Учитель музыки из Гермистона за шесть недель собрал собственноручно изготовленную маримбу для учеников

Hermiston music teacher creates handmade marimba for her class Published 8:00 pm Monday, August 24, 2026 HERMISTON — When Rocky Heights Elementary School students walk into the music room on Wednesday, Aug. 26, for the first day of school, they will find a new, handmade marimba waiting for them to try out. Sarah Milburn, the school’s music teacher, built the marimba during the summer. A marimba is a percussion instrument made of tuned wooden bars that are struck with mallets to produce rich, warm musical tones. It looks similar to a large xylophone with resonator tubes hanging underneath each bar to amplify the sound. A marimba spans up to five octaves, giving it a much deeper and softer voice than a standard xylophone. The instrument originated in Africa, where early versions used wooden bars placed over hollow gourds or pits. Today, it is featured in solo performances, wind bands, percussion ensembles and orchestras. Inspiration came during visit to Tri-Cities Milburn said she got the idea to build one when she saw some marimbas during a visit to an elementary school in the Tri-Cities. “They were amazing,” she said. “We asked who made them and were told they were homemade.” That was all the inspiration Milburn needed to make one herself. It may sound like a daunting project for most, but Milburn used to fix instruments when she worked at the Stanfield School District and is pretty handy with tools. “I remodeled every room in my house,” she said. A typical marimba costs at least $1,800. She built her marimba for $400. First, she had to do some research. She found a book — “Make Your Own Marimba” — and went from there. Finding the right wood was a bit of a challenge. Marimbas are made from padouk wood, a vibrant tropical hardwood mostly sourced from rainforests in Central and West Africa. Padouk is famous for its striking, vivid red, orange and crimson color when freshly cut, which naturally oxidizes and darkens over time into a rich deep brownish-purple or warm reddish-brown. Milburn was able to find padouk wood at a specialty wood store in Kennewick. “It’s used for countertops and furniture,” she said. Building a marimba in 6 weeks Milburn started her project on July 11 and finished it on Aug. 23. The trickiest part was getting the bars properly tuned. Tuning a marimba requires precisely sanding the wooden bars. Because wood loses moisture or wears down over time, bars often turn sharp; lowering the pitch requires shaving wood from specific zones on the underside or center of the bar using a scraper, file or sandpaper while measuring frequencies with an electronic tuner. Milburn said it was a time-consuming process. While it took her 11 days to make the frame and the tubing, it took four weeks to tune the marimba. The trick, she said, is not to sand the bars too much. You can always sand shavings off, but you can’t put them back if you go too far. “I was really unhappy with the lower octaves,” she said. “I’ll probably do some more tuning.” The only parts of the instrument that Milburn did not build herself were the legs. Her father, Chris Milburn, put those together. Two of the legs have wheels, making it much easier to move around. The finished marimba is more than 8 feet long and weighs 90 pounds. It’s large enough to allow three people to play it simultaneously. Already working on a 2nd marimba Milburn said she plans to make additional marimbas for the other elementary schools in the Hermiston School District. In fact, she has started on her second marimba. “I want equality for all the schools,” she said. “I feel like I can make the second one faster.” Sunset Elementary School music teacher Jonna Kopta said she is impressed with the work Milburn put into building the instrument. “This is a project of her heart,” Kopta said. “She wants to continue spreading the joy.” Milburn plans to use the marimba alongside her class’s xylophones. She said she can’t wait to introduce the marimba to her students when school starts Aug. 26. “They’re going to go nuts over this,” Milburn said. Mike Kellison, music teacher at West Park Elementary School, agreed. “They are going to be excited,” he said. “This will be very inspirational.”