Play the saw in six weeks
Ethereal skiffle
The sound of the saw is so unexpectedly beautiful, some listeners find it hard to believe where it's coming from. Played well, the saw really does sing. Its brilliant, ethereal sound is rather like the sound of a human voice. Saw players use a violin or cello bow (often home-made) to make their instrument vibrate. Occasionally they percuss it with a soft beater. They bend the instrument to swoop from one pitch to another, giving the instrument its characteristic portamento sound.
The musical saw is a wonderful 'skiffle instrument' - a cheap, everyday object that has been appropriated by musicians who have no money to buy classical instruments. I have encountered players of this traditional European instrument in Britain, Holland and the USA.
I have been playing the saw for around twenty years. And over the last five years, I've been incorporating it into some of my live shows. It's recently been seen in Richard Wiseman and Simon Singh's Theatre of Science and in the new shows Plastic Cabaret and Senster. I've also tutored some fellow musicians to play the saw, including the instrumentalists from Stomp. This company used an ensemble of saws in The Lost and Found Orchestra, a show which premiered to at the Brighton Festival 2006.
Playing the musical saw at Winchester Festival of Art and Mind
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