Music to our Ears
Instrument 1:
The Rain Stick
Instrument 2:
The Baby Guitar
What is Sound??
Sound occurs when vibrations travel from an object to our ears. A force causes vibrations that will travel in a medium, which is the stuff that is between the object and the hearer. For example, when a teacher is talking to a class, the force of the vibrations of their vocal cords vibrates the air. The air between the teacher and the students is the medium in which the sound vibrations travel. The vibrations eventually reach the eardrums of the students and vibrate them.
There are two ways to describe sound. One is by its loudness. This is determined by how hard or soft the force is that causes the vibrations. If there is a large force, it will exert a louder sound. If you hit a fork against a cup softly, the sound will be quieter than if you hit the fork against the cup hard.
Another way to describe sound is by pitch. This is determined by how frequent the vibrations are. A sound that has a high frequency of vibrations will have a higher pitch. If something has a low pitch it is because there is a low frequency of the vibrations. Things that are higher in pitch tend to be smaller and tightly stretched.
Sounds can any combinations of these factors. A sound can be quiet and also have a low pitch, while another sound could be quiet but have a high pitch. On the other end, a sound can be loud with a high pitch as well as be loud but with a low pitch.
Try manipulating pitch and loudness with a slinky in the classroom. Watch as the vibrations