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C O N T E N T S Acknowledgements………………………..Page 3 Glossary of Terms………………………….Page 4 Personal Introduction ……………………Page 5 Executive Summary of Report…………..Page 6 Recommendations…………………………Page 7 Chapter 1- Why the cigar box? History………………………………….…….Page 9 Resurgence………………………………….Page 10 Chapter 2- Nashville, Tennessee.Travis Bowlin……………………….….…..Page 12 Jonathan Greiner…………………………..Page 14 Justin Johnson………………………………Page 16 Keith Crumbley………………………..……Page 19 Chapter 3- Rome & Marietta, Georgia. Adam Sikes…………………………….……Page 22 Mike Snowden……………………………Page 24 Chapter 4- New Orleans, Lousiana.Samantha Fish………………………….…Page 27 Ben Baker ……………………………….…Page 29 Amzie Adams………………………….….Page 31 Chapter 5- Brooklyn, New York.Ken Butler …………………………………Page 32 Conclusion…………………………………Page 36 Copyright © [2018] by [George A. Parfitt]. The

moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed in this report and its content are those of the author and not of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, which has no responsibility or liability for any part of the report.

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A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S This project would not have been possible without the generosity and support of The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and I thank them all sincerely. I would also like to thank: The Parfitt Family Maya Jakes Charlotte & Rob The Parker/Grists Kate Jones Justin Griffiths

Finally, thank you to all involved from the U.S.A: Travis Bowlin Samantha Fish Jonathan Greiner Ben Baker Justin Johnson Collins Kirby Keith Crumbley Amzie Adams Adam Sikes Ken Butler Mike Snowden Chelsea & Remi Mona El Gaa

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G L O S S A R Y O F T E R M S “Cigar Box Guitar” or “CBG” - An instrument, usually 3-6 strings, featuring a cigar box for the sound chamber. “Diddley Bow”A one string instrument, often crudely handmade. “Luthier” a maker of stringed instruments especially guitars or violins. “Pickup” the electric component that enables a guitar to be amplified. “Roots” The revival of traditional music, typically relating to ones own cultural history. “Slide” A cylindrical object, typically ceramic, metal, or glass. A traditional techniquefor playing guitar, specifically with blues music.

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P E R S O N A L I N T R O D U C T I O N

“In school I was always taught to try and ‘think outside of the box’, until I thought, what’s wrong with just using the box?”

I first discovered cigar box guitars whilst studying A-level Art & Design at Pembroke School during an exam question entitled

‘respond to form over function.’ With my acoustic guitar being a prominent object in my life I began to explore the history of its

form. After studying guitar forms depicted through Dadaism, Cubism, and Surrealism, I stumbled upon the cigar box guitar and was instantly

captivated, leading my final exam piece to be a series of guitars that I had crudely made out of salvaged materials from around my town.

These guitars went on to win first prize in an exhibition at the Tenby Museum & Art Gallery, which encouraged me to continue

making more. After I left school with my A-levels I went backpacking throughout

India where I found parallels in many handmade traditional instruments with the cigar box guitar, and was immersed in their

range of musical styles. Once I returned home I began making more guitars inspired by my travels which slowly started to become my full time career, and so I began teaching others about these instruments, and spreading the

movement wherever possible.

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E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y This report is based on my Fellowship to the U.S.A where I met with makers, players, and enthusiasts of the cigar box guitar across four states. My initial aim was to understand the ethos behind these instruments, in order to see if it could potentially benefit the youth of our society, and to learn traditional techniques used by individual makers that I could share in the UK. Therefore, in this report I will illustrate the ethos and the techniques that I was introduced to in the states that I visited. I will compare this with the techniques and relevant principles that already exist within the UK, and hopefully highlight how this could be implemented in the UK for the benefit of others, especially our youth. Whilst on my Fellowship, there were questions that arose which I would consider important to this report:

-How is the youth currently being influenced by the modern guitar industry, and could this suppress the values of handmade and recycled items? -What is the correlation with cigar box guitars and academic subjects, and how could they be combined? Through my Fellowship I hope the following intentions can be achieved: 1. Promote the ethos of cigar box guitars within the UK, to enable further widespread of the movement. 2. Continue to raise awareness of the benefits of cigar box guitars. 3. Encourage the preservation of traditional techniques. 4. Raise awareness of existing platforms online that provide essential information on both making and playing cigar box guitars.

