Making several of the percussion instruments featured by the Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra is fairly simple. Arthur Stephens, the founder of RIGO, lays out instructions for his gourd water drums, rattles and rainsticks. In related articles, readers can check out an introduction to gourd musical instruments and tips for making drums, horns, and flutes.
Preparing Gourds to Become Musical Instruments
When musicians finally hear the rattle of loose seeds in their harvested gourds, they’re ready to start making an instrument. “What you do next,” Arthur remarks, “depends on what you’re going to make. You can cut the gourds open and clean out the seeds.” A wire brush used to clean out pipes is an excellent tool for scraping pulp from the far corners of the shell. It’s important to scour as much pulp from the inside wall as possible since the spongy layer will dampen the instrument’s resonance.
Musicians consider each gourd’s unique shape to decide what instrument would suit it best. The short handled dippers make good shakers,” comments Arthur. “I like to use larger gourds like bushel baskets for drums and water drums. For a flute, I’d use the handle of a long handled dipper. If a goose gourd has the neck bent down, you could make a horn out of it. Otherwise, I’d probably use the ball shape for one thing and the neck for another. I don’t always look at gourds as a whole. I may just take a part of it.”
“Once you clean out the gourd,” Arthur continues, “you can treat the shell just like wood. You can either stain it, or coat the gourd inside and out with a polyurethane or shellac.” This extra coating gives the gourd instruments better acoustics and durability.
How to Make Gourd Water Drums
“The water drums are probably the easiest instrument to make,” Arthur explains. “All you need are two different sized round gourds. You can cut them in half and place the small one inside the large one floating on water.”
The instrument sounds deceptively simple. But four or five different sized water drums tuned by increasing or decreasing their amount of water provides a set of percussion with wonderfully resonant basstones.
How to Make Gourd Rattles and Shakers
“Another easy instrument to make,” Arthur adds, “is a rattle. You can get a small gourd like a small handled or big ball dipper, shake the seeds, and sometimes, just that by itself will have enough sound, but typically, you have to open them up and clean them out.”
“A really nice gourd to use for a rattle is called a maranka gourd,” Arthur remarks. “It’s veiny and bulbous which makes the gourd very strong. You drill a hole large enough for a cork to fit in and stick a wire in to clean out all the seeds and pulp. Then you put wooden or plastic beads in it and stop it with the cork.”
How to Make a Gourd Rainstick
“Another instrument we use is a rainstick,” says Arthur. “Typically, I grow snake gourds for this. These gourds can be up to seven feet long. I usually hang them from a trellis so they’ll grow straight.”
“To make the rainstick,” Arthur explains, “you take off one end of the gourd making sure to cut it so you can reglue it later. Stick a rod in there and clean everything out. Drill quarter inch holes in the snake gourd all the way down in a spiral pattern. Glue wooden dowels in place so they reach across the inside of the gourd. Cut the dowels flush with the outside and sand them smooth. Pour some beads inside, glue the top back on, and you’ll have a rainstick.”
To hear how these instruments sound, readers may be interested to check out the Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra’s CDs. With attention to detail and creativity, the possibilities for gourds are almost limitless.
Quotes gained in conversation with Arthur Stephens of the Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra.
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