Split bell...

[Reindeer]

So I just got back from a three day music festival. I started a drum circle at one in the morning and by two there was about 20 drummers there. One person was even playing a garbage can cut in half. Had a great time, but thats another story.

I picked up an interesting percussion instrument. It's called a split bell. Heres a couple pictures.








It's imported from Africa through fair trade, 10 bucks. I talked to the guy at the shop (who also taught me some sick hand drum beats) and he showed me a couple different ways to play it. One is to hold it by the string and use it like a chime, the other is to run the stick down the split like a Guiro, and the last is just standard clave grip playing. I've been having fun with this and was wondering if any of you have some expertise they could hand on to me.

[fumbled time]

Wow congrats on the other story and a uniqe instrument, I have never heard of it but am interested to here more hopefully someone will have a clue. F/T

[Gretschhead]

Cool bell Reindeer, I used to play one like that in an African ensemble I was in. The heavy iron African bells have a great sounds that really cuts.

What festival did you just come back from? I was at Rothbury a couple weeks ago.

[bongobro]

Cool addition to the collection, Reindeer! You could get somethin' started on that and have all the drummers jammin' in seconds...

[Gretschhead]

Nice collection! Some of those old bells had some funky shapes to them. Thanks for the review of the Gon Bops bell, a lot of these guys on here will have a difficult time finding some of the other bells you mentioned, but everyone can pick up one of the Gon Bops bells at their local music store or online.