OXNARD : Students Find Music for Saw Can Be Sharp

At 2:30 p.m., the sounds coming out of Classroom 20 at Driffill School in Oxnard had an eerie, ghostly quality about them.

Inside were six students, ages 10 to 12. Seated on wooden chairs, they each balanced a saw between their knees, playing away on the blades with bows.

“It makes a real neat sound and it’s so different from other instruments,” said Enedel Contreras, 12, adding that he plays the violin, guitar, bass and the piano.

The aspiring saw players are sixth-grade students in Terry Bergman’s class. Bergman is an elementary instructor who volunteers his time after class to teach saw-playing.

The hourlong course, which began three weeks ago, takes place Wednesday and Friday afternoons.

Although popular in the 1920s and 30s, saw-playing long ago fell out of fashion, Bergman said. Now, people such as Bergman, a violinist, are trying to revive it, he said.

“I think saw makes a beautiful sound and it’s easy to learn how to play it,” said Bergman, adding that he learned how to play saw two years ago from a book. “Because it’s low-tech, kids learn it quickly.”

As he taught the class Wednesday, 11-year-old Mayra Reyes slanted a saw’s handle between her knees. Then she grasped the tip of the blade, placing a thumb on the top side and the remaining fingers in the bottom side of the blade.

She then bent the blade and drew a wood stick on the blade’s edges, producing an eerie melody of the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

“She does a pretty good job,” Bergman said. “The key to playing saw is to hold the instrument firmly while making it vibrate.”

Although not a demanding instrument, it can be a strain on the fingers, Mayra said.

“I really like it, “ she said. “But it’s really hard on my fingers.