My husband, Bruce, and I recently spent a delightful morning at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida.  We'd seen an ad for free lessons on playing the musical saw.  It sounded like it would be a hoot.  After all, I play handbells and my husband is a lapsed violinist with perfect pitch.  Oh, and we each can play one song on the harmonica, Oh! Susanna.  We knew we had as good a shot as anyone at success.

In fact, we envisioned ourselves at the annual local talent show.  Husband in tails, me in a long flowing gown as his "lovely assistant.”  He'd walk out on stage and pull forth the saw from its custom-made case to play sweet melodies while I turned the pages of the sheet music.  Candle flames would flicker, lending just the right degree of graciousness to the evening.  Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

In anticipation of our lesson, my husband found his grandfather's carpentry saw in the garage.  After removing the cobwebs, he used steel wool to buff off the rust (on my unprotected kitchen sink, but let's not go there).  Once the blade was shining, we discovered his grandfather's name had been stamped on the steel.  What's more interesting is that his name was misspelled.  So, the question became, who stamped it?  The hardware store where he bought it, one of the students in the high school where he'd been a janitor, or was it a gift and someone had thoughtfully put his name on it or tried to?  We'll never know.

Anyway, we were on the road by 7:30 a.m., saw, violin bow, and rosin in hand - not knowing what to expect.  The day was bright, hot and humid, justifying Florida as the "Sunshine State.”  While we traveled, we speculated how one would play the saw.  Would the teeth point away from or toward the body?  If they pointed away, wouldn't they cut the bow hair to shreds in the space of a couple of strokes?  If the teeth pointed in, wouldn't they cut the lap and deter procreation? 

The ranger at the Stephen Foster Park pointed in the direction of the "hall” in the woods where Elmore K. Harper was offering instruction on the musical saw.  With only three other cars in the lot, I was half worried that this venture might be a waste of time and half sorry that no one had shown up for Elmore's sake.   However, we were about twenty minutes early so I was gratified to see that by 10 o'clock, the place had filled with about 25 prospective students.

Elmore was a senior citizen with kind eyes and a pleasant manner.  He projected the pure desire to promote his craft to future generations.  Saws of all sizes were lining the wall behind Elmore as well as some violin bows and odd looking homemade bows fashioned from yardsticks.  He began with a twenty-minute concert of a variety of music to the accompaniment of a full orchestra, courtesy of a tape player.  Frankly, after his first three strokes, the students' faces were awash in grins.  His musical saw literally sang!  One tone flowed smoothly into the next as he bent the blade back and forth to play different melodies from Amazing Grace to My Old Kentucky Home.  His rapidly bouncing foot produced a vibrato, which separated him from the amateurs.  I was motivated because I knew I, too, could bounce my foot.

After enthusiastic applause, Elmore tried my husband's saw.  He was able to play an octave and a half only explaining that the steel in the carpentry saw was heavy and, therefore, less flexible producing less range.  It would be good for simple melodies like the Red River Valley, which was to be our practice piece. 

After brief instruction, someone cried from the back, "Let the attack begin!”  Bows in hand, everyone attempted to make music.  I use the word music as loosely as possible.  The result was little more than an irregular, incessant screeching.

"Listen, honey, I made a sound,” I called out to my husband through the din. 

"No you didn't,” corrected the lady nearby with definite pride.  "That was me!”

"Hey, I'm getting' good,” bragged my mate.  "I think I played two notes in a row.  Forget that they don't sound like any parts of Red River Valley.  I'm on my way to the big time!”

"Just call me Janie-One-Note,” I told the man behind me.  "But what a note it is.”  By bending my saw, like Elmore did his, I'd discovered I could raise and lower my hard-earned note for dramatic effect.

We stroked, we strummed, we did our best and the result was pretty miserable, yet thoroughly fun.  We declined purchasing a professional musical saw for $65.00 until either one or the other of us masters Grampa's.   I'm convinced that if I put away a penny every week, by the time I've saved 6,500 of them, my husband or I may be able to play five notes.  Or not.

Sawed Samplings (Trivia)

Legend has it that saw playing began by accident when someone dropped a saw or whipped the blade back and forth in the air producing a tone. 

Thought to have begun in the Ozark Mountains, saw playing graduated onto the Vaudeville stage in the 1920s. 

The saw may be played either by standing or sitting, but the preferred method is sitting.

The teeth do face toward your body and you hold the saw handle between your knees, placing your left thumb (if you're right handed) on the front of the blunt tip of the metal end and four fingers of your left hand on the back.  You then apply pressure with your thumb, pressing down to form a slight "S” curve in the blade.  Without the "S” curve, you will not get any sound.

A good playing saw needs to be at least 26” long.  Musical saws are available from 28” to 30”.  The additional length can extend the range up to three and a half octaves.

You can use a violin bow or you can create a homemade bow from half a dozen 18” lengths of fishing line secured with metal sinkers.  Cut a notch on both ends of a 20” strip of yardstick, attaching the fishing line to each notch and bending the yardstick into a slight curve.   You hold the bow at a 90° angle against the flat edge of the saw.  You play by stroking slowly with slight to medium pressure.  The bow can be drawn up and down and should be practiced both ways. 

Mussehl & Westphal was the first professional saw company manufacturing 30,000 musical saws per year from the '20s to the 1930s.  

During the Depression, musical saw sales fell drastically.

There was a shortage of steel during World War II, and saw companies closed their doors.

Presently, there are manufactures worldwide including Germany and Sweden.  France makes "toothless” musical saws.  

One difference between a carpentry saw and a musical saw is the teeth.  The teeth of regular saws are slightly bent to the side so the blade doesn't bind when cutting wood.  The teeth of musical saws are straight, making it slightly safer. 

Steel has a grain like wood.  Carpentry saws are laid out efficiently to get the most saw blades possible from a sheet of steel.  Musical saws are laid the length of the grain so they have a more brilliant tone.  Fewer musical saws can be cut with the grain from a sheet of steel and, therefore, an actual musical saw is more costly.

Remember, saw playing is good, clean, all-American family fun that everyone can try!

Elmore K. Harper is available for musical saw concerts free of charge if you are willing to pay travel and food expenses for him and his wife.  His phone number is 904/961-8460.