Echocellos

Hamilton (Gray St) Primary School
Echocellos and marimbas

The echocello is a one-string, keyed, coil-spring and box resonated bowed cello. It is freestanding but tilts back for playing

The coil spring contacts the bowed wire, transmitting vibrations to a pipe resonator inside the body of the instrument. This arrangement adds ‘reverb’ to the tone of the echocello, eliminating the ‘scraping’ sound of beginner violin playing.

Almost immediately you can obtain a beautiful rounded sound from the instrument  --  especially if the music you attempt is absolutely simple  --  e.g. rhythmic repetitions on one note, tremolo passages or simple tunes like Twinkle, twinkle. Having keys means that the notes are perfectly in tune.

In the school context, echocellos make a good stepping stone towards string playing. Many of the pieces in my Marimba Music books/CDs have parts suitable for echocellos. Arrangements including marimbas and echocellos need to take into account the fact that marimbas are mostly played more loudly than echocellos – having contrasting sections in which the cellos play with only one or two marimbas or with glockenspiels is an effective solution.

Here are some pieces and parts suitable for echocellos:

From Marimba Music for Little Kids

• The Annual Thing  --  easy ostinato and melody 1
• Scooby Dooby Doo
• The White Flower

From Marimba Music 2

• Walkin’ the Buzz
• My father’s House
• Pachelbel’s canon melodies 1 and 2

From Marimba Music 1

• Clouds
• Canon by Purcell ostinati
• Banuwa

From Marimba songs

• Blue Danube Waltz (responses)
• Broyges Tanz (second section echocello part)
• Capriccio (melody, second half especially)