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C i g a r b o x i n s t r u m e n t s c a n b e d a t e d b a c k t o s o m e w h e r e b e t w e e n 1 8 4 0 a n d 1 8 6 0 . T h e f i r s t i l l u s t r a t i o n o f a c i g a r b o x i n s t r u m e n t i s a n e t c h i n g o f t w o s o l d i e r s a t a c a m p s i t e d u r i n g t h e c i v i l w a r w i t h o n e o f t h e m p l a y i n g a c i g a r b o x f i d d l e d a t e d t o 1 8 7 6 . 1

Plans to make a cigar box banjo have also been discovered from 1884 that were published by the cofounder of the Boy Scouts of America (Beard, Daniel Carter (1882). The American Boy’s Handy Book. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0879234490.). Although these are the first documented uses, it is widely believed that the concept can be dated back to Africa from early 1800s when slaves would make and play instruments made from whatever they could find. The cigar box was 2

perfect as they were plentiful during the slave trade, and they may have used broom sticks or wood planks as the necks, stringing them using twine or salvaged wire. It is probable that this style of instruments have existed around the world since then, however, since ‘conventional’

guitars became mass produced at the turn of the Industrial Revolution, and the later development of the electric guitar in the 1930s , the need for guitars of these nature became 3

less apparent in Western society.

http://cigarboxguitars.com/about/history1

http://www.cigarboxguitars.co.uk/history-of-the-cigar-box-guitar2

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/10/invention-electric-guitar/3

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THE GREAT DEPRESSION ERAA resurgence of cigar box instruments in America became apparent during the Great Depression of the 1930s, which influenced many great American blues musicians such as Blind Willie Johnson, and made way for the jug band scene which 4

revolved around handmade instruments. ‘The Blackville Serenade’ 5This meant that those living through poverty were able to express themselves through music with handmade instruments.

MODERN REVIVALSince the introduction of social media and forums online in the 21st century, the humble cigar box guitar once again featured a revival termed ‘The Cigar Box Guitar Revolution’ by enthusiasts. Sites with large resources of information on the instruments such as cigarboxnation.com began to gain momentum as it developed a cult status in many countries around the world. Online shops such as c.b.gitty.com, a premier ‘cigar box guitar parts’ shop were also set up so that parts such as pickups and tuning heads were easily accessible to people that wanted to make their own, and the movement began to grow. Cigar Box Guitars and related instruments are now a world wide phenomena as they are played and built in almost every country, as shown on forums such as Cigar Box Nation.

http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/jug-band-ma00000123514

http://junksvilleguitars.com/page19.html5

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N A S H V I L L E , T N . Nashville, Tennessee was the first stop of my Fellowship where I was to meet four individuals makers and players. Within a few hours of being downtown in Nashville I had come across the first cigar box guitar by chance, which was hanging on the wall of a market and was made by Jonathan Greiner who I had arranged to meet the next day. I also noticed gig posters in the alleyways with cigar box guitar performances from Stacy Mitchhart throughout the week, proving that these instruments were part of a widespread movement.

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T R AV I S B O W L I N Travis Bowlin born in Aurora, Ohio, is a reputable blues, roots & rock musician and maker of cigar box guitars in Nashville, Tennessee. He discovered his passion for roots music at a young age and started playing guitar at around 15. In 2015 alone he played over 200 shows and was endorsed by major guitar companies, following a signing to an independent record label, and later touring across Australia.

In 2015 Travis Bowlin also started his adventure with handmade instruments and his synonymously named business, Bowlin’s Box Instruments in which he specialises 6

with custom cigar box guitars, basses, lap steel, harmonica microphones, and cajons (Box drums). Since then he has built and sold over 100 instruments as well as incorporating his handmade instruments into his performance, which has gained him notable popularity. I was able to meet with Travis at the Nashville Spring Market where he often sources his materials for making guitars. This is the primary aspect of cigar box guitars that sets them apart from modern factory guitars, as they are made from salvaged materials that the maker can find which makes each one unique to their local environment. I found that genuine cigar boxes and guitar parts were much more common to find at the markets there than in the UK, which may explain why the movement became so popular in the USA. As both a musician and a builder of CBGs, Travis has seen the full potential of these instruments which he explained has helped him to appreciate the history of blues musicians in America, and had made his music more authentic by playing an instrument that he made himself.

