Visiting a client in Graskop I stumbled upon this. So the afrikaans guys called / calls this a 'Trompie'. Used by the 'boere manne' I have no clue what you call in in English, and I gotta figure out how to play the darn thing, but I thought it a piece of history that i need. :) What do you think? Edit: Just found out it is called a 'jaw harp'

Yeah Jaw Harp, although some refer to it wrongly as a jew/jewish harp. Fun little instrument.

studmissile wrote: although some refer to it wrongly as a jew/jewish harp.

Me, for the longest time!

My mate plays one with a vengeance - though there are cheaper ones (easyish to find here, I've had a few) and really nice ones, which I've never seen locally.

Can't play them, you need a mouth like Mick Jagger to get a sound out of them. Heard some guys making awesome sounds with these though

jews harp is. It technically an incorrect term for instrument although it has nothing to do with Jewish or Jews. Quite commonly known as a Jewish harp. The etymology of the word is a lil obscure.

Used to have these as kids , not played one in a long long time.

I've always known those things as "mouth harp".
They're fun. I enjoy changing the shape of my open mouth...like a dynamic cave.

Similar to the Nose flute. Blow through nose and use mouth to change note. Will post pick tonight

I've been having a lot of fun with this little thingy.

I found that the best way to make various sounds is to either inhale or exhale while 'playing'. This creates a sort of vibrato volume which is kinda cool. Then by changing mouth shape or even throat/tongue shape you get various different sounds out of it.

I might end up using this little guy in future competitions.

Fun...