Instruments
Participation. The number and nature of instruments which a hospital should have will depend only upon budget limitations and the interest of the community. There is no limit except storage space to the number and variety of instruments which a hospital should accept as gifts. Ideally there should be at least one of each of the major instruments. Each instrument should have its own case, and it is wise to engrave the hospital name on each instrument to minimize loss. The initials of the hospital may be cut into an inconspicuous part of the instrument such as the inside of the brass bell or the under side of the wood body. All the instruments should be locked in cabinets when not in use.
In addition to regular band instruments, small instruments which can be played in bed should be acquired. These can be divided into those of normal construction such as the ukulele, mandolin, and autoharp and the toneless instruments which can be made by removing the resonating body. A toneless violin can be constructed from a donated violin in poor condition by mounting the tailpiece, bridge, and fingering element on a narrow strip of wood or plastic. A piece of rubber “kneeling” pad makes a good practice drum head.
For children toy instruments such as the Typatune, the toy-xylophone, trumpet, maracas, etc. should be available.
Listening. A room should be designated as a “Music Listening Room.” For economy of use this may be a multi-purpose room. It may be a combination of the music aide’s office and musical library used at selected hours of the day for both practice and listening. It should contain an instrument for playing recordings. The choice of record player should depend upon the sound produced by the instrument rather than its name. The record player for the listening room should have an automatic changer and wide tone control if possible. Because of the excellence of many musical broadcasts a combination radio-record player is most desirable.
Portable record players are also desirable for the bedside listening of those who request it. In hospitals not equipped with public address systems, the portable record player can act as an excellent substitute for it. If the player is mounted on a cart fitted with shelves for records and albums, it can be wheeled from one ward to another for daily musical periods. If the hospital has small-sized lantern slides with words to songs imprinted (such as those supplied Service groups during the war by the USO), a small slide projector should be added to the music cart to be used on the darkened ward for ward songs.