Listings by Topic

Instrument Making/Repair

Banek, Reinhold, et al. Sound Designs: A Handbook of Musical Instrument Building. (www.amazon.com)

Banta, Christopher C. The Bass Marimba: A Guide to Instrument Design and Fabrication. (www.amazon.com)

Cline, Dallas. Homemade Instruments. (www.amazon.com)

Gilpatrick, Liz. Fix, Fiddle, and Make Do. The Orff Echo, Summer 1998

Hopkin, Bart. Musical Instrument Design: Practical Information for Instrument Making. (www.amazon.com)

Hopkin, Bart and Deborah Morganthal. Making Simple Musical Instruments: a Melodious Collection of Strings, Winds, Drums and More. (www.amazon.com)

http://dcwi.com/dulcimer/welcome.html -Charlie Alm's Hammered Dulcimer Book - This site is about a book that Charlie Alm wrote about how to construct a hammered dulcimer

http://www.kaon.co.nz/greg/gurdies.html - this site has information on hurdy-gurdies; there is actual information on building hurdy-gurdies at http://www.kaon.co.nz/greg/buildlog.html.

http://www.mcx.net/~jz/web/drums/steelpan.html - information about building a steel pan drum.

http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/2413/music_djembe.html - information on building your own djembe. (I found this site confusing.)

http://www.exoticwoods.com - This site sells all sorts of woods, specifically designed for use in musical instrument making. They have wood pieces already cut into the body shapes of various wooden instruments, plus much more - books, videos, supplies.

Madin, Jon. Make Your Own Marimbas.

This book contains instructions for building two different 3 1/2 octave marimbas and a bass marimba, as well as a mini-marimba with a range of 13 notes. Written in Australia, it contains clear and concise information, instructive diagrams and photographs, with a well-thought-through approach. It was a great guide for our efforts as novice marimba builders. It is available in the States from John's Music, (http://www.johnsmusic.com) in Seattle. Phone 1(800) 473-5194.

Madin, Jon. Make Your Own Wacky Instruments.

Another great book by Jon Madin, this gives complete instructions for building all sorts of unusual instruments that will catch the kids' fancy. Includes instructions for building J-Pipes, Boing Pipes, Street Parade Band Instruments, Drums, Rubber Glove Instruments, Cone Instruments, Aluminum Tube instruments, Aggy Pipe Instruments, assorted Metal Instruments, and more. What fun! (www.johnsmusic.com)

Mason, Bernard Sterling. How to Make Drums, Tom Toms, and Rattles: Primitive Percussion Instruments for Modern Use. (www.amazon.com)

My First Music Video. (from My First Book Series, by Sony Kids) A step by step guide for making colorful, fun-to-make musical instruments. For ages 5 and older. 50 minutes. (www.westmusic.com)

Press, Arthur. Mallet Repair.

Belwin Mills, c/o CPP/Belwin, Inc., Miami, Florida, 33014. I have used this book to repair and rewrap my own mallets. I bought my copy from Drum Specialist in Glenview, IL; Phone 1-847-724-3937 Fax 1-847-724-3880.

Robinson, Trevor. The Amateur Wind Instrument Maker. (www.amazon.com)

Rogers, Dennis G. Wrappin' in the Summer. The Orff Echo, Summer 1998

Waring, Dennis. Making Wood Folk Instruments. (www.amazon.com)(www.westmusic.com)

West Music, et al. The Care and Feeding of Orff Instruments. Pamphlet available by phoning West Music at 1(800)397-9378.

Williams, Jim. The Guitar Maker's Manual. (www.amazon.com)

Music Education/Orff-Related

Benade, Arthur H. Fundamentals of Music Acoustics. ( www.amazon.com)

Cline, Dallas. How to Play Nearly Everything.(www.amazon.com)

Cline, Dallas. How to Play Nearly Everything from Bones to Spoons to the Washtub Bass. (www.amazon.com)

Cole, Judith. Playing mallet Instruments: Some Motor Skill Development Considerations. The Orff Echo, Summer 1998

Cotton, Maggie. Agogo Bells to Xylophone: A Friendly Guide to Classroom Percussion Instruments. (www.amazon.com)

Fletcher, Neville and Thomas D. Rossing. Physics of Musical Instruments. (www.amazon.com)

http://www.aosa.org - The American Orff-Schulwerk Association home page. Lots of great info for music teachers!

http://www.op97.k12.il.us/schools/longfellow/lrexford/base/ - The Virtual Museum of Musical Inventions - This is a wonderful site put together by Chicago-area music teacher Liz Rexford. The site displays homemade instruments made by students all around the country. Check it out!

http://www.menc.org - The Music Educator's National Conference home page. Lots of resources for music teachers.

http://capella.cur.ac.uk/doug/instruments.html - This site contains many other links to sites about various musical instruments.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2405 - Music Education Online. A wonderful Music Education resource for students, teachers, and parents. Contains historical, cultural, biographical, and lots of other types of articles. A great find!

http://mag-nify/educ.monash.edu.au/acps/marimb2.au - Here's another school that built what looks like one of Jon Madin's marimbas! They even have a sound clip of one of Jon's pieces. This is Anderson Creek Primary School in Warrandyte, Victoria, Australia.

