Musical Wood Saws

A standard hand saw can be used to play music! By tweaking/bending the blade in an “S” shape, one can hit the “sweet spot” with a mallet or use a cello bow to make the saw “sing.” The sound produced is very ethereal sounding - like a woman’s high singing voice or a theramin. The tonal range depends on the length and width of the saw blade. The “sweet spot” can be bent up and down the length of the blade while the note depends on the width at that point.

Musical saws have been around for over a century. In the early 1900s, musical saws were being produced by at least ten companies in the United States. When the price and demand for metal went up at the beginning of WWII, most of these companies went out of business.

A saw player is called a “sawyer” and the instrument itself is classified as an idiophone. The musical saw is easy to learn and play and most any saw can be used. The saw can also be played by grasping the handle with one hand and and snapping the blade with the other, producing some sort of interesting sound. Also, raking the teeth with a screwdriver could produce percussion rhythm.

If you are interested in learning how to play the musical saw, here is a good tutorial: musical saw tutorial. The annual “Saw Player’s Picnic and Music Festival” is held every August in Felton, California by the Musical Saw Players Association (IMSA).

The musical saw is beautiful in it’s simplicity. The video below is of Sione Aleki playing Amazing Grace on the musical saw:

Sources: IMSA, Wikipedia,