Fun musical morning at IH

Saturday morning at the International House. All the people staying here (caretakers, students and volunteers) get together to do some communal work, such as gardening, servicing the composting toilets, some light masonry or whatever needs to be done.

Heather and Linda with their bamboo xylophone

Today it’s the last Saturday the students of Washington University will be here, and Manu surprises us with a very creative and different proposal: a “musical jugaad session” or what the English-speaking people would call a “musical Jerry-rigging session”. We’ll split into little groups and do a little brain-storming on how could the waste materials scattered around the IH could be used for the musical wall and railing!

At the end of the morning we will make a little installation showing what we came up with. Sounds interesting, uh? Wait to see the results!

Leonardo will be there to help us in case we need some support or ideas, but the truth is that around here everybody has the makings of an artist…!

Diane with her work of art

I go around taking pictures, and it’s just amazing! So many things to make music with! And such a huge amount of imagination! I really enjoy it and it looks like people are having a good time too. It also makes me reflect on something…there are so many things we just throw away (sometimes into the landfill) which could be used to make our lives more playful, enjoyable and musical!

What are you going to do with those bottle necks, Maggi?

Here are some of the creations of our artists: xylophones made with recycled glass jars filled with water, a gong made with a huge metal pan, a bunch of different types of wind-chimes (with jar lids and a padlock, with bottle necks, with bamboo sticks, with seeds…), maracas made with glass jars filled with pieces of broken bottles, a multi-purpose didjeridoo made with a long pipe and a bucket used as an amplifier (and with a scraper and a microphone attached…!), drums made of iron bowls (the ones that where mysteriously sitting in the corridor!), scrapers made with bum-whasher hoses, a trumpet made with an old fennel, a harp, and some other nice inventions.

Here you go, Henry!

So, at the end of the morning we have created an incredible and unique exhibition of musical instruments made of recycled waste. Wow!!

Hey, and what about a little jam session tonight, before the African drumming we’ll have at the IH?

Nice wind-chime, Sara!

Leonardo playing the corridor bowls!

Richie was one of the bamboo recyclers