Making Gourd Musical Instruments

Over 60 string, wind and percussion instruments and how to play them.

Take a gourd, cut it open, and clean it out - and you've already got a frame for a drum, the body of a banjo or zither, or a tube for a flute without any complicated techniques or tools.

Ginger Summit and Jim Widess have scoured the earth to find a collection of wonderful and unusual gourd instruments to pluck, blow, bang and hit. There are African kalimbas, a Brazilian berimbau, a Greek lyre, maracas from Costa Rica, a Hawaiian uli'uli, and hunter's harp from Mali. a Chinese kite flute and so much more.

Along with instructions for making these, you'll get hints for playing tem and a wealth of fascinating background information.