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During the interview with Travis he spoke of the principles 7

he believes the cigar box guitar teaches. Firstly he spoke of the reward and pride that is achieved from personally building something that functions as a real instrument, knowing exactly how much effort went into each detail is something that he believes to be extremely satisfying. We both could agree that this would reward young people, as they could learn a lot from the skills used in making such an instrument. He admitted that he never would have thought of building something that could be played if it wasn’t for online tutorials that he found, which he though could make young people aware of their potential within their own hands. Through making instruments with what he had available, Travis was able to gain an understanding of basic hand tools which he said became useful for other jobs that require similar skills.Travis explained that the fretting and the proportioning process of making a simple instrument taught him a lot about the mathematics involved in musical scales, which are crucial to make an instrument function efficiently. Again, this is something that young people could benefit from as it helps to combine mathematics with music and crafts.

A number of positive attributes about the cigar box guitar were discussed but above all it was said that the power of enabling someone to make their own music cheaply and authentically was the best of all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94XuAxJnYvA7

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JONATHAN GREINER Jonathan Greiner is the founder of Lucky Box Guitars which was founded in Gallatin, TN in 2010. Jon describes his work as “Unique instruments of a wide variety reflecting the history of many cultures and eras, and made straight from the south!”

As a native Tennesseean, Jon has been heavily involved with the local art and crafts scene, and has seen how cigar box guitars have evolved throughout the years, and seeing new builders and players come into town. We met at a local thrift store in which, similarly to Travis, he finds pleasure in finding ‘junk’ and incorporating it into his guitar builds. Learning how two different makers from the same state sourced their materials for building guitars highlighted that each cigar box guitar is entirely unique and influenced by what they can find. Jon explained that his business name ‘Lucky Box Guitars’ stemmed from this idea. He thanks his luck for the ability to find junk that can be repurposed and turned into real, functional instruments, and for the chance of luck that allowed him to learn more about the world of cigar box guitars in a time of personal need.

Since making his first one string guitar eight years ago using no more than a butter knife, a pocket knife, a screwdriver, and one piece of 180 grit sandpaper, Jonathan has now made over 500 cigar box guitars to this day.

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Unlike a lot of other makers that I’ve met, Jon takes pride in strictly using hand tools only. I was able to see his entire process and learn some of the techniques he uses for hand shaping his necks. His no power tool policy means that his process is electricity free, and he believes that he is preserving the legacy of historical cigar box guitar builders in previous eras who would have built them in a similarly primitive way. This humble technique also highlighted the idea that you do not need many tools to build an instrument like these, as they can be made with a few common hand tools. Something we both agreed that the youth of our society could be enlightened with in this age of technology.

Amongst his own ethos, he explained that he would eventually like to use his business as a means of helping youth and disadvantaged individuals who could benefit from crafts and music. “If you’re young and you want to make something, start with some poplar, get yourself a rasp, some files, a saw, and.. how about that!” Jon was a great source of contacts for other CBG connections, and also arranged an interview between us and Tennessee Craft who promote Tennessee’s locally 8

made arts and crafts and help to connect artists with one another, and were very supportive of Jon’s work.

http://tennesseecraft.org8

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J U S T I N J O H N S O N 9

Justin Johnson is a roots, blues, and rock musician who has toured internationally, and is most famously recognised for his use of handmade roots instruments such as the cigar box guitar, shovel guitar, and diddley bow. I met him in Tennessee, where he was able to show me his extensive collection of instruments and allow me to conduct an interview about roots instruments, and a tutorial on how to play the three string shovel guitar. Justin first came across roots instruments at a show in North Carolina where he was presented with a four string cigar box guitar, which was well received by his crowd and he has not stopped playing cigar box guitars since.“As a huge fan of blues music I wanted to work out where this instrument falls in the history of it. The more I dug into the history of roots instruments the more I realised that all of those people (famous blues musicians) started off on a homemade cigar box guitar, and so I thought this is something I need to explore and that’s where the journey began.” Me: What is it about cigar box guitars you prefer over

conventional modern guitars?Justin: “I love Fenders and Stratocasters but there’s a chaos and a genius to cigar box guitars in their simplicity and the lack of knowing what they’re doing next. They make you work for the notes, and with so many people chasing that lo-fi sound and a DIY philosophy with music and art, this is very appealing for that.”

