Vantage Point Movie Music - Listen for Duduk World Wind Instrument

In the upcoming movie "Vantage Point", don't expend all your energy solving the puzzle. Be sure to listen to the music throughout the movie to see if you can hear world flutes such as the duduk. In a recent conversation with Chris Bleth, professional woodwind player, he told me a story about duduk music working its way into the "Vantage Point" sound track. Chris was warming up with the duduk, even though it was not originally intended for use in the movie. Suddenly he heard "What's that sound - we've got to have it in the movie music!". And with that, plans were underway to include duduk music played by Chris Bleth in the "Vantage Point" movie music.

Chris does a variety of work in the Los Angeles area playing duduk for films (Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, The Island), TV shows (Path to 9/11, Over There, Star Trek Enterprise), TV and radio commercials, video games, albums and live concerts.


In the picture on the right, Chris is playing beautiful duduk music with an ensemble in the Ararat Music booth at the NAMM 2008 show in Anaheim CA.

Chicago Area School Presents Awesome Meet the Artist Concert

On January 10, 2008 I attended the Waubonsie Valley High School Music Department's Meet the Artist Concert and can only describe it as awesome! Music in our schools is very important at every level in schools. First a bit about Waubonsie Valley High School's Music Department:
- The GRAMMY Foundation® Signature Schools program, recognized the top 22 public schools across the country for outstanding commitment to their music education programs. Determined by a blue-ribbon panel of top music educators and professionals, schools are awarded grants for their music departments. In 2007, Waubonsie Valley High School located in Aurora IL was among the top 3 schools in the country, which gave it GRAMMY Signature Schools Gold status.

Last night's concert featured only the Freshman students from the following groups: Concert Bands, Concert Orchestras, Bass Chorus, Cecillian Singers. Each group performed individually. And the entire group (nearly 200 students) performed with an Artist-in-Residence, Tom Sharpe. Tom is an internationally recognized, award-winning composer, performer, and recording artist (read more about the artist).

The concert was about 2 hours worth of excellent music. All performances were great! Particularly enjoyable was the Percussion Ensemble performance of Nutcracker Sweets arranged by David Steinquest.

But they truly saved the best for last with all performance groups and Tom Sharpe performing Tom's World Percussion Symphony #1 in C minor. This is my type of music - lots of world percussion, lots of keyboard, and an inspiring combination of orchestra, band and vocals.

This artist-in-residence program was funded by a grant from the Indian Prairie Education Foundation, which supports all elementary, middle and high schools in Illinois' Indian Prairie School District 204. WorldMusicalInstruments.com is proud to be a fine arts patron to help support these wonderful school music programs.

Multicultural Instruments for School Assembly

WorldMusicalInstruments.com provides school assembly presentations to elementary schools in the Chicago area. We customize these school assemblies to fit with the school theme, like Multicultural Week, or Fine Arts Week, or Music in the Schools Week. WorldMusicalInstruments.com offers instruments from around the world, so the emphasis of our grade school assembly programs is showcasing a wide variety of instruments that represent many world cultures, as well as featuring music from around the world.

We're often asked about the instruments that we bring to these school assemblies.

Here is a general guideline of what types of instruments to include in school assemblies:
- durable musical instruments
- safe musical instruments
- lightweight musical instruments
- fun musical instruments

Durable musical instruments - We avoid ceramic doumbeks, because they easily crack if the edge is banged on the floor. Since we work with elementary school children, when they have hands-on experience with the drums and move from instrument to instrument, accidents do happen. With some items made from gourds like the shakere, a not-so-gentle dropping can cause a crack in the gourd.

Safe musical instruments - Safety is always important in the classroom, especially with the younger school children. Crowd control is also an issue during a drumming circle experience. We usually avoid putting "sticks" in the hands of the children. A lot of our drums are hand drums, which is best for the young elementary school crowd. Beaters can accidentally poke an unsuspecting classmate. Beaters can also be used on drums that are intended for hand drumming, which can damage drum heads. For items like the gong which require a beater, we like to have a teacher or assembly presenter manage the gong, passing the beater from child to child as they take turns banging the gong. Be sure to clean all instruments after each assembly presenation if the students have hands-on use of the instruments.

Lightweight musical instruments - We bring some heavy items to school assembly presentations, but keep them in contol of an adult or keep them on the ground. The gong is one that an adult must control. The djun-djun drum is kept on the floor and played by hand, unless the assembly presenter uses it to lead a drum circle. Fiberglass doumbeks are great for elementary school drumming circles because they are so lightweight but have big sound.

Fun musical instruments - When deciding what instruments to include in a school assembly presentation, include fun items like a bulb horn (brings in wind family of instruments without the saliva issues!). The gong is big fun, of course. The bull roarer makes an interesting sound, but needs a lot of room and can only be used by the assembly presenter.

