The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-10
HOME MADE MUSIC.

XyIophOne Is Easy and Inexpen-
sive to Manufacture, and 1t Is
Quite Possible for Any Handy BOY
or Girl to Make One.
One of the simplest of musical instru-
ments is the xylophone, and by working
after the following simple directions, may
be made at little expense by deft-handed
boys or girls.
Every hard wood gives the best tone 10
a xylophone," said young apprentice
who has had experience. BLACK walnut,
hickory and spruce are all first-ciass. The
first one l made" continued the young
man. was a two-octave instrument with
out any semi-tones. Ii is made from a
large piece OF black walnut, seVen-eighths
of an inch thick which l took from some
old heavy furniture. l cut il out 20 inches
long and Is inches wide at one end taper
ing down to width of inches at the
other end. This board is then divided
evenly and cut up into sixteen strips each
IA inches wide, varying In length from .
TO Is inches The wood must be of even
grain and piece without knots selected.
1.-The next step is to bore two parallel
holes through the sides of the entire set
of the bars or keys CAD large enough to
draw cords through, in order to hold the
various sections together. The holes are
about 3la inches apart, and are started
from the short bars. With the sixteen
ranged in order and held tightly together
and the course of the two holes drawn
across the Top of the bars as a guide, you
bore through the center of the first bar
into the second Then the first bar can be
taken away, the holes continued through
ana into the third bar, and so on through
them all, This method of work prevents
irregularity when the bars are strung to-
gether.
Nov comes what think is the most
interesting part of the wOrk-tuninS the
bars Lay them temporarily on two strips
of soft material. so that the tone OF each
strip when struck may be distinctly heard
After sounding each bar you can best
tune il up by the aid of a piano. Finding
on the piano the note nearest to the tone
of the lowest bar this strip of wood can
be made to correspond with Il perfectly
by slight cutting. For instance, If the
tone of the bar is lower than that of the
piano key plane the bottom of the bar
slightly This will raise the tone with
each shaving until 1t corresponds. On the
other hand, if the tone of the bar is high
err than that of the piano, saw slit on
the under side of the bar. This lowers
the tone, and you saw deeper until the
correct tone is obtained.
In this way one bar after another is
made TO correspond with the scale of the
piano until the two octaves are complet-
ed. very little saving or planning being
necessary to bring the tones up or down
to proper pitch.
THE bars may then all be fastened to-
gether by means of strong string
stretched through the holes and tied at
the ends. and very small round felt or
leather washers cut out and placed on the
string between each bar to keep them
apart.
Two strips of strong felt the length
of the instrument half an inch wide and
about as thick, are glued firmly across
the under side of the bars. These form
soft cushion for the bars to rest upon
which allows them to give the clear, vi
bratiug tones.
1.-THE two hammers. or 'drum-sticks,
with which TO strike the notes can be cut
out of small blocks of wood, thin round
sticks with handles being inserted and
glued into them. Skill in picking out the
tones of different tunes is soon acquired,
but practice is necessary to give the long
er notes the fine tremuous or vibrating
sound which makes this instrument so
musical in the hands of a good player"
With these simple instructions a boy
ought to be able to make a very salts
factory instrument