Traditional Musical Instruments – Rainstick

Traditional Musical Instruments – Rainstick
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent"
- Victor Hugo -

Traditional musical instruments are developed among common people and usually does not have a known inventor. It can be made from wood, metal or any other material. Such an instrument is usually played in performances of tradional or folk music.

A rainstick is a long, hollow tube with sharp pins or thorns placed helically on its interior surface. It is partially filled with small stones, grains, or beans.
When the stick is turned over, the pebbles fall to the opposite end of the tube and sound like raindrops falling by bouncing off the internal protrusions.

The Mapuche are thought to have devised the rainstick, which they used in the hope that it would cause rainstorms. The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of present-day south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia.
Although its origin is unknown, it was also discovered on the Chilean coast, though it is not certain if it was made by the Incas.

The majority of the time, cacti like Eulychnia acida and Echinopsis pachanoi are used to make rainsticks. The hollow cacti are dried out in the sun. After the spines are removed, they are used like nails to prick the cactus. The rainstick is filled with pebbles or other tiny items, and the ends are sealed. When the rainstick is directed vertically, a sound resembling falling water is produced.

Rainsticks are frequently marketed to visitors traveling through portions of Latin America and the Southwest of the United States (which has a history of Spanish and Mexican cultural influence).


Similar instruments can also be found in Southeast Asia, Australia, and Africa; however, bamboo is frequently used in place of dried cactus in these regions.

In addition to being formed from cactus and thorns, rainsticks can also be made from other common materials like paper towel rolls and nails or toothpicks.

"When we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present"
- Alan Watts -