Wind Chimes, What Are They And Why Are They So Popular?
Bits and pieces of wood, shards of colored glass, sections cut from a metal pipe, string, shells, stones, shaped ceramic; put any of these together and what do you have? An attractive and melodic wind chime! These are not only decorative, but functional as well. The sound it makes is said to calm the nerves, drive away evil spirits, and bring in luck; Chinese fung shui advice the use of these around the house.
Some serious manufacturers keep exact measurements for the precise sound to come out of the chimes. The ones used as musical instruments are usually metal wind chimes that have a tubular structure, as opposed to the glass wind chimes and some wooden wind chimes that use oddly shaped pieces. The bamboo wind chime, though also tubular in shape and emitting a pleasing sound in its own right, is more suited in its role as one of the most favored materials in garden wind chimes.
Woodstock wind chimes are made by a professional musician such that they can really be used for making music. It is precision tuned, with methods such as digital analysis and climate controlled tuning. Some of the Woodstock chimes are tuned to the key of C or D, some of the other major scales, or are tuned to specific musical sounds such as that of jazz, classical, or exotic, upbeat, and meditative. Other Woodstock products are gongs, calypso steel drums, garden bells, and the capiz shell, coconut, and bamboo wind chimes.
It is easy to make wind chimes, if musical precision is not your main goal. It could be done as an arts and crafts project. For copper wind chimes, a piece of copper tubing could be cut in various lengths, drilled with holes in one end, strung with cord, and placed in perfect balance on a piece of wood or other material. Wood could also serve as the striker and the weights in the middle of the whole contraption. For stained glass wind chimes, the method could be more haphazard. The results would still come out visually appealing, however, as colored glass has very good properties of refraction and reflection. They also have a distinct sound quite distinct from that of bamboo, metal, or wood.
When speaking of distinct sounds, one cannot forget the unusually large wind chimes. These are designed to be oversized mainly for the deeper sound that it will make. Be that as it may, wind chimes are soothing and relaxing no matter what size or material it is. It is a good object to have around the house.
|