Native American Flute Kit. Plastic, from Bear Paw Flutes. Available in fall '99 from West. Can be painted after construction. Ages 8 and older. (www.westmusic.com)

Nederveen, Cornelius Johannes. Acoustical Aspects of Woodwind Instruments. (www.amazon.com)

Olson, Harry Ferdinand. Music, Physics, and Engineering.(www.amazon.com)

Orff,Carl. How the Orff Instruments Came into being. The Orff Echo, Summer 1998

Piazza, Giovanni. Learning from Orff Instruments. The Orff Echo, Summer 1998

Pierce, John Robinson. The Science of Musical Sound. (www.amazon.com)

Sebba, Jane. Ring A Ding Ding: Simple Ideas for Tuned Percussion In the Classroom. (www.amazon.com)

Wheatley, Susan. Keetman's Compositions and the Original Instrumentarium. The Orff Echo, Summer 1998

Marimba-Related

Hampton, Walt. Hot Marimba! (www.worldmusicpress.com)

A fabulous book of arrangements for marimbas or Orff Instruments. I have personally used many of these pieces, both in the classroom and for special groups. Available from World Music Press,18 Kilian Drive, Danbury CT 06811-3461 Phone 1-800-810-2040 Fax: 203-748-3432 Email: WMPress@aol.com

Hampton, Walt. Marimba Mojo. (www.worldmusicpress.com)

Another great book of arrangements for diatonic marimbas or Orff instruments, like Hot Marimba! (see above) Available from World Music Press,18 Kilian Drive, Danbury CT 06811-3461 Phone 1-800-810-2040 Fax: 203-748-3432 Email: WMPress@aol.com

http://www.marimba.org - a central information source about various marimbists and their upcoming performances. Contains some good links, too.

http://www.dandemutande.com - A clearinghouse of information about Zimbabwean music. Has some products for sale, as well as a magazine, information about instruments and their history, books, videos, music, posters, mallets, a calendar of performances around the country, and more!

http://www.evelyn.co.uk/script.htm - This is the website of Evelyn Glennie, one of the world's foremost percussionists. (She's amazing!) Contains information about her, her music, and some nice links. Check out the virtual master classes, which contain some unusual homemade percussion instruments, as well as some more familiar ones.

http://cctr.umkc.edu/user/lkaptain/index.html - Laurence Kaptain's page. Mr. Kaptain has a professional mexican marimba group (Marimba Yajalon), and is a world class performer, as well as a professor at UMKC. This site also has links to information about the Mexican Marimba and its history. (Check out the Virtual Museum of the Mexican Marimba, and the great sound clip!)

http://www.smu.edu/~ttunks/projects/merrill/MarimbaH.html - This is a marvellous paper written by a student as an "exaustive research project" on the physics of the marimba. Extremely well done and easy to read. I recommend it - check it out before the new semester comes and it is removed!

http://www.pas.org - Percussive Arts Society Home Page. Information about all types of percussion, with links, classifieds, and many more things.

http://www.illinois.wpn.org - The Illinois chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. Listings about events in Illinois.

Madin, Jon. Marimba Music 1.

Arrangements of folk songs and catchy original pieces by Madin, this book works very well in the classroom, as well as for performances by special groups. It is available in the States from John's Music, (http://www.johnsmusic.com) in Seattle. Phone 1(800) 473-5194.

Madin, Jon. Marimba Music 2.

More arrangements and compositions from Jon Madin. This book is similar to Marimba Music 1, above. It is available in the States from John's Music, (http://www.johnsmusic.com) in Seattle. Phone 1(800) 473-5194.

Madin, Jon. Marimba Music for Little Kids.

A fun collection of pieces suitable for the earlier grades. It is available in the States from John's Music, (http://www.johnsmusic.com) in Seattle. Phone 1(800) 473-5194.

Madin, Jon. Make Your Own Marimbas.

This book contains instructions for building two different 3 1/2 octave marimbas and a bass marimba, as well as a mini-marimba with a range of 13 notes. Written in Australia, it contains clear and concise information, instructive diagrams and photographs, with a well-thought-through approach. It was a great guide for our efforts as novice marimba builders. It is available in the States from John's Music, (http://www.johnsmusic.com) in Seattle. Phone 1(800) 473-5194.