Wilderness Drum > Wilderness Books > Skills > Games and Music
Our goal is no less than to change the world. Rain is one of the essential ingredients of place. A basic tenet of ecological truth here in the Pacific Northwest is that the land is the way it is in shape, smell, texture, sound because of the rain. It sings sweetly to the cedars. Our job is to learn to listen to its song.
Saul Weisberg
One area of wilderness living and primitive skills that is not often discussed is that of just having fun. The books below are a sampling of material on games for children, games for adults, primitive musical instruments, simple toys, string games, and magic tricks all with material you probably already have with you or can easily find in the wilderness.
Stewart Culin, Games of the North American Indians (Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), ISBN 0-80326-356-2. This is a two-volume reprint of a thick volume originally published by the Bureau of American Ethnology. Culin is one of the founding fathers of the study of games, and his book on games of Native Americans is one of the classic works in the field. The book is very complete, giving descriptions of how different groups of people played and adapted games for their own use. The book has descriptions of how the games are played as well as photographs and line drawings of the implements needed to play the games. One of the most interesting aspect of the book are the myths and legends behind the games, which Culin relates in some detail, showing that game playing has been not only a means of communal bonding and personal pleasure but also a religious ritual, copying actions taken by the spirits in other realities at the beginnings of the world.
Karl Fulves, Self-Working Rope Magic: 70 Foolproof Tricks (New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1990), ISBN 0-48626-541-2. If you are in the wilderness, you will have a piece of rope. You can amuse yourself, your companions, and even hostile natives with a few tricks using a piece of rope or string. The tricks in this book are carefully explained, meticulously illustrated, and do not require unusual dexterity or long hours of practice. The book contains seventy tricks, more than 400 step-by-step illustrations, and even bits of patter to use with each routine.
Jeannine Gendar, Grass Games and Moon Races: California Indian Games and Toys (Berkeley CA: Heyday Books, 1995), ISBN 0-93058-856-8. This book is a collection of games played by California native peoples, some historical and some still played today. The author discusses dozens of games in a clear, straightforward style, from field games to gambling games to string figures. With lots of photographs and drawings.
Bart Hopkin, Air Columns and Tone Holes: Principles for Wind Instrument Design (Willits CA: Experimental Musical Instruments, 1993), available from Tai Hei Shakuhachi, P.O. Box 294, Willits CA 95490. Bart Hopkin is a wonderful writer about musical instruments clear, accurate, exciting. This book gives you all the theory and mathematics you need to make a flute, explained so you can understand it and apply it to real-life projects. The book covers the mechanics of oscillating air chambers, the effects of bore shapes on resonance and tone quality, types of mouthpieces and bells, Helmholtz Resonators, and toneholes for cylindrical, conical and globular instruments. This all sounds pretty daunting, but Hopkin writes with grace and wit. Believe me, when you have looked through this book, you will want to make a flute.
Bart Hopkin, Musical Instrument Design: Practical Information for Instrument Making (Tucson AZ: See Sharp Press, 1996), ISBN 1-88436-508-6. This is, without a doubt, one of the most wonderful books written in the entire history of the world. I am not kidding. This book tells you how to make musical instruments out of anything junk, driftwood, cardboard tubes, animal hides, tin cans and, more important, it explains the musical theory behind each class of instruments in simple understandable language, so that you are prepared to go off on your own.
Caroline Jayne, String Figures and How to Make Them (New York NY: Dover Publications, 1976), ISBN 0-48620-152-X. String figures are widespread among indigenous peoples, appearing in more cultures than any other type of game. The game is played by weaving a single loop of string on the hands to produce intricate patterns supposed to represent certain familiar objects for example, a moving spear, a bolt of lightning, a pointed star. Over 2,000 individual patterns have been recorded worldwide since 1888, when anthropologist Franz Boas first described a pair of Inuit "cat's cradles. This book described more than a hundred string figures from Eskimo, Navajo, Lapp, and European cultures. If you are in the wilderness with a piece of string and this book, you will absolutely never be bored.
Alexander Lesser, The Pawnee Ghost Dance Hand Game: Ghost Dance Revival and Ethnic Identity (Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1978), ISBN 0-8032-7965-5. Sometimes a game is more than game. The hand game sometimes called the bone game or the stick game is relatively straightforward: one player hides an object in one hand, and the other player has to guess which hand it is in. Of course, the term guessing does not do justice to the bluffing, misdirection, bravado, and psychological acumen of a good player. And the term game does not do justice to a contest that is, even today, a symbol of Indian culture, values, and survival. In this book, first published in 1933, the author focuses on the history of the hand game in one tribe, the Pawnee, and its relationship to the cultural revitalization movement of the 1890s known as the Ghost Dance. In the face of cultural devastation, what had been a gambling game, a representation of warfare played by men, was transformed into a sacred game, an expression of faith, hope, and cultural identity.
Bernard Mason, How to Make Drums, Tomtoms and Rattles: Primitive Percussion Instruments for Modern Use (New York NY: Dover Publications, 1974), ISBN 0-48621-889-9. This is an inexpensive, profusely illustrated book that gives detailed instructions on making primitive percussion instruments. The book covers drums and rattles of all kinds, from hand-frame drums to large pow-wow drums, and gives details on processing hides, making frames and hoops, stretching and drying the drum head, and painting and decorating the finished drum.