http://www.justinjohnsonlive.com9

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Me: In what ways do you think they’ve helped other people?Justin: “I’ve been really grateful that I could help inject some of that roots music knowledge base into schools, as music programmes get cancelled with funding, it’s so important to look for other ways to make music into something that’s relevant to education. These instruments are really important for doing that in my experience because if you built a simple instrument in school with a teacher who’s willing to make that accessible to kids, then they can create there own instrument and make their own music with it. They start thinking ‘nothing’s impossible’, and thinking about solutions to problems instead of reasons why they can’t do something. I’ve seen it happen in person and it’s so inspiring, I’m getting chills just thinking about the experience. I’ve seen people that are 80 years old and say ‘when I was fifteen I wanted to play guitar so bad and I picked it up and someone told me I was terrible so I haven’t played since. Now i’m 80 and I want to play something.’ Well I say get a 3 string guitar and tune it to an open tuning and you can play with one finger, don't worry about how it sounds and just have fun with it.”

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KEITH CRUMBLEY Keith Crumbley is an avid cigar box guitar maker and enthusiast, he has built around 60 cigar box guitars including ones played by Justin Johnson. I met Keith by chance in the carpark of the venue where Justin Johnson was playing a gig. I noticed a picture of a cigar box guitar on his t-shirt and introduced myself.

Keith: “I was in Nashville Saturday at a Justin Johnson concert at "Two Old Hippies" when George came up to me and introduced himself, then started talking about Cigar Box Guitars. I told him I build them and he proceeded to tell me he was from the UK and was in the US on a Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Association learning about Cigar Box Guitars and asked if I would tell a little bit more about the ones I build. I told George that I could also show him a few of my Cigar Box Guitars. And this is the interview he did with me. Check out George’s whole blog on Cigar Box Guitars, he is doing an amazing job of getting all the information on them. Thank you George.” - Keith Crumbley. Keith was first introduced to cigar box guitars by his son Matt Crumbley who encouraged him to try building one, since then he has built over 60 guitars which he either sells or generously donates to good causes. Me: So what is it that you enjoy about building cigar box guitars? 

Keith: I love to build them to see how they are going to turn out. You never know how they’re going to look or sound until it’s a finished product. Each box is different in shape and size!

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Me: Would you say there’s some sort of community spirit surrounding these instruments? 

Keith: Yes there’s a community spirit. There are several groups of ‘CBG’ folks that get together to share ideas and play together. There are cigar box festivals that bring a lot of folk who have never heard of cigar box guitars and it also brings together a lot of builders.

Me: Do you think the ethos of cigar box guitars could benefit the youth of our societies? 

Keith: Yes it could. It would give our youth of today more knowledge of how the CBG was used as a part of our musical culture. It could also teach them that their hands are capable of making something they can use.

Me: Is there anything else you’d like to say about them? 

Keith: George, I think what you’re doing is great by helping to spread the word of this art, building and playing roots musical instruments. Myself along with all the other roots instrument builders would like to thank you for helping keep a heritage alive.

During my interview in London for the Fellowship, a member of the panel asked me: “So what exactly does the cigar box guitar movement look like, and how do you know when it’s around?” Well, there’s their answer: It’s in the back of Keith’s car.

