  
Pit for refining clay:    • Primitive pottery 2: Refining natural clay ⚱️  

Some things I've learned:

Longer, thinner slabs produce the cleanest notes, triangular pieces often sound good as well. Wider slabs tend to produce more frequencies at once (like a bell), which can be nice, but isn't really suitable for lithophone bars.

Tuning a bar up is simple, just shorten it until it produces the right pitch. To tune a bar down, you need to make it thinner in the middle. This can be achieved by knapping (as shown here) or by grinding (which is a lot slower). Generally it's much easier to start with a note that is a bit too low and carefully tune it up to the right pitch.

The pitch is determined not only by the length and thickness, but also the density of the rock. This is why shorter pieces can sound much higher than others that are much longer. Flint produces excellent, high notes, by the way.

The bars produce the sound by flexing a bit when they are hit in the center. The ends bend up while the center bends down, then vice versa. Therefore, they sound best when they are supported roughly at the vibration nodes of this movement so they can flex freely.

Elderberry branches are very handy for making the mallet heads, because they already come equipped with a hole in the center.

The original to the tune I'm playing at the end of the video:
   • Видео  

#primitivemusic #diyinstruments