Linda Garland Page, The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys and Games (Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), ISBN 0-80784-425-X. This book is part oral history and part instruction book, dealing with indoor and outdoor games, dolls, homemade board games, playhouses, and other toys, all with complete instructions. Originally published in 1985, the book includes familiar games like marbles, hopscotch, and horseshoes, as well as more regional games such as stealing the pines, crows and cranes, and thimble, and it gives instructions for constructing playhouses, noisemakers, puzzles, and whimmy diddles. Like all the Foxfire books, this is a celebration of a self-reliant Southern Appalachian culture that has virtually disappeared. If you need to keep children entertained in the wilderness, this book will tell you what you need to know.
Bill Severn, Bill Severn's Magic with Rope, Ribbon, and String (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1994), ISBN 0-81172-533-2. This is a wonderful book on magic with the sorts of objects you can readily find around the campsite. The book tells how to create the illusion that lengths of rope, ribbon, or string are growing or shrinking, joining together, defying gravity, or suddenly becoming alive. Each trick includes illustrations and step-by-step instructions. The book can be hard to find, but it is worth looking for.
Mark Shepard, Flutecraft: An Artisans Guide to Bamboo Flutemaking (Willits CA: Tai Hei Shakuhachi, 1994), available from Tai Hei Shakuhachi, P.O. Box 294, Willits CA 95490. This manual on the art of making bamboo flutes was originally published in 1976 and has since become a classic. This is a completely practical manual for making and tuning a wooden flute. The chapters on the physics of the flute written for the layperson show how design parameters affect the pitch, range, and tonal quality of the instrument. The book covers selection of the bamboo, cutting, boring, making and placing finger holes, fashioning the mouthpiece, tuning, binding, and finishing. Appendices describe bamboo flute repair, tips on the business aspects of the craft, and how to work safely with toxic materials.
Ginger Summit, et al., Making Gourd Musical Instruments (New York NY: Sterling Publishing, 1999), ISBN 0-8069-1369-X. Historically, ethnic groups in many countries have used a great number of musical instruments made from gourds. In North America these instruments are used mainly by percussionists. Ginger Summit is without a doubt the guru of gourds, with at least four books to her credit on gourd crafts. The step-by-step projects in this book are for percussion or stringed instruments such as the Latin American guiro (gourd scraper) or the spike fiddle, with a few from the wind family, such as the fipple flute. These are not simple projects, but they produce well working and if you have the skill and patience beautifully crafted musical instruments from natural materials.
Dennis Waring, Making Wood Folk Instruments (New York NY: Sterling Publishing, 1990), ISBN 0-80697-482-6. Here are not just folk instruments the Renaissance psaltery, hammered dulcimer, teardrop fiddle, Celtic harp but also instruments from found objects a bleach-bottle banjo, garden-hose bugle, washtub bass, flowerpot chimes. The book gives detailed explanations of all these projects, along with playing instructions. There are color photographs of more than fifty instruments that use not only traditional materials such as gourds and bamboo, but the junk found in urban environments plastic containers, discarded cans, pipes, and bottles.
Our goal is no less than to change the world. Rain is one of the essential ingredients of place. A basic tenet of ecological truth here in the Pacific Northwest is that the land is the way it is in shape, smell, texture, sound because of the rain. It sings sweetly to the cedars. Our job is to learn to listen to its song.
Stewart Culin, Games of the North American Indians (Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), ISBN 0-80326-356-2. This is a two-volume reprint of a thick volume originally published by the Bureau of American Ethnology. Culin is one of the founding fathers of the study of games, and his book on games of Native Americans is one of the classic works in the field. The book is very complete, giving descriptions of how different groups of people played and adapted games for their own use. The book has descriptions of how the games are played as well as photographs and line drawings of the implements needed to play the games. One of the most interesting aspect of the book are the myths and legends behind the games, which Culin relates in some detail, showing that game playing has been not only a means of communal bonding and personal pleasure but also a religious ritual, copying actions taken by the spirits in other realities at the beginnings of the world. 
Karl Fulves, Self-Working Rope Magic: 70 Foolproof Tricks (New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1990), ISBN 0-48626-541-2. If you are in the wilderness, you will have a piece of rope. You can amuse yourself, your companions, and even hostile natives with a few tricks using a piece of rope or string. The tricks in this book are carefully explained, meticulously illustrated, and do not require unusual dexterity or long hours of practice. The book contains seventy tricks, more than 400 step-by-step illustrations, and even bits of patter to use with each routine. 
Jeannine Gendar, Grass Games and Moon Races: California Indian Games and Toys (Berkeley CA: Heyday Books, 1995), ISBN 0-93058-856-8. This book is a collection of games played by California native peoples, some historical and some still played today. The author discusses dozens of games in a clear, straightforward style, from field games to gambling games to string figures. With lots of photographs and drawings. 
