The bow and arrow, as a weapon for hunting, probably was invented about 40,000 years ago. It seems very likely that it was not long after that when hunters discovered they could play tunes on their bows, so the mouth bow as a musical instrument has been found almost everywhere the bow and arrow ever was in use, on every inhabited continent.
The San (often called Bushmen) of southern Africa's Kalahari desert call the mouth bow /khou, and the !Kung group raised /khou playing to a fine art. (The / and ! symbols represent click sounds found in their Khoisan language.) Although a hunter stalking animals across the wilds would not hesitate to bang out a tune on his hunting bow, the !Kung entertained each other with specialized musical mouth bows in their encampments – bows that produced a louder, clearer sound than a hunting bow.
How a Mouth Bow Works
A mouth bow works like a Jew's Harp. The single string, plucked or beaten with an arrow, seems to produce a single tone, – but it also produces a series of higher, less audible tones called overtones. The musician places his mouth around the vibrating string, and by varying the size and shape of his mouth cavity, isolates and resonates those overtones so that they sound out loud and clear.
The !Kung and other hunters certainly were not aware of the physics involved when they created mouth bows, and modern players do not need to know any more than their ancestors did, but some may find a brief explanation of interest. When a string vibrates, it does so not just as a whole, but also in sections: halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, etc. Overtones are the sounds produced by those sections. Halves and quarters of a string tuned to A-440 produce successive octaves (a-a'), thirds and sixths produce fifths (e-e'), and other divisions produce major thirds (c#), seconds (b), and natural sevenths (g), resulting in a type of pentatonic scale. All this is far easier to play than to explain, so those those more interested in art than science should just go on to the next section.
Making a Mouth Bow
When the British erected telegraph lines through the Kalahari, they encountered unexpected problems. The San people, who neither sent nor received telegrams, saw the new additions to the landscape as a new source of raw materials. They helped themselves to the glass insulators from atop the poles, and knapped them into arrowheads. They used the copper wire for ornaments and jewelry – and also to string the /khou.
To make a San mouth bow, find a flexible bough, about as thick as your ring finger, between two and four feet long. Bend it, and stretch a "bowstring" across the curve – a single strand of uninsulated copper wire, piano wire, or, perhaps, a steel guitar string. The length of the bow and the gauge of the wire will determine the "fundamental" tone, and hence the overtones that may be isolated – so experiment until you find the combination that makes you happy. Find a foot or so of thin dowel to use as a "beater," and the instrument is complete.
Playing a Mouth Bow
Hold one end of the bow up to your face, with your open lips surrounding but not touching the metal bowstring. Hold the wooden end of the bow against your cheek, and use your free hand to strike the beater against the lower end of the string. Vary the size and shape of your mouth, and experiment to see what different tones and pitches you can produce. Some players also bend the bow to vary its fundamental pitch.
Because the beater will bounce off the string, it is possible to produce many interesting and complex rhythms. !Kung players also use sharp inhalations and exhalations of breath to emphasize the fundamental tone of the string, and to produce dramatic effects.
Music for Mouth Bow
Outside obscure journals of ethnomusicology, one is unlikely to find any "sheet music" for mouth bow – the 'repertoire" is entirely improvised, and individual bows (and mouths!) are very idiosyncratic. To listen to an extraordinary sample of virtuoso playing, though, try this video of Pops Mohamed, the South African jazz great.
An instrument that has been played for 40,000 years, is the ancestor of all modern stringed instruments, and can be built in a matter of minutes should be irresistible to anybody with an interest in music – so make a mouth bow, let your creative spirits run free, and have fun!
Victor A. Gallis - Vic Gallis has written for a variety of literary journals, educational publications, and websites. Thirty years spent in public education, ...
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