From My Workbench to Your Hands
Hello, friends. My name is Cory, and I am the creator of Goofy Fish Drums. Fish drums are a modern take on a Mo Nhip, which is a Vietnamese musical instrument. The version I created, though, was made to be fun and silly. At the same time, I realized it’s fun to take seriously as well. It’s a chill way to make beats and jam out acoustically. I wanted to make it small enough that I could carry it around with me and not be left behind. This instrument sounds so cool when played with different effects and as an accompanying instrument. It’s a new way to experiment with mouth drumming, and I truly hope you enjoy it!
Why fish drums-
I appreciate instruments that can be played without a musical background or can be learnt with little effort. They are gifts and allow anyone to make music. Music is about spreading love and joy to me. I have faith and hope that someday there will be a group of fish drummers, and people will become more familiar with what a Mo Nhip is.
Creating the drum-
I created the Goofy Fish Mouth Drum one day, experimenting with materials for instruments that originated from South Africa. Why’d I put that piece of metal up to my mouth? I enjoy experimenting with sounds. I thought “hmm.. this is cool. I wonder what I could do with this.” I made a lot of prototypes and tried six different tone woods. It went from a rectangular piece of wood with a handle and a separate mallet to going to my scroll saw and working on a shape before laser cutting. It just so happens that I love fish, so it’s no wonder I made it look fishy :)
My little helper-
My 2.5-year-old niece at the time helped me with the length of the shape and implementing a type of googly eye mallet. She thought it looked silly. She helped pick out buzzer bead colors, too.
Conclusion-
I’m proud of this instrument and happy I found an instrument to make and share with others, and to do it in a way that is true to me.
I feel blessed. Thank you for reading, and feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions!
Your fellow Goofy Fish Drummer,
Cory