Guiros, Whistles, & Musical Blocks

Guiros, whistles and wooden blocks together, the instruments a classroom reaches for when a sound needs describing rather than a beat needs keeping.

Guiros are scraped. A ridged surface is dragged with a stick, giving a rasp whose length and speed the player controls entirely, which is why a guiro can imitate a frog, a creaking door or a footstep as easily as it can hold a rhythm. Wooden fish, frog, cat, pig, crocodile and iguana guiros are stocked alongside plain wooden, plastic, gourd-shaped and metal models.

Whistles cover the bird calls and effects: an owl whistle in four sizes, a bamboo loon whistle, a bamboo bird slide whistle, a moulded slide whistle and a multi-chambered wooden train whistle. Kazoos in metal and plastic are hummed rather than blown.

Wooden blocks are the struck side. Wood blocks, double tone blocks, tick-tock blocks and a multi-tone tank give clear dry notes at definite pitches, and mounted temple block sets of five give a rounder, more resonant knock across a rising scale.

Between them, these three families cover most of what a class needs to score a story, illustrate a habitat or build a soundscape.