Spoons

Living in a Body

Spoons

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Spoons

Episode 55 -- Welcoming a New Musical Instrument into My Life

Hal Walker

Mar 25, 2023

Hello! Welcome to “Living in a Body.” Thank you for being here. Press play above for the podcast version with original music. (10 min) BTW. I need just 50 more subscribers to reach a thousand. :) Please share. Hal

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Musical Spoons

Guess what?! A new musical instrument has just come in to my life. I can't wait to tell you about it.

When it comes to musical instruments entering my world, I've been very fortunate. I don't know what it is, but it seems that there's something about me that attracts the unordinary -- musical instruments that are hidden from the view of most modern day Americans. I guess the truth is that I've always kept an eye out for weird, cool sounding noise makers. Over and over again, decade after decade, I just keep getting lucky.

It all started in the summer between third and fourth grade when Grandad introduced me to the ancient hand whistle. I practiced all summer long and then one afternoon, sitting on the toilet at David Paulson's house on Akron Blvd in Kent, I was able to make a sound. Who would have thought that some 50 years later, my most popular video on YouTube, with almost 5 million views would be "How to Play the Ancient Hand Whistle." Who would have thought that I'd someday have the opportunity to pass on this musical tradition to a huge worldwide audience.

In 2002, I was in exactly the right spot at exactly the right moment when I saw my old friend drummer Joe walking down the street with a couple pairs of banakulas in his hands. Banakulas (known by many other names, including asalato, televi, cas cas and kashaka) became a kind of trademark for me as a teaching artist. They were my claim to fame as I traveled from school to school all over Ohio. Students and I made thousands of pairs of this awesome rhythm maker. I’ll never forget the sound of a hundred fourth graders shaking, packing and spinning their banakulas in unison while singing, “Banakula, Banakula, Bana ku-ku-ku-ka kula, Banakula! Ku ku! Banakula. Ku Ku!”

In 2007, I stumbled across the melodious khaen. I made a serendipitous visit to my friend David Badagnani who just happened to be house sitting at Dr. Terry Miller's place. Over in the corner was a four foot instrument made of bamboo pipes held together by a wooden mouthpiece. I picked that thing up, blew a few chords and my life was changed forever. Little did I know that it would be the khaen that would transform my music career at just the right moment. Months before being struck down by a nasty version of Myalgic Encephelo-fuckin’-myelitis, the khaen gifted me with Low Key Gliding -- a song that has been my main source of income for the last two years.

In 2010, I was at our annual UU Summer Institute at Kenyon College when for the first time, I heard the sound of the handpan, also known as the "hang drum." At the time, there was only one maker of this instrument in the world and if you didn't know somebody who knew that maker, it was almost impossible to get ahold of one. I filed the metal drum into the back of my brain and I hoped that someday I would have one of my own. Today, I'm grateful to say that there’s one sitting under the piano in my living room. The handpan and its cousin, the Rav Drum are sources of great joy in my limited musical life these days.

I could go on and on with these stories of serendipity — of being at the right place at the right time. In fact, my house is a museum of musical instruments and each one has a story to tell of how it showed up in my life. I keep thinking that there are no more musical instruments left to discover and then, out of the blue, another one shows up. Appropriately to the era, this one showed up on Facebook.

Just this week, I discovered some wooden musical spoons made by a father and son team in Canada. The business is called Heritage Musical Spoons. I usually ignore the ads on Facebook, but when these things came across my feed, I sensed that they were something very special. Handcrafted with Canadian Maple Wood from the forests of northern Quebec, these spoons are gorgeous. Unlike metal spoons, Heritage wooden spoons produce a rich, full, almost hollow and popping sound. The design was inspired by the traditional French musical spoons, which are attached at the handle. They're much easier to play than unattached metal spoons. I bought three of them - the blue, the black and the "old-fashioned." It took me a few minutes to learn the basic moves but I stuck with it and now it’s starting to feel like real music. I had some friends over the other night and we discovered how great the spoons sound when they're playing in unison. I'm excited to find out what else is possible. I can't wait to have you over to play in my musical spoons choir. Here... listen to this.

@banakula Loving these #musicalspoons by @heritagemusicalspoons

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I'm heading out to New York this afternoon. With Cameron as my driver, I'm off to see my daughter and her fiancé in Brooklyn. They’ll both be performing at 54 Below on Monday night. (Buy your ticket here) I can’t wait to see the show. Speaking of spoons, this trip is definitely gonna be a stretch. There’s no such thing as a vacation from ME/CFS. There’s only pacing. I’ve done everything that I can do to plan for a low exertion adventure, an adventure that stays within my “spoons.” As long as I keep my knees bent, the back of my car is laid out like a big comfortable bed. I’m feeling well prepared. A few days ago, I made an extensive packing list and I took my time pulling it all together. With a rack hanging off the back of my car, I’ll be taking advantage of every square inch of the extra luggage space.

I'm gonna be carrying the musical spoons, a guitar, two Rav drums, two khaens, a couple ocarinas and a whole bunch of harmonicas with me. Call me crazy, but I’m picturing jam sessions at every rest area along the way and maybe even some music in the New York City subway system. Of course, I’ll probably spend most of the time in bed at the Airbnb, but I’m hoping for a least one beautiful day of music making in some New York City park somewhere. I’ll be sure to capture some video footage to share with you.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the “Big Apple,” but it’s one of my favorite places to go. I love the smells and the crowds and all the life that’s packed into those few square miles. We’ll be arriving on Sunday morning. I’ll have my wheelchair, my assistant and a ground floor apartment waiting for this old body of mine when I get there. If you’d like to follow along on the trip, check out the Living in a Body “chat” at this link.

Have a great Saturday everybody! Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you. Enjoy living in that body of yours. Be grateful for the health that you have… whatever health it is. Seriously! It’s not gonna be there forever. Oh, and by the way… I love you. ❤️ Hal