An Unusual Instrument for Sale at the Smithsonian Craft Show

May 09, 2013

Children awaiting their turn to read while poet and educator Dave Johnson looks on.

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC from VOA Learning English.

I’m June Simms.

Today we play songs from a long-awaited album from the band Phoenix.

We also tell about a way to unload unwanted clothing and still have something to wear.

But first we visit a famous show at America’s Smithsonian Institution.

Smithsonian Craft Show

The Smithsonian Craft Show is the most respected show of its kind in the United States. It is also one of the most difficult for artists to enter.

This year, more than 120 artists displayed their work in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Building Museum in Washington, DC. Steve Ember tells us about one of them.

Bob McNally considers himself both an artist and a musician. He invented an instrument he calls a Strumstick. He says it is designed to get everyone to make music.

“People are capable of playing musical instruments, but if you play an instrument and get frustrated with it early enough, you decide, it’s you, there’s something lacking in you. And I wanted to make an instrument that was a frontal assault on that misunderstanding.”

The Strumstick has only three strings. Bob McNally says that makes it easier to play than other stringed instruments.