Whack Them and They Go BOOM!

Joy recently purchased the coolest musical instrument you can buy for your child. I'm not kidding. These things are so addictive you'll be wrestling your child for the chance to play with them.

They are nothing more than plastic tubes that have be cut so when you hit them they produce fixed pitches on the diatonic scale. So when you hit the red tubes, you get a "C," the orange one gives you a "D," and so on. And when I say "hit," I mean "hit." You get to smack these things on the wall, the floor, the table, your arm, your child's head, anything really and you get a note. Whack three together and you can make a chord. Sure it comes with mallets, but where's the fun in that?

Best part? The name - Boomwhackers! Doesn't it just make you want to whack the tubes and yell "BOOM!"? Ok, maybe it's just me, but Sam's doing it too.

You also get a black plastic cap that drops the pitch produced an octave, a cap they call the "Octavator," which when combined with Boomwhackers makes these things sound like they will either save the world or take it over (The Octavator is attacking with his Boomwhackers! Take Cover!")

The octavator works on elementary Partchian physics - the octave is produced by vibrating something at twice the length. So that got me to thinking what would happen if they made justly tuned Boomwhackers? Even Boomwhackers to Partch's 43-note-to-the-octave scale. How impossibly cool would that be and how impossibly much could we mess with kid's musical training for life? I tremble at the thought.

Anyway, head over here for a sample of what the Boomwhackers can sound like. And then go buy a set!