Music Instrument (Sompoton)
Posted by Crys JoanSaxophone, it’s a well known music instrument all over the world. Do you know that in Sabah (Borneo) we also have this music instrument called Sompoton, and it work almost the same way with Saxophone?
I bet most of you must be wondering what on earth Sompoton is. Well, actually Sompoton is a traditional Kadazan music instruments for the Dusun tribes in Sabah. Traditionally it was from Kampung Tikolod, Tambunan. It is now prevalent among Dusuns and Muruts. This mouth organ is the most fascinating of the Sabah native musical instruments, and it is still quite common.
So, how does it look like? The sompoton has a gourd wind chamber from which extend 8 pipes arranged in two rows. One of the pipes has no sound, but merely balances the bundle. By blowing or sucking the gourd’s mouth, the player can produce a soft sweet harmonious sound (so if you know how to play saxophone, then you already have the basic skills to play sompoton). While playing a sompoton, the player covers and uncovers the ends of three of the four shortest pipes with three fingers of his right hand and three small openings cut in the base of the front shortest pipe and front and back pipes of the longer raft with fingers of the left hand.
Anyone can play this sompoton, and it can be played anywhere. For example, if you like to do this online stock trading, you can still play and practice with your sompoton while checking the daily stock picks. Often it is played solo, for personal expression but also can be played in groups to accompany dancing.
See, it’s easy to play this instrument, just by blowing or sucking, but let me remind you, that you must good at controlling your breathing, or you will not be able to produce the soft sweet harmonious sound that you want.