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ADAM SIKES: SIKES GUITARS. Adam Sikes is a maker of handmade instruments from North West Georgia, specialising in oil can guitars and biscuit-tin style ukuleles. I met with Adam at his workshop to learn more about his work. Adam was first introduced to a 3 string cigar box guitar from a video online, and being a drummer that struggled with learning conventional 6 string he found it appealing, and soon made his first own oil can guitar to play. He has now made over 150 instruments in the last four years. “The thing that I like most about making guitars is that I don’t really think about anything else when i’m doing it, and they actually work.”“Being able to work with your hands and then when you’re done making something, actually being able to use it and show it off is amazing.. then you can go and start a band with it and play with other people!” “People’s first reaction is confusion. They have no idea

what they are. They think it’s just a guitar shaped.. thing. After I explain what they are and actually plug it in… that’s the best part for me.” “If it were something that other people didn't spread the word about then I wouldn’t know about it, and it brings me a lot of joy so absolutely i think more people should know about it universally.”Adam’s use of metal cans reflects his studies of metal work in college, which he has also tailored with what

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materials are available to him. As a drummer learning to make and play these instruments he has proven how accessible they can be. He believes that more people should know about them to get involved with making music from handmade instruments and thanks online resources such as Cigar Box Nation and other videos online that promote cigar box guitars and their surrounding ethos.

Adam uses a common technique known as wood lamination which allows him to use contrasting stripes of wood to make up the guitar neck and headstock. This enables smaller and slightly less durable pieces of wood to be formed together to create a stronger piece, though Adam uses it with various exotic woods for a beautiful striped effect. For this instrument he’s

used wenge with a paduak streak and fretboard, both native African species of wood. The body is a Sunoco motor oil can. fitted with a P90 pickup with volume and tone. One knob fuzz effect.

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M I K E S N OW D E N Mike Snowden is a musician and a maker of cigar box guitars. He is known as a key figure in the recent revival of cigar box guitars, and has made and sold over 1,400 of them to people all over the world including celebrities such as Ozzy Osbourne and Jeff Daniels.

Mike has been building and playing cigar box guitars for almost ten years now. He said that once he started making and playing his first cigar box guitar he hasn’t picked up a conventional guitar since. Me: “Why the cigar box?” “I think all these cigar boxes could have been thrown out as trash. Think about how much we throw out that we could do something with. I’ve added some tuners and strings and instead now you can jam on it.. all recycled.” Me: “What inspires you to make them?”MS: “Making stuff with your own hands in this world we live in where everything is just plastic or just punched out, made in a factory in china in some factory. This is something you can make with your hands and be proud of.”

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Me: “Would you say they could benefit the youth?” Yeah, I do kids workshops with simple little one string guitars. It’s great watching them making a guitar, it’s really cool that they can make them on their own. I’m sure some of the kids have never used power tools so it’s pretty neat to let them do that. Snowden explained that he used to be in a band who were touring with 250 shows a year. This became tedious and he wanted to take a break from it, admitting he never wanted to touch another guitar,

until he discovered cigar box guitars. As he began playing them it allowed him to step away from conventional guitars and enabled him to discover something different. He’s now released several albums of cigar box guitar music, and continues to spread the word about cigar box guitars as much as possible.

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S A M A N T H A F I S H

Samantha fish from Kansas, Missouri, is a rock n’ roll, soul & blues musician renowned for playing a cigar box guitar. She is often hailed as the queen of cigar box guitar, after beginning to perform on stage at 18 and later winning Best New Artist at the Blues Music awards in Memphis, TN.

Me: “How did you discover cigar box 10

guitars?”Samantha: “I saw some guys selling them on the street so I bought one and started messing around with it, and then started adding it in my shows.” Me: “How do people react to it?” Samantha: “They freak out because it’s such a weird looking guitar. A lot of people are like “it’s cute!” then i’ll plug it in and it sound so beastly. I think they like it. We have people yelling for it at shows because i’ve been keeping it until the end, it’s

a crowd favourite. They’re unique and they’ve got a big powerful sound. It’s interesting how people really connect with it, they love that guitar.”

