Diddley bow
Encyclopedia
The diddley bow is a string instrument
of Africa
n origin made popular in America
, probably developed from instruments found on the Ghana
coast of west Africa. The diddley bow is rarely heard outside the rural south. Other nicknames for this instrument include “jitterbug” or “one-string,” while an ethnomusicologist would formally call it a “monochord zither
.”
. There, they were often played by children, one beating the string with sticks and the other changing the pitch by moving a slide up and down. The instrument was then developed as a children's toy by slaves in the United States. They were first documented in the rural South
by researchers in the 1930s.
The diddley bow is significant to blues
music in that many blues guitarists got their start playing it as children, as well as the fact that, like the slide guitar
, it is played with a slide. However, because it was considered a children's instrument, very few musicians continued to play the diddley bow once they reached adulthood. The diddley bow is therefore not well represented in recordings.
blues musician Lonnie Pitchford
, who used to demonstrate the instrument by stretching a wire between two nails hammered into the wood of a vertical beam making up part of the front porch of his home. Pitchford's headstone, placed on his grave in 2000 by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund
, is actually designed with a playable diddley bow on the side as requested by Pitchford's family. Also some famous guitarists in the Motown band "The Funk Brothers" learned to play on the diddley bow and went on to play on some of Motown's greatest hits.
Other notable traditional players include Lewis Dotson, Glen Faulkner, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Compton Jones, Eddie "One String" Jones, Napoleon Strickland, Moses Williams, James "Super Chikan" Johnson
and "One String Sam" Wilson. Willie Joe Duncan was also notable for his work with a very large electrified diddley bow he called a Unitar.
Recent performers who use similar instruments include New York City
-based jazz pianist
Cooper-Moore
, American bluesman Seasick Steve
, Samm Bennett
, Danny Kroha, One String Willie, and blind musician Velcro Lewis. Jack White
makes one at the beginning of the movie It Might Get Loud
, then after playing it quips "Who says you need to buy a guitar?". Seasick Steve
recorded a tribute song to his diddley bow on his song "Diddley Bo" from his 2009 album, Man From Another Time
.
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n origin made popular in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, probably developed from instruments found on the Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
coast of west Africa. The diddley bow is rarely heard outside the rural south. Other nicknames for this instrument include “jitterbug” or “one-string,” while an ethnomusicologist would formally call it a “monochord zither
Zither
The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary citera, northwestern Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China...
.”
Origins
The diddley bow derives from instruments used in West AfricaWest Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
. There, they were often played by children, one beating the string with sticks and the other changing the pitch by moving a slide up and down. The instrument was then developed as a children's toy by slaves in the United States. They were first documented in the rural South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
by researchers in the 1930s.
Construction
The diddley bow is typically homemade, consisting usually of a wooden board and a single wire string stretched between two screws, and played by plucking while varying the pitch with a metal or glass slide held in the other hand. A glass bottle is usually used as the bridge, which helps magnify the sound. The diddley bow was traditionally considered an "entry-level" instrument, normally played by adolescent boys, who then graduate to a "normal" guitar if they show promise on the diddley bow. However currently, the diddley bow is also played by professional players as a solo as well as an accompaniment instrument. Detailed instructions for building a diddley bow can be found at www.onestringwillie.com.The diddley bow is significant to blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
music in that many blues guitarists got their start playing it as children, as well as the fact that, like the slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
, it is played with a slide. However, because it was considered a children's instrument, very few musicians continued to play the diddley bow once they reached adulthood. The diddley bow is therefore not well represented in recordings.
Notable users
One notable performer of the instrument was the MississippiMississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
blues musician Lonnie Pitchford
Lonnie Pitchford
Lonnie Pitchford was an American blues musician and instrument maker from Lexington, Mississippi. He was notable in that he was one of only a handful of young African American musicians from Mississippi who had learned and was continuing the Delta blues and country blues traditions of the older...
