SheSue Experience

When I was growing up, my mom used to have a bunch of wind chimes hanging from her front windows.  My favorite were the large bamboo wind chimes.  I used to love to sit there on summer days and listen to those wind chimes.  They had a deep resonant sound that was beautiful in the soft summer breeze, but it could get a little bit annoying when it would get really windy out.  Especially some of the metal chimes.  When there was a storm, I wouldn’t be able to sleep all night.

That is why I decided to get my own bamboo wind chimes when I finally had a place of my own.  The great thing about bamboo chimes is that they have a really gentle sound that doesn’t get particularly loud, even when the wind blows quickly.  With metal wind chimes, the stronger the breeze, the louder the chime is.  With wooden chimes, however, a stronger breeze doesn’t noticeably increase the volume.  Instead, it just makes the chimes bang together more frequently.  They aren’t massive enough to really gather up a lot of steam and clink against each other, so even when the wind is really raging outside, they stay mellow and quiet.
That doesn’t mean that it isn’t exciting to hear the bamboo wind chimes in a good storm.  It really is kind of neat to listen to how they pick up speed and clink together over and over again as the wind blows through the trees.  The current weather reminded me of this.  They don’t have to be fancy, mine aren’t.  It’s the sound I’m after.

The only disadvantage of the bamboo chimes is that they don’t weather that well.  It’s a problem with anything wooden outside, but especially with bamboo.  If you buy bamboo wind chimes, try to put them in a sheltered area where they will not be exposed to direct rain.  You might even want to take them inside during the winter and check on them to make sure they are not getting damaged.  Fortunately, they are inexpensive, so if something does happen to them they are not very hard to replace.  You can even make your own out of bamboo shoots from the local craft store.   Check out WikiHow for directions.