https://www.pinterest.com/brucemorris1/samantha-fish/10

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Me: “What is it about the CBG that captivates you?” Samantha: “I think when I first heard it when I was 18 I was so inspired. It’s nostalgic for me because I loved it when I was a teenager. It’s really got such a unique heavy kind of tone. That’s the reason why kids love the Black Keys and Jack White because of that heavy rock and roll tone soI can see it being used in more mainstream music. I remember Paul McCartney playing one a while back and then there was a slight boom of cigar box guitars everywhere. It’s all about the song you use it on. Someone’s yet to make a pop hit with a cigar box guitar, I guess when that happens kids will dive more into it a little more.Me: Do you think they could benefit the youth more? Samantha: “I think just finding a different approach to music in general great for youth. Expanding their vision of how it could be. I guess it changed my approach to guitar because it’s such a melody based instrument, there’s not a lot of crazy lead it’s more about the melody so it gave me a different approach.” Similarly to Snowden, Samantha Fish has created a different approach to her music by playing a handmade cigar box guitar. Samantha also plays conventional

guitar extremely well, though she admits that the cigar box guitar is a crowd favourite for its unique tone and look.

Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka-

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KhjFserU BEN “GITTY” BAKERBen is the owner of C.B.Gitty, a premier supplier of parts, kits and gear to the cigar box guitar and handmade music movement. From beginning as a small hobby funding, Ben’s business has now expanded with a 13,000 square foot building, eight employees and thousands of products, all to enable enthusiasts around the world to build their own cigar box guitar. I met with Ben in New Orleans, along with the fellow musician and artist Amzie Adams, plus Collins Kirby, who is responsible for organising the New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival. Left to right: Amzie Adams, Ben Gitty Baker, Collins Kirby, and me at the Frenchman. Me: What would you say are the benefits of building a CBG? Ben Baker: There’s the artistic side of decorating and painting or designing the instrument, there’s the music side of course for those schools that still have music programmes… there’s the science side! I’ve had

physics teachers build electric cigar box guitars building them with their physics students to study the physics of sound and how electro-magnetic pickups work. There’s a lot of different angles to these things, on the surface it’s a stick through a box with three strings but there’s a lot more to it. I found in dealing with teachers and parents with children who build these instruments, that if you hand a child a guitar such as a les paul or martin, the chances of that taking root can be pretty slim. But if the child can built something and decorate it how they want then it makes a lasting impact. I think there’s a lot of potential there and we’re directly seeing that there potential, though there’s still more there. Shane (Speal) and I like to say that it’s still a tiny percentage of people who know about these and we’re trying to get the word out.

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AMZIE ADAMS Amzie Adams is a multimedia artist, poet, actor, musician, filmmaker and painter who has been a French Quarter icon for over forty years. He began his musical career by playing a dulcimer with a band in Mexico and Canda, he explained that one of the first instruments he built was with a chunk of wood that came from the Mississippi River. His latest is a 6 string lap guitar made from 3 Padron cigar boxes, and a two string bass guitar. Me: How did you hear about CBG’s? Amzie: I heard they started down in Mississippi and they’d take their Mother’s broom and they’d take the wire around the broom so it’d fall apart and they’d stick it on a twig, steal their father’s snuff box for the sound box and they’d play ‘em with a turkey feather. Me: How did it influence your music? Amzie: (About his handmade instrument) This thing changed my whole style. When I built this, I painted it and I thought it looked great. I said you know, I think this thing looks better than me! I had to step my game up.

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K E N B U T L E R Ken Butler is an artist and musician who is known for experimenting with the creation of hybrid musical instruments. His creations and his performance with them explore the interaction and transformation of objects and sounds in a concise collision of form and function, blurring the line between art and music. Though he does not make cigar box guitars, I found his inspiration had derived similarly as mine from early 20th century Dada and Surrealism, and a similar ethos can be linked between his work and those of the cigar box guitar makers. Butler made his first hybrid instrument by accident in 1978 by adding a fingerboard, tailpiece, pegs, bridge, and contact microphone to a small hatchet which he then played as a violin, since then he has made hundreds of instruments in a process that he calls ‘bricoluthiery’ as a culmination of bricolage and luthiery. On the right: Torso Cello 1994.