, who used to demonstrate the instrument by stretching a wire between two nails hammered into the wood of a vertical beam making up part of the front porch of his home. Pitchford's headstone, placed on his grave in 2000 by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund
Mt. Zion Memorial Fund
The Mt. Zion Memorial Fund is a Mississippi non-profit corporation formed in 1989 and named after the 101 year old Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Morgan City, Mississippi...
, is actually designed with a playable diddley bow on the side as requested by Pitchford's family. Also some famous guitarists in the Motown band "The Funk Brothers" learned to play on the diddley bow and went on to play on some of Motown's greatest hits.
Other notable traditional players include Lewis Dotson, Glen Faulkner, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Compton Jones, Eddie "One String" Jones, Napoleon Strickland, Moses Williams, James "Super Chikan" Johnson
Super Chikan
James "Super Chikan" Johnson is an American blues musician, based in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He is the nephew of fellow blues musician Big Jack Johnson....
and "One String Sam" Wilson. Willie Joe Duncan was also notable for his work with a very large electrified diddley bow he called a Unitar.
Recent performers who use similar instruments include New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
-based jazz pianist
Jazz piano
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities...
Cooper-Moore
Cooper-Moore
Cooper-Moore is an American jazz pianist, composer and instrument builder/designer based in New York City. He began performing church music in the Piedmont region of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In 1970, he formed a collective trio, Apogee, with saxophonist David S. Ware and drummer Marc...
, American bluesman Seasick Steve
Seasick Steve
Steven Gene Wold, commonly known as Seasick Steve, is an American blues musician. He plays guitars, and sings, usually about his early life doing casual work.-Childhood and early life:...
, Samm Bennett
Samm Bennett
Samm Bennett , is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.Samm Bennett is a singer and songwriter, a drummer and percussionist, and a player of string instruments such as the stick dulcimer and the diddley bow...
, Danny Kroha, One String Willie, and blind musician Velcro Lewis. Jack White
Jack White (musician)
Jack White , often credited as Jack White III, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and occasional actor...
makes one at the beginning of the movie It Might Get Loud
It Might Get Loud
It Might Get Loud is a documentary by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim. It explores the history of the electric guitar, focusing on the careers and styles of Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. The film received a wide release on August 14, 2009 in the U.S...
, then after playing it quips "Who says you need to buy a guitar?". Seasick Steve
Seasick Steve
Steven Gene Wold, commonly known as Seasick Steve, is an American blues musician. He plays guitars, and sings, usually about his early life doing casual work.-Childhood and early life:...
recorded a tribute song to his diddley bow on his song "Diddley Bo" from his 2009 album, Man From Another Time
Man From Another Time
Man from Another Time is the fourth album by Seasick Steve. It was released on 19 October 2009. It entered the UK album chart at number 4 on 25 October 2009.- Track listing :# "Diddley Bo"# "Big Green and Yeller"# "Happy "...
.
Filmography
- American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America, part 3: "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1990). Written, directed, and produced by Alan LomaxAlan LomaxAlan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
; developed by the Association for Cultural Equity at Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and Hunter CollegeHunter CollegeHunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
. North Carolina Public TV; A Dibb Direction production for Channel Four.
Discography
- Louis Dotson "Sitting On Top Of The World" on Bothered All The Time, Southern Culture SC 1703
- Willie Joe (Duncan) and His Unitar – The killer track "Unitar Rock," is available on Teen Beat Vol 4. Ace CDCHD 655. "Twitchy" and "Cherokee Dance" are available on The Specialty Story Specialty 5SPCD-4412-2.
- Glen Faulkner – "Cotton Pickin' Blues," "Louisiana Blues," "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah," "Get Right Church And Lets Go Home," on The Spirit Lives On: Deep South Country Blues and Spirituals in the 1990s, Hot Fox HF-CD-005 (German CD, now out of print).
- Jessie Mae HemphillJessie Mae HemphillJessie Mae Hemphill was an American award-winning electric guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist specializing in the primal, northern Mississippi country blues traditions of her family and regional heritage....
