I imagine spoon playing is becoming a lost art, but apparently it is alive and well in Newfoundland! My Irish Mom played the spoons for us.
The Irish are great improvisers. When my mom’s family and friends would go to the cottage in Donegal, Ireland, they would make their own band. They used washboards and ‘ugly sticks’ (mops with boots on the end to hit the floor with for the stomping bass), and they played the spoons to add percussion.
Try gripping two spoons back to back between the knuckles of your index finger and middle finger and rattle them together. Warning – it’s harder than it looks!
Charlie and Gary are awesome in the video below! Gary also plays the Bodran (Irish drum). Before the advent of metal spoons, the Irish used bones.