Washboard (musical instrument)

Conversely, the frottoir (zydeco rubboard) dispenses with the frame and consists simply of the metal ribbing hung around the neck.

It is played primarily with spoon handles or bottle openers in a combination of strumming, scratching, tapping and rolling.

There is a Polish traditional jazz festival and music award named "Złota Tarka" (Golden Washboard).

The third (and least common) method, used by Washboard Sam, Súle Greg Wilson of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Sankofa Strings, and Deryck Guyler, is to hold it in a perpendicular orientation between the legs while seated, so that both sides of the board might be played at the same time.

It is one of the few musical instruments invented entirely in the United States and represents a distillation of the washboard into essential elements (percussive surface with shoulder straps).

It was designed in 1946 by Clifton Chenier and fashioned by Willie Landry, a friend and metalworker at the Texaco refinery in Port Arthur, Texas.

Likewise, Willie's son, Tee Don Landry, continues the traditional hand manufacturing of rubboards in his small shop in Sunset, Louisiana, between Lafayette and Opelousas.

[4] In 2010 Saint Blues Guitar Workshop launched an electric washboard percussion instrument called the Woogie Board.

[5] In 1941, Spike Jones, known for playing the drums during the 1930s, started to perform with his washboard which would be his icon for his City Slickers that formed that same year.

During their early years, Mungo Jerry frequently featured washboard on stage and on record, played by Joe Rush.

Tim "Thumper" Hogan, plays the washboard for the twice Grammy-nominated band, The Muddy Basin Ramblers, based out of Taipei, Taiwan.