Recording Studio: Over twenty thousand years ago primitive man noticed that a piece of hollow cane or dried up fruit shell could make a sound if blown in a certain way.
Recording Studio: Melody Making Instruments
If recording studio vocal music was the first man-made music and percussion the second, wind instruments would undoubtedly be the third (and the first melody-making instrument). The idea that a dead bone or cut plant had a voice of its own was not simply considered interesting; it was magic – used to aid man with his communication with the world of spirits, to cure illness, protect crops etc.
Originally primitive recording studio one-note instruments would be blown in sequence by a collection of primitive beings to form a primitive melody. Amazingly around this time the use of harmonics was also used to extend melodic possibilities (blowing harder to get a different note – a harmonic of the basic note).
While almost every country in the world has a primitive wind instrument the solutions to the musical limitations the instruments presented varied. The South Americans developed pan pipes while Zulu shepherds impressively extended the use of harmonics obtained from a basic one-note whistle. Meanwhile however, ancient civilisations in Egypt, China and Samaria were working on something altogether new:
The invention of finger holes proved a huge step in the history of music. Adding one, two, three and then four holes allowed pentatonic melodies to be created using root notes, with harmonics further extending musical possibilities. With the mastery of the basic scale soon came curiosity and progression – a need constant throughout human history. Further permutations of instruments came about, many of which live on today as folk instruments and are still audible in local “closed” traditions.
