Recently we took an empty Pringles chips can (a long cylinder), filled it with groats and now can use it to play rhythms or imitate the sound of rain. How is such an instrument called and where could I read more about playing it?
I've heard about rainsticks, can my thing be called so?
It falls into the large family of 'shakers'.
'A rainstick is a long, hollow tube partially filled with small pebbles or beans that has small pins or thorns arranged helically on its inside surface. When the stick is upended, the pebbles fall to the other end of the tube, making a sound reminiscent of rain falling.'
If you feel your instrument matches that specification, by all means call it a rainstick. Does it give a gradual 'rain falling' effect when inverted? If it lacks this defining feature of a rainstick - the internal obstructions that delay the contents from moving all at once - and needs constant shaking maybe better to call it just a shaker.
