Commun ty Matters August 2015
Fulton Presbyterian Manor
Coming up in Community Matters:
How has music been important to you? In an upcoming issue of Community Matters we will be focusing on music and its role in making our lives better. If you’ve got a story about what music has meant to you, contact Keri Edwards to share your idea.Your story may be selected for the next issue of your community newsletter.
Keeping our brains young with kazoos
The 10:40 exercise group wanted to start a Kazoo Band. They have talked, and joked, about putting on shows for the other residents and sitting at the curb whenever there’s a parade (and we have several every year) and play for them as they march by.
Learning to play a musical instrument has many benefits that will hopefully motivate us to keep on practicing and always hold music in high esteem. Some of the more notable physical benefits include: an increase in the capacity of your memory, team skills, coordination, perseverance, stress relief and respiratory system improvement.
It’s true, the kazoo is a wind instrument. It is usually a short tube, open on both ends and tapers to one end. Near the wider front end of the instrument there is another opening on top called the turret section. This turret, or tower, houses a thin, vibrating membrane. It has no valves or buttons typical of other instruments. The kazoo uses the voice of the musician to produce the sound. When we play a kazoo, we hum into it and that causes the membrane to vibrate. This vibration changes with the sound of the voice giving it its unique kazoo buzzing quality. The kazoo most likely evolved from an African instrument called the mirliton. Just like the kazoo, the mirliton has an internal membrane that creates a buzzing sound when it is played and was a popular AfricanAmerican folk instrument during the 1800s. The modern kazoo was invented by Alabama Vest during the 1840s. He
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drew up the plans and had it made by a clockmaker named Thaddeus Von Clegg. They took their kazoo to the Georgia State Fair in 1852 and it quickly became a popular instrument in that region. Â Michael McIntyre developed a mass-production method and he started selling his kazoos in 1914 and received a patent on the process in 1923. He went on to found the Original American Kazoo Company which is still in operation today. Later, the plastic kazoo was developed and it is now the standard material from which most kazoos are made.
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It is a simple, yet time-honored, instrument that learning to play has some amazing benefits the least of which is: it will help keep our brains young.
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Fulton Presbyterian Manor 811 Center St. Fulton, MO 65251-1922
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Community Matters is published monthly for residents and friends of Fulton Presbyterian Manor by Presbyterian Manors of 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at PresbyterianManors.org.
Dawn Smith, executive director Keri Edwards, marketing director To submit or suggest articles for this publication, contact kedwards 2@pmma.org. Telephone: 573-642-6646 Fax: 573-642-2202 Address: 811 Center St., Fulton, MO 65251-1922
Our mission: We provide quality senior services guided by Christian values. FultonPresbyterianManor.org
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