The big question is - what instruments do you bring to a school assembly presentation? We're constantly adding to the collection, but here is a list of the main instruments (some of which are pictured):

ashiko drum djun-djun doumbeks (fiberglass and aluminum) tabla set kids conga drum damroo monkey drum stir drum rain stick shakere kalimba bulb horn gong gungaroos ankle bells egg shakers bongos tambourines maracas

Do you conduct school assembly presentations using musical instruments? Let us know what instruments you include!

Justin Timberlake Mixes New Music with Middle Eastern Oud

New music meets old world instrument in Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around... Comes Around", the third single from Justin Timberlake's second solo album FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006). The song begins with about 15 seconds of a guitar-type solo which is played on an oud.

Throughout history, versions of the oud instrument have made their mark in various civilizations from Spain to China. Today, the oud is known as ut or ud in Turkey, laouta in Greece, udi in Africa and barbat in Iran. The oud is considered the most important Arab instrument and is called the prince of the instruments.

The sound of the oud is similar to the guitar but more mellow and more rich. Kudos to Justin Timberlake for giving this beautiful sound lots of radio play time.

The Bigger The Gong, The Bigger The Sound?

When shopping for a gong, should you go with a large gong for a large sound? Maybe . . .

Generally speaking, the bigger the gongs will have a bigger sound. Also, large gongs have vibratioins that you can feel. At NAMM 2007, a trade show for musical instrument manufacturers, I stood behind a 70 inch gong (yes, that's a gong over 5 feet across!!) while someone else struck it. You can really feel the vibration - it was awesome!

WorldMusicalInstruments.com is now offering some very large gongs, including the 39 1/2 inch wind gong and the massive 70 inch chao gong.

Keep in mind that you don't have to strike a gong real hard. A nice firm strike will product great resonance. For a sustained sound, strike repeatedly in a rapid fashion.

School Assembly Presentation on Musical Instruments from Around the World

WorldMusicalInstruments.com provides presentations at school assemblies and recently provided one at Freeman Elementary School in Aurora IL. Freeman was celebrating Fine Arts Week, and wanted to include music and instruments as part of this celebration. We worked with 2 groups of grades K-5 to listen to music, learn about instruments, and drum in a drum circle.

The music featured ethnic instruments such as the duduk, bloul, shvi, oud, tabla drums, doumbek, ashiko, sitar, and many small percussion instruments. Musical instruments demonstrated include:
djun-djun drum
doumbek drums
ashiko drum
tabla Indian drum set
conga drum
tambourine
Tibetan gong and Chinese wind gong
chick shake eggs
ankle bells
hand cymbals
caxixi Brazilian percussion instrument
bull horn
cuica Brazilian friction drum
bongos
rain stick
bull roarer Australian instrument
shakere
temple blocks
toke
agogo

Then the fun part: drumming. Since each group had about 150 children, it is not practical for everyone to play a drum. However, everyone can clap or pat on their laps, so the children use their "built in" instruments to participate in the drum circle. For groups which include all ages, we learn some basic drumming rhythms, work with volume changes, and have 2 groups play different rhythms at the same time.

We concluded the program with some thoughts toward world peace. The children briefly tried the instruments on their way out of the gym.

Fun was had by all at Freeman Elementary School, and we thank them for inviting us to share their Fine Arts Week celebration.

If the school assembly group consists of just older children, we use more complicated drumming rhythms for the drum circle portion and are able to give the children hands on use of the instruments.

Please consider WorldMusicalInstruments.com for your next school assembly program in the Chicago IL area. We tailor the assembly presentation to your theme, whether it's a focus on a country like Africa, a multi cultural celebration, or a tribute to the fine arts.

Schools Embrace Ethnic Musical Instruments, Buying on School Purchase Orders

This has been a big week for schools to buy ethnic musical instruments. In this one week alone, WorldMusicalInstruments.com has sold musical instruments to schools in California, Missouri, Minnesota, and Illinois. WorldMusicalInstruments.com accepts purchase orders from schools buying musical instruments. That makes the purchasing process easier for the schools, getting the instruments in their hands as soon as possible.

So what instruments do schools buy? Here are some of the small handheld percussion instruments that schools have recently purchased:
- kalimba
- castanets
- maracas
- caxixi, a Brazilian percussion instrument
- singing bowls
- gongs

In addition to small percussion instruments, schools like drums like:
- djembe
- doumbek

Occassionally schools will buy string instruments like:
- lute
- oud

It's great to see school music programs branching out to non-traditional instruments. School children of all ages enjoy learning about instruments that reflect cultures from around the world.