Musical Spoons
- Thread starter DJ Mango
- Start date
Sounds like what people do by doing finger rolls and slapping their cheeks, or hambone and body percussion.
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Oldscruggsfan
Well-known member
Wow! Things have come a long way since the long-standing bluegrass jam thing of two metal kitchen spoons with a bent finger between 'em, paired with a jaw harp and washboard.
Here are two other clips that are bit easier to "grasp" so to speak. Maybe these will "click."
Jan D
Well-known member
Musical spoons are great fun to play. I picked up a set similar to the ones in the video during one of my trips to Quebec many years ago. They are readily available, being a popular instrument for those who play traditional Quebecois music. (In fact, the video in this thread is a promotional video for Heritage Spoons - a father/son company based in Quebec.) In my experience, the one piece wooden spoons are wa-a-a-a-a-y easier to play than using two detached metal kitchen spoons. 
Canada Jim
Well-known member
Metal kitchen spoons work just fine too.
Canada Jim
Well-known member
David Holt, who used to have a wonderful TV show called Fire On The Mountain, gives a tutorial on playing the spoons.
(David made a brief appearance in the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou as a mandolin player.)
(David made a brief appearance in the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou as a mandolin player.)
Love that video! That’s how spoons are supposed to sound—metallic, not plastic, and with a silvery ring.
My grandfather was brilliant on spoons, right from the kitchen drawer. He was also a genius on the bones—not commercial “musical bones,” but real beef rib bones he’d save from when he made his famous beef-n-noodles.
He’d choose the biggest and heaviest bones from the pot (no dinky bones, @Bill Sheehan!), which by then were clean & hollow (marrow boiled out). After a week or so of drying, those would become his new set of bones. With playing, they would get shiny and golden brown, like very old ivory. When they cracked & lost their tone, he’d make more beef & noodles and get himself a new set.
He was so good that he became somewhat famous in certain circles of Des Moines, Iowa, where I was born & grew up. My uncle had a C&W band that was the house band at a local saloon. When a particular kind of song came into the rotation, the call would go out: “We need Ted! Is Ted in the house?” If he was present, he‘d go up on stage with his bones (which lived in his pocket) and jam, often taking solos that brought down the house. Unfortunately I know this only at second hand, kids not being allowed in taverns!
I’ve never seen anyone play the bones like Grampa. When he died, one of my aunts kept his last set of bones. But they got lost in a move. I always regret that I never asked him to how me how to play them. I never saw him play with the band, but he often just took them out of his pocket and played, at home or wherever he was. He didn’t need an accompaniment. He made music with the bones alone.
I also regret that I never asked him to show me how to make those noodles. He never shared the secret—they were chewy and lumpy and just divine in a thick gravy with big chunks of chicken or beef. I did watch a couple of times. He threw a few handfuls of flour right onto the countertop, cracked in a couple of eggs, mixed it with his fingertips (was there any other liquid? Can’t remember).
Then he patted the dough out, cut it into rough strips with a butter knife, and put the strips to dry on a clean dish towel. After they were dry, they were ready for the pot. The kitchen counter was of course a mess. But those noodles!
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Canada Jim
Well-known member
Patty, I love the bones too. I bought a set of wooden carved fake bones after seeing "Mr. Bones," Percy Danforth, at a folk festival in Canada. He had the real bones like your grandfather. I was once "pretty adequate" on the spoons, but could never quite get the hang of bones.
Renaissance-Man
Well-known member
I imagine there will come a day when my bones will rattle too
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