Bart Hopkin, Air Columns and Tone Holes: Principles for Wind Instrument Design (Willits CA: Experimental Musical Instruments, 1993), available from 
Bart Hopkin, Musical Instrument Design: Practical Information for Instrument Making (Tucson AZ: See Sharp Press, 1996), ISBN 1-88436-508-6. This is, without a doubt, one of the most wonderful books written in the entire history of the world. I am not kidding. This book tells you how to make musical instruments out of anything junk, driftwood, cardboard tubes, animal hides, tin cans and, more important, it explains the musical theory behind each class of instruments in simple understandable language, so that you are prepared to go off on your own. 
Caroline Jayne, String Figures and How to Make Them (New York NY: Dover Publications, 1976), ISBN 0-48620-152-X. String figures are widespread among indigenous peoples, appearing in more cultures than any other type of game. The game is played by weaving a single loop of string on the hands to produce intricate patterns supposed to represent certain familiar objects for example, a moving spear, a bolt of lightning, a pointed star. Over 2,000 individual patterns have been recorded worldwide since 1888, when anthropologist Franz Boas first described a pair of Inuit "cat's cradles. This book described more than a hundred string figures from Eskimo, Navajo, Lapp, and European cultures. If you are in the wilderness with a piece of string and this book, you will absolutely never be bored.
Alexander Lesser, The Pawnee Ghost Dance Hand Game: Ghost Dance Revival and Ethnic Identity (Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1978), ISBN 0-8032-7965-5. Sometimes a game is more than game. The hand game sometimes called the bone game or the stick game is relatively straightforward: one player hides an object in one hand, and the other player has to guess which hand it is in. Of course, the term guessing does not do justice to the bluffing, misdirection, bravado, and psychological acumen of a good player. And the term game does not do justice to a contest that is, even today, a symbol of Indian culture, values, and survival. In this book, first published in 1933, the author focuses on the history of the hand game in one tribe, the Pawnee, and its relationship to the cultural revitalization movement of the 1890s known as the Ghost Dance. In the face of cultural devastation, what had been a gambling game, a representation of warfare played by men, was transformed into a sacred game, an expression of faith, hope, and cultural identity.
Bernard Mason, How to Make Drums, Tomtoms and Rattles: Primitive Percussion Instruments for Modern Use (New York NY: Dover Publications, 1974), ISBN 0-48621-889-9. This is an inexpensive, profusely illustrated book that gives detailed instructions on making primitive percussion instruments. The book covers drums and rattles of all kinds, from hand-frame drums to large pow-wow drums, and gives details on processing hides, making frames and hoops, stretching and drying the drum head, and painting and decorating the finished drum.
Linda Garland Page, The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys and Games (Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), ISBN 0-80784-425-X. This book is part oral history and part instruction book, dealing with indoor and outdoor games, dolls, homemade board games, playhouses, and other toys, all with complete instructions. Originally published in 1985, the book includes familiar games like marbles, hopscotch, and horseshoes, as well as more regional games such as stealing the pines, crows and cranes, and thimble, and it gives instructions for constructing playhouses, noisemakers, puzzles, and whimmy diddles. Like all the Foxfire books, this is a celebration of a self-reliant Southern Appalachian culture that has virtually disappeared. If you need to keep children entertained in the wilderness, this book will tell you what you need to know.
Bill Severn, Bill Severn's Magic with Rope, Ribbon, and String (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1994), ISBN 0-81172-533-2. This is a wonderful book on magic with the sorts of objects you can readily find around the campsite. The book tells how to create the illusion that lengths of rope, ribbon, or string are growing or shrinking, joining together, defying gravity, or suddenly becoming alive. Each trick includes illustrations and step-by-step instructions. The book can be hard to find, but it is worth looking for.
Mark Shepard, Flutecraft: An Artisans Guide to Bamboo Flutemaking (Willits CA: Tai Hei Shakuhachi, 1994), available from 
Ginger Summit, et al., Making Gourd Musical Instruments (New York NY: Sterling Publishing, 1999), ISBN 0-8069-1369-X. Historically, ethnic groups in many countries have used a great number of musical instruments made from gourds. In North America these instruments are used mainly by percussionists. Ginger Summit is without a doubt the guru of gourds, with at least four books to her credit on gourd crafts. The step-by-step projects in this book are for percussion or stringed instruments such as the Latin American guiro (gourd scraper) or the spike fiddle, with a few from the wind family, such as the fipple flute. These are not simple projects, but they produce well working and if you have the skill and patience beautifully crafted musical instruments from natural materials.
Dennis Waring, Making Wood Folk Instruments (New York NY: Sterling Publishing, 1990), ISBN 0-80697-482-6. Here are not just folk instruments the Renaissance psaltery, hammered dulcimer, teardrop fiddle, Celtic harp but also instruments from found objects a bleach-bottle banjo, garden-hose bugle, washtub bass, flowerpot chimes. The book gives detailed explanations of all these projects, along with playing instructions. There are color photographs of more than fifty instruments that use not only traditional materials such as gourds and bamboo, but the junk found in urban environments plastic containers, discarded cans, pipes, and bottles.