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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