Persimmon Woodblock Acoustic Instrument

I made this woodblock percussion instrument out of persimmon. My wife is a band director at a Christian school and her band will be using this woodblock for their Christmas concert to play Sleigh Ride. Here is a video of the build and a demo of how the woodblock sounds. This is my first time working with persimmon. I found it to be easy to work with and very handsome.

The biggest thing I learned about getting a good tone is that the slot should extend almost all the way through the woodblock (see pic below). As I was cutting the channel deeper and deeper, I stopped and tested the tone. When the slot was 2 1/2” deep, the sound was dead…like banging on a kitchen table. When I went a little deeper, I started getting a good tone.

The tone of the woodblock is great and I hope it will add, in a small way, to their performance this Christmas.

-- Patrick Parson Workshop