Musical leaf

Something fishy is going on.

On the itinerary, it says, ...Leaf performance?

What on earth is that?

It turns out that the group of people who had just arrived, declared themselves as 'the one and only leaf performers in Malaysia'.

There were about 12 of them, and they gave of an impression of being a large family, as the group consisted of two elders, one child and the rest of them adults.

Just before the performance, one of the elders distributed a piece of green leaf to everyone. Yes, it is really just an ordinary green leaf (shaped like a heart), no tricks nor secret involved! The leader then took his own piece of leaf and gently pressed it to his lips. And almighty, he drew music from the leaf!

A pure resounding note came from the leaf! Then his members generously weaved in their melodies and encouraged to crowd to try. Everyone scrambled to follow suit and those without the leaf rushed to get one. The elders happily demonstrated the proper way to hold and blow the leaf to create music, and got everyone really engaged. However, before long, it was evident that none had their talent as the audience could not replicate their feat no matter how they huff and puff!

The men, women and girl then took center stage to perform something almost all of us would have never believed possible with the choice of instrument. Standing in a single straight line flanked by the two elders on either side, they began blowing simultaneously and produced the popular theme song, Doraemon! Everyone clapped, some in utter delight as they recognized the familiar childhood tune. What a miracle it was! They delivered two more songs, an upbeat Chinese song followed by a melancholy Spanish/Latin song.

The leaf musical segment was refreshing and no doubt the unique choice of instrument would leave an everlasting impression. One could only marvel at the music coming from such a natural, maintenance free instrument.

It maybe the most unusual musical instrument to regular, modern day folks but using a leaf to create music is not unheard of. In fact, leaf bands were quite popular in Australia, especially between the 1920's and 1940's. Credit goes to the Aborigines.

Thankfully, the art lives.

Curiousplayfan says: A leaf actually sounds like a lot like a saxophone! Good thing it's free (without compromising on the quality of the music)!