– two tracks (one accompanied By Compton Jones) on Heritage of the Blues: Shake It, Baby, HighTone HCD 8156. Two tracks (accompanied by Compton Jones and Glen Faulkner) on Get Right Blues, Inside Sounds ISC-0519. - Compton Jones – One track, "Shake 'Em On Down," on Afro-American Folk Music from Tate and Panola Counties, Mississippi, Rounder 1515 (CD). With booklet notes by diddley bow scholar David Evans.
- Eddie "One String" Jones – One String Blues, Takoma Records CDTAK 1023. Nine tracks, the first one an interview of Eddie Jones where he tells how he built his instrument. This is an excellent CD of one of the true masters of diddley bow, and the booklet notes includes a drawing and some photographs of his instrument and of him playing. Note that on this CD, Eddie Jones sings and plays a version of "The Dozens," a game of musical and rhyming insults that gets pretty crude—this one track makes the CD inappropriate for young kids.
- "The Oven's On" LP 2007 by Velcro Lewis and His 100 Proof Band.
- "The Bronze Age" CD 2009 by the Velcro Lewis Group.
- "The Almanac of Bad Luck" LP 2009 by Tijuana Hercules.
- "Fall To Pieces" 45 single 2010 by the Velcro Lewis Group.
- Lonnie PitchfordLonnie PitchfordLonnie Pitchford was an American blues musician and instrument maker from Lexington, Mississippi. He was notable in that he was one of only a handful of young African American musicians from Mississippi who had learned and was continuing the Delta blues and country blues traditions of the older...
– Pitchford was another diddley bow master. He can be heard on four tracks on National Downhome Blues Festival Volume One Southland SCD-21, "Train Coming Around the Bend," "My Babe," "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "One-String Boogie." Two tracks on All Around Man Rooster R2629 "Real Rock Music: Crawlin' Kingsnake" and "My Babe." One track on Living Country Blues, Evidence ECD 26105-2 ("Boogie Chillen"). Also, another "One-String Boogie," and "My Baby Walked Away" on American Folk Blues Festival '83; "Johnny Stole An Apple," Living Country Blues USA - Volume 7: Afro-American Blues Roots; "My Baby Walked Away" on Living Country Blues USA - Volume 9: Mississippi Moan and (yet another) "One String Boogie" on Living Country Blues USA - Volume10: Country Boogie - Napoleon StricklandNapoleon StricklandNapoleon Strickland was a fife and drum blues artist, and songwriter, and vocalist specializing in country blues, sometimes known as Napolian Strickland...
– One track, "Key to the Blues," on Bottleneck Blues, Testament 5021 (CD). (This same cut also appears on the CD Africa and the Blues). - One String Willie - 7 tracks on CD "A Store-Bought Guitar Just Won't Do," 10 tracks on CD "You Gotta Hit the String Right to Make the Music Swing"
- Moses WilliamsMoses WilliamsMoses Williams was a Welsh antiquarian scholar.He was born the son of Samuel Williams, Vicar of Llan Dyfriog and Rector of Llan Gynllo, Cardiganshire, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Jenkin Powell Prytherch, in Y Glaslyn, near Llandysul, Ceredigion, in south-west Wales.He was ordained a deacon...
– four tracks on a double-LP anthology of Florida blues produced by the Florida Folklife Program. (Drop on Down In Florida, Florida Folklife LP 102-103). This LP is long out of print, but a free CD Music from the Florida Folklife Collection from the Florida Folklife Program presents a killer cut of Williams playing and singing "Which Way Did My Baby Go?" - "One String Sam" (Wilson) –Two cuts ("I Need $100" and "I Got to Go") from the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival on Please Mr. Foreman: Motor City Blues, Schoolkids' Records SKR2101-2. Two tracks on Rural Blues Vol 1 (1934-1956), Document Records B000000J8B ("I Need $100" (studio version) and "My Baby Ooh").
- "White Magick Summer" LP 2010 by the Velcro Lewis Group.
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