Category: Boxes & Cases
Wooden Box for Frigate
€15.91
Mouth Bow Wood
Price:
€17.56
Wooden Mouthbow
A wooden mouthbow is a simple string instrument played by striking a single steel string with a mallet while using your mouth as a resonating chamber. The player's oral cavity amplifies and shapes the vibrations of the string, producing a range of pitches and timbres from a single fixed string. This direct, immediate responsiveness makes it accessible to beginners while offering experienced players room for subtle control through mouth position and tension.
Construction and Materials
The instrument consists of a wooden frame strung with a single steel string—specifically a guitar high E string. This combination of materials provides both durability and reliable pitch stability. The wooden body serves as the structural support, while the steel string's brightness and clarity cut through even when played softly.
Two sizes are available: a 70 cm model and a 90 cm model. The smaller size offers greater portability and slightly higher natural pitch, while the larger size produces a deeper resonance and fuller harmonic content.
Playing Technique and Sound
You hold the mouthbow with the wooden frame resting against or near your open mouth. Strike the steel string with the included mallet to set it vibrating. By changing the shape and tension of your mouth cavity—opening wider, narrowing your lips, or adjusting your tongue position—you alter which overtones resonate and project outward. A light tap produces a delicate, bright tone; a firmer strike generates greater volume and complexity.
Because the pitch of the string itself remains fixed, all melodic variation comes from selecting and emphasizing different harmonics through mouth resonance. This constraint is also its strength: the learning curve is gentle, and satisfying sounds emerge from the first attempt.
What's Included
- Wooden mouthbow (choice of 70 cm or 90 cm)
- Mallet for striking the string
Historical and Cultural Context
Mouthbows appear across many musical traditions, from Africa to Southeast Asia, often among the oldest instruments in a culture's toolkit. The Vietnamese wooden mouthbow carries this lineage while remaining straightforward enough for contemporary players of any background to explore. It bridges folk tradition and acoustic principle, making it equally at home in a musician's practice space, an educational setting demonstrating harmonic resonance, or a field recording studio.
The mouthbow remains one of the most direct expressions of the human voice and the vibrating string, requiring nothing but breath, a wooden frame, and metal to create music.
Price:
€17.56
Mouth Bow Wood — An ancestral instrument with multiple origins, this musical bow combines simplicity of design with remarkable sonic richness. Crafted from carefully selected wood and equipped with a steel string, it produces surprisingly beautiful harmonics when struck with the supplied mallet, the mouth serving as a natural resonance chamber. Available in two sizes (70 cm for increased portability, 90 cm for fuller resonance), this stringed instrument is equally suited to traditional folk music performances, ambient soundscapes, film score compositions, or educational demonstrations of acoustic principles. Beginners produce pleasant sounds immediately, whilst experienced musicians discover nuanced techniques of articulation and expression. Supplied with mallet and basic instructions. A direct link to one of humanity's oldest musical expressions.
| Origin | Vietnam |
|---|---|
| Materials | Wood |
♪ Audio Samples ♪
Mouth Bow - 70 cm
Mouth Bow - 90 cm
Caution: Not suitable for children under 3 years. Please supervise older children. Beware of swallowing small parts, strangulation, material allergies, sharp edges and points! Use only for sound generation. No liability for improper use.
Care: Extreme temperature fluctuations, humidity and direct sunlight can affect the lifespan. Please store in balanced humidity to prevent material changes, mold and corrosion. Remove dirt with a damp cloth. Dry after cleaning and each use.
Disposal: Please contact your local waste disposal authority for information on environmentally sound disposal!
Wooden Mouthbow
A wooden mouthbow is a simple string instrument played by striking a single steel string with a mallet while using your mouth as a resonating chamber. The player's oral cavity amplifies and shapes the vibrations of the string, producing a range of pitches and timbres from a single fixed string. This direct, immediate responsiveness makes it accessible to beginners while offering experienced players room for subtle control through mouth position and tension.
Construction and Materials
The instrument consists of a wooden frame strung with a single steel string—specifically a guitar high E string. This combination of materials provides both durability and reliable pitch stability. The wooden body serves as the structural support, while the steel string's brightness and clarity cut through even when played softly.
Two sizes are available: a 70 cm model and a 90 cm model. The smaller size offers greater portability and slightly higher natural pitch, while the larger size produces a deeper resonance and fuller harmonic content.
Playing Technique and Sound
You hold the mouthbow with the wooden frame resting against or near your open mouth. Strike the steel string with the included mallet to set it vibrating. By changing the shape and tension of your mouth cavity—opening wider, narrowing your lips, or adjusting your tongue position—you alter which overtones resonate and project outward. A light tap produces a delicate, bright tone; a firmer strike generates greater volume and complexity.
Because the pitch of the string itself remains fixed, all melodic variation comes from selecting and emphasizing different harmonics through mouth resonance. This constraint is also its strength: the learning curve is gentle, and satisfying sounds emerge from the first attempt.
What's Included
- Wooden mouthbow (choice of 70 cm or 90 cm)
- Mallet for striking the string
Historical and Cultural Context
Mouthbows appear across many musical traditions, from Africa to Southeast Asia, often among the oldest instruments in a culture's toolkit. The Vietnamese wooden mouthbow carries this lineage while remaining straightforward enough for contemporary players of any background to explore. It bridges folk tradition and acoustic principle, making it equally at home in a musician's practice space, an educational setting demonstrating harmonic resonance, or a field recording studio.
The mouthbow remains one of the most direct expressions of the human voice and the vibrating string, requiring nothing but breath, a wooden frame, and metal to create music.
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