The first instrument I learned to play was the ukulele. I was probably around ten or eleven years old, living at Selfs Texas. Selfs is eight miles north of Honey Grove on FM100. During the summer when school was out, I would walk about a quarter mile up our black-top road to FM100 where the late Mr. Russell Davis (pictured) lived. Mr. Davis was probably in his 60's or 70's by then and could still play about any instrument he picked up. He had a room in the back of his house that he called his "music room." I can't remember every instrument he had in there, but I'm sure he had at least one violin, guitar, banjo, piano, washtub bass, handsaw, and...a ukulele!Before I talk about the ukulele, I guess you would like for me to explain about the washtub bass and the hand saw, huh? To make a washtub bass, you take an old washtub, drill a hole right in the bottom of it, thread a long heavy cord through it with a knot on one end, turn the tub upside down, take a long wooden stick (broom handle), sit one end of the handle on the edge of the tub, run the cord to the top of the stick and tie it there. Can you visualize that? Now, to play it, you put one foot on top of the tub (really the bottom as it sits upside down), grasp the top of the broom handle with one hand, and pluck the cord with your other hand. Different notes can be made by applying the proper tension to the broom-handle.
How do you play a handsaw? Well, you put the wooden handle between your crossed legs, grasp the small end of the saw with one hand, bend a curve in the saw blade, and then use a fiddle (violin) bow to bow the smooth edge of the saw. (Don't bow the teeth of the saw. It's hard on fiddle bows!) The sound you get is an eerie whistling sound with a pitch that's dependent upon the amount of bend you are forcing on the blade. I think one has to be REALLY skilled to get music from a carpenter’s tool! Russell Davis could.
So, Mr. Davis grabbed his ukulele, handed it to me and proceeded to show me how to make various chords and strum rhythm. The first practice I ever received playing ukulele was playing second (as we musicians call it) to a fiddle and a handsaw! Believe me, this was hard! I just barely could tell when to make chord changes as Mr. Davis sawed away on fiddle and handsaw. I'm sure he called out the chord changes to me every now and then.
I think that, just maybe, I got some of the best ear training a young musician could ever get, right there in Russell Davis' music room, Selfs Texas, 1960 something!
Thanks Mr. Davis!