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Me: What inspires you to make these instruments? KB: Mostly when I make an instrument it’s because i’ve found an object that resembles the body of an instrument, I attach a neck and then make it sound as good as possible though I know that sometimes this won’t work out. Me: Do you only use trash? KB: It’s not necessarily about trash, it’s just about re-contextualising the normal environment around you. If you really look at man made objects you’ll understand that they’re already proportioned to our bodies, therefore they have a potential to be turned into instruments. For example, picking up a tennis racket and pretending it’s a guitar. The shape’s already there. The reason for the trash, that’s where you visual randomness, and have the opportunity to be a bricoleur. It’s not that i’m drawn to it but that’s how it ends up. On the street it’s inherently in a chaotic situation, the random association creativity happens in a garbage heap more than anywhere else. It’s about transformation. The sound for me is a byproduct of that visual relationship, what i’m after

first is the poetry. I say ‘collisions’ of forms and functions because i’m trying to reform instead of make something from scratch. How do you interact with these musical instruments, compared to ‘conventional’ instruments? It’s something humble you know.. “don’t touch that guitar!” it’s ridiculous. Who wants to have anything that you have to be careful with like that? There was a point when i was throwing these things around. What is a musical instrument? I would love to be on a panel, because of course; everything is a musical instrument, but that’s not the point. From meeting with Ken Butler I was able to think about the philosophy of musical instruments in a much broader sense. After stepping out of his apartment, the whole of Brooklyn because a musical instrument to me. Though Butler’s visual desire may be different than that of a cigar box guitar maker, the underlying value of creating a unique instrument that inspires an opportunity to make and think about music in a new way, is much the same.

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Conclusions & Further RecommendationsHow could the ethos of the cigar box guitar movement benefit the youth of our society? I have learned from each individual that i’d met in the USA that the ethos of cigar box guitar builders and players could be highly beneficial for the youth, and generally all ages in the UK. The more I have learnt about cigar box guitars the more I have become aware of the rate at which the movement is growing. There are many makers and builders already in the UK, though I believe there is much more potential in this especially for the youth. What is the correlation with cigar box guitars and academic subjects, and how could they be combined? This theme had arisen with almost all of the makers and players of cigar box guitars that i’ve met. There is a very coherent correlation with these instrument and academic subjects such as the mathematics involved in proportioning the instrument and measuring the scale length of the frets, the laws of physics involved with an electro-magnetic pickup, the artistic side of their design.Then there is the physical construction of them, and of course, the music. Above all, the most beneficial ethos of this movement is one that would teach youths that they have the power to build something simple with their own hands that functions as a working instrument, using recycled and salvaged materials.

The first recommendation I would make is to widen the awareness of the educational possibilities of these instruments, this could be done by introducing them into schools and educational programmes where children and young adults could learn how to make them. As previously mentioned, these instruments encompass values from a range of academic subjects and could be introduced into different lessons. The instruments could be made in a club or lesson such as design technology, woodworking, or art & design, and would then create an opportunity for the maker to learn how to play the guitar in a simple and fun way. 

I will continue to host workshops and lessons at festivals across the UK, which I have previously been running. With new knowledge of techniques and information about the history of this movement I will be able to pass on the benefits more efficiently. 

I would recommend that online resources such as Cbgitty.com, and cigarboxnation.com should be utilised to provide information and guidance on both building and playing cigar box guitars, I believe these are both valuable resources that could also connect people with a wide community of fellow musicians and creative people. These also keep up to date schedules of cigar box guitar related events 

I hope that the UK cigar box guitar scene can continue to expand with sufficient support and I recommend that music venues should embrace it as a cultural movement in order to promote it, whilst also maintaining connections with the American cigar box guitar scene. 

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Index of Organisations: Travis Bowlin of Bowlin’s Box Guitars https://travisbowlin.com Jonathan Greiner of Lucky Box Guitarshttps://www.facebook.com/LuckyBoxGuitars/ Justin Johnson http://www.justinjohnsonlive.comKeith Crumbley of Crumbly Casters https://www.facebook.com/CrumbleyCaster/ Adam Sikes of Sikes’ Guitarshttps://www.instagram.com/sikesguitars/ Mike Snowden of Snowden Guitars https://snowdenguitars.com Samantha Fishhttp://www.samanthafish.comBen ‘Gitty’ Baker of C.B.Gitty.com Amzie Adamshttp://amzieadams.com Ken Butler http://kenbutler.squarespace.com