The document summarizes the process of making traditional percussion instruments called tarrañolas. Students from IES San Tomé de Freixeiro chose different types of wood like bubinga, African palo santo, and wengué to see how the sound varied. They marked the outlines with stencils, cut the wood pieces with saws, planed and sanded them to size, some personalized with initials, polished them smooth, and finished by varnishing the tarrañolas with shellac.

1. TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS: MAKING TARRAÑOLAS 2º ESO pupils from IES San Tomé de Freixeiro

2. Introduction Tarrañolas are percussion instruments. They are made with two rectangular strips of wood with a small joint, which are held between the fingers in such a way that one strip keeps fixed and the other can be moved .

3. The origins of the instrument are not known , they might come from The Middle East.They are featured in “Las Cantigas de Santa María”, a collection of poems in honor of the Virgin by Alfonso X.

4. PROCESO DE CONSTRUCCIÓN 1º.- Types of Wood 2º.- Processing of Wood 3º.-Stencilling 4º.- Cutting 5º.- Planing and sanding 6º.- Personalization 7º.- Polishing 8º.- Finishing

5. TYPES OF WOOD Bubinga, African palo santo and wengué were chosen in order to perceive the different sounds made by them.

6. PROCESSING OF WOOD The wood was taken to a carpenter’s shop to have it cut and ground since we don’t have the appropriate machines for processing it.

7. STENCILLING Tarrañolas stencils were put on pieces of wood to mark the outline.

8. CUTTING We crosscut both tarrañolas with a backsaw and a mitter.

9. PLANING AND SANDING We shaped the tarrañolas in such a way that they were the same size and we also rabbeted them for the fingers’ perfect fit.

10. PERSONALIZATION Some pupils decided to personalize the tarrañolas with their initials.

11. POLISHING We polished the pieces with grained sandpaper so that they felt perfect without any rough edges.

12. FINISHING The pupils varnished them with shellac once and again until they looked perfect.