Well it is more complicated than that.
While technically it is possible to play on a sheet of plastic or tin foil in Germany it was common for shepards to play on a thin piece of Birch Bark. Even though they call it Birch leaf blowing (BirkenBlattBlasen) they actually play on a thin strip of birch bark which they sand down to make thin enough and drop it in some water to make it flexible enough. More info found here. https://musikkoffer-sachsen-anhalt.de/brauch/birkenblattblasen-im-harz/
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21 June 2021
Make music day concert this year features the leaf. With musicians from Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, Indonesia and Cuba. https://www.makemusicday.org/national-projects/leaf-music/ After 3 months of leaf playing I was invited to play at a leaf playing concert.
17 December 2020 we had about 50 people playing and some ministers in Korea supported the concert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oybDr0UTok&feature=youtu.be In my research of leaf players there was one name that kept on surfacing, “Uncle Herb Patten” he is a celebrity among leaf players. Herb is one of the few English-speaking leaf players that I found on YouTube and he even wrote his M.A about playing the leaf. He also wrote a book on how to play the gumleaf. In Australia often leaf players play on eucalpptus, which is collectively called “gum” therefore they play on “gumleaf”. Others call it the leaflute, which gives the impression that it might be a lute made of leaves as opposed to a leaf flute. Also, leaf whistling which is perhaps more accurate, I personally prefer “leafophone” much like a saxophone.
I tried to contact Uncle Herb Patten for 2 months until finally he responded and told me to give him a video call. We have a 10 hour time difference, so for me it was a morning call and for him nine in the evening. When He answered he was lying in a hospital bed and looking chipper saying he just came out from an operation. Uncle Herb Patten was born in 1977 and told me he is excited to update all of his technology to keep in touch with other leaf players around the world. A nurse came by and he said hold on miss I am chatting with my mate here. He told me about a leaf playing competition in Australia, which ran from 1977 to 1997. He took part 4 or 5 times and got second place every time. After the competition ended, Herb wrote the book and accompanying CD “How to Play the Gumleaf” (out of print) There is also a short booklet which tells the history of the competition “Australian Gumleaf Playing Championship history 1977-1997 by Margaret J. Harrison. Herb also competed in Australia got Talent and there too got second place. Uncle Herb and others hope to revive the leaf competition and next year will hold the Australian gumleaf festival to which he invited me. Herb told me about his experiences playing the leaf and all the people that have contacted him over the years asking about leaf playing. He traveled to Hongkong and the Edinburgh festival to play the leaf. He offered to send me his book and said he saw some of my videos on Facebook and called me a versatile musician. - It is such an honour to be noticed by your heroes. The leaf playing world has been a very special community which others have called the leaf family. Which is indeed the feeling I had when talking with “Uncle” Herb. Via serbian friend. and writing to directors of movies like china christmas
The story about how tea was discovered claims that people were boiling water under a tree, the leaves fell in the pot and they liked the taste. The rest is history.
There does not seem to be any story about the discovery of the leafophone, but I imagine that a couple were having spinach for dinner and the wife turned to her husband and said, “Dear, you have spinach in your teeth.” He tried to blow it out, and it produced a sound... and the rest is history. I don’t know when the leafophone was discovered but, I know when I discovered the leafophone. On the 16th of July 2020, Youtube suggested a video to me. This musician plays on leaves. I could not beleaf my ears. That sound is from a leaf. How could it be? I spent the next few months trying to get a sound out of a leaf. Every tree or plant I saw, I tried to make a sound on. I took notes about where I collected the leaves, and which ones produced the best sound. I play flute and saxophone and thought that my embouchure would transfer over easily to playing the leaf, but after a month of practice I could only occasionaly make a little toot sound. I was going out on a limb that I could be a leaf musician. Nonetheless, I never stopped be-leaf-ing. I knew that my musical knowledge would help me learn this and like they say “foliage is power”. I asked my Chinese friends if they could find and download the book in the video on how to play a leaf. I know one should not judge a book by its clover but it doesn’t look like one would be able to play music from that clover. In the end I did take a few leaves out of his book, but it all seemed so complicated, no matter how much I practiced I could not make a sound and the diagrams I found were like engineer schematics, could no one simpleafy it for me? My research suggested that most leaves can be played on, as long as they are flexible and not too thick. I tried birch leaves, linden leaves, dandylions, elderberry, lemon leaves. I cut oak leaves to fit the shape of my lips better. I even found a leaf that looked like a chicken - my plant identifying app suggested it was from a “poul-tree.” I swam in the foliage of fallen leaves in the forest, which professionals call “the great barrier leaf.” After another month of daily practice, I could play a scale and Mary had a little lamb. I was releafed, my wife and neighbours were not... they nearly told me to leaf. But, I persisted I found videos about playing the leaf in Portuguese, Spanish, Albanian, Serbian, Chinese, Korean and very few in English from Australians. I even called some people on their home teleafones, something which I haven’t done since I was a child. There are a few articles and even a PhD thesis about playing the leaf. I wrote to the academics but of course they leaft me hanging. Near-leaf everyone ignored my messages, and those that answered me asked if I knew about Herb Patten, at the time I did not know him and their response was a pitiful “you really autumn know him by now. “ - I am pleased that we are now Facebook friends and had a great video chat. Considering that the leaf is possibly the most ancient instrument, it bothered me that there is so little information, so I set out on my own discovery. Every day, I walked outside I saw the leaves falling and I was getting anxious if I will learn how to play this year. The most heart wrenching experience was watching a man in a bright orange suit loudly blowing leaves away into a bag. It was like witnessing a genocide of musical instruments. I needed to become one with the leafophone, so I ate pleanty cau-leaf-lours and drank copious amounts of wine, naturally from Ca-leaf-fornia. My buds were worried and said I should turn over a new leaf. One buddy suggested we go for a walk on the heath to learn how to play the leaf, (his name is incidental Keith). And there he told me two pieces of advice, “tress produce thousands of leaves every year, they are all about quantity. But, you are aiming for koahla-tree if there is enough quantity then the koahla-tree will come of its own accord. And his partying words were “I fernly be leaf in you.” I leaft that meeting feeling gleaful. I now hope and dream to be a leafophonist permanentleaf. Even though it has been a difficult journey, I beleaf that there is a plant for me. Eventually I uploaded a video of me attempting to play on 5 different plants. And shortly after I collaborated with Lucas Brar playing the most famous leaf song of all Autumn Leaves. |
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