American+Folk+Instruments

=AMERICAN FOLK INSTRUMENTS=

Some instruments typically found in American folk music include the fiddle, the banjo, the guitar, the jug, the washboard, and the harmonica. These are also instruments found in many types of European folk music, which makes sense, because most Americans were immigrants from European countries. The fiddle, the banjo, and the guitar are all stringed instruments. The harmonica and the jug could be considered wind instruments. An empty (typically ceramic) jug was held in the hands, while the player would "buzz" his lips and blow air across the mouth of the jug, creating different pitches with different angles of the airstream. The washboard was used as a percussion instrument, although it was originally made for washing clothes. It was played by tapping or scraping thimbles across the ribs on the washboard.

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This video is of a band called The Ramblin Jug Stompers. They are using several of the typical American folk instruments and singing in the American folk style about a a form of music called "Jug Band Music". Listen for the washboard, guitar, banjo, and mandolin.

media type="youtube" key="DDsAVq4rolM" width="425" height="350" This video is of a band called the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band. Listen for the string bass, the fiddle, guitar, banjo, and jug. Also pay attention to the nasal, country "twang" sound of the singers. The first 3 1/2 minutes of the video are a good sample.

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