Mockingbird Sessions: Washboarding is Fun!!!
One of the week’s more unusual assignments. Got a call to record some cues for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2011 production of To Kill a Mockingbird.
What made this unusual was the choice of implements- washboard and spoons! Has anyone out there ever heard me play either of these? Most assuredly not. Great opportunity to learn something totally new! Picked up the washboard (with 3 thimbles) at OSF, and got to work.
The mechanics of the washboard are a little different than most instruments. Firstly, the dominant stroke is upward. So the movement is toward yourself, unlike regular drums, where the stroke is aimed downward, and away from yourself. The brain eventually adjusts, but at first the usual reflexes must be defeated. The next little glitch is that the pickup stroke also contains the downbeat, so the next attack after the pickup is with the left hand, not the right. Since a lot of washboarding is based on drumming rudiments, this causes a lot of reversal of the usual strokes. Cool! What a brain massage.
Harper Lee's masterpiece is rich in thimbleism
All in all, a great session at James Abdo’s Brokenworks Productions, in Ashland, OR,with the guys from Milburn Bodeen Music and Sound Design. Can’t wait to hear how it all turns out.