vibraslap
{{Short description|Percussion instrument}}
{{Distinguish|Vibraphone}}
{{Infobox instrument
| name = Vibraslap
| names =
| image = Vibraslap.JPG
| image_capt = A vibraslap manufactured by Latin Percussion
}}
The vibraslap is a percussion instrument consisting of a piece of stiff wire (bent into a U-shape) connecting a wooden ball to a hollow box of wood with metal "teeth" inside. The percussionist holds the metal wire in one hand and strikes the ball (usually against the palm of their other hand). The box acts as a resonating body for a metal mechanism placed inside with a number of loosely fastened pins or rivets that vibrate and rattle against the box."[http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textv/Vibra-slap.html Vibra-Slap]", Music.VT.edu. URL last accessed December 11, 2009. The instrument is a modern version of the jawbone.{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnicmusicalinstruments.com/Donkey-Call--Vibra-Slap.html |title=Donkey Call or Vibraslap |publisher=Ethnic Musical Instruments.com |access-date=April 26, 2015}}
History
The vibraslap comes from the African jawbone instrument. This is the lower jawbone of a donkey or a zebra which has loose teeth that rattle when the instrument is struck.Karl Peinkofer and Fritz Tannigel, Handbook of Percussion Instruments, (Mainz, Germany: Schott, 1976), 159. The instrument was carried by enslaved people to South America where it became known as the jawbone (quijada in Spanish).{{Cite web |title=Afro Peruvian Percussion |url=https://artdrum.com/CAJON_&_AFRO_PERUVIAN_PERCUSSION.HTM |access-date=2023-02-23 |website=artdrum.com}} It became used in Latin American music in the ensuing centuries.
The modern vibraslap was invented by Martin Cohen in 1967.{{Cite patent|number=US3439572A|title=Percussion instrument|gdate=1969-04-22|invent1=Cohen|inventor1-first=Martin B.|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US3439572/en}}{{better source|date=July 2023}} Cohen was told by percussionist Bobby Rosengarden, "If you want to make some money, make a jawbone that doesn't break." About the inventing process, Cohen remembers, "I had never seen a jawbone before, but I had heard one on a Cal Tjader album. I found out that it was an animal skull that you would strike, and the sound would come from the teeth-rattling in the loose sockets. So I took that concept and invented the Vibraslap, which was my first patent.""[http://www.pas.org/experience/halloffame/CohenMartin.aspx PASIC 2012] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824081324/http://www.pas.org/experience/halloffame/CohenMartin.aspx |date=August 24, 2014 }}", PAS.org. URL last accessed December 11, 2009. The vibraslap was the first patent granted to the instrument manufacturing company Latin Percussion.{{Cite web |title=LP Vibra-Slap II - Standard Wood (LP208) |url=https://www.steveweissmusic.com/product/lp-vibra-slap-standard-wood/hand-percussion |access-date=2023-02-23 |website=Steve Weiss Music |language=en-us}}
{{Listen|filename=Vibraslap01.ogg|title=Sound of a vibraslap|description=Sound of LP Vibraslap|format=Ogg}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150725072520/http://www.kisw.com/Vibraslap-Songs/11281397?pid=368003 KISW Rock List of well-known Vibraslap Songs]
{{Percussion}}
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Category:North American percussion instruments