Comb and paper is a rudimentary musical instrument which consists of a comb with a piece of paper pressed to it. To play it, one has to press their lips to the paper pressed to the comb and sing or vocalize into it. The voice makes the paper vibrate and changes the voice quality. [1] The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica refers to it as "the comb-music of the nursery".[2] "Comb and paper" belongs to the category of "singing membranophones", sometimes called "mirlitons" [3] after "mirliton", another name for the eunuch flute.
Playing comb and paper is sometimes called "blue-blowing", possibly in reference to Mound City Blue Blowers. [4]
Comb and paper used to be one of many improvised musical instruments to accompany country–western dances. [5]
- ^ James Lincoln Collier, Jug Bands and Handmade Music: A Creative Approach to Music Theory and the Instruments, 1973, p.90
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Eunuch Flute". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 891.
- ^ Musical instruments of the world: an illustrated encyclopedia, Paddington Press, 1976 p. 161
- ^ "Blue-blowing", Oxford Music Online
- ^ Betty Casey, Dance Across Texas, 1985 University of Texas Press, pp.23,24 ISBN 0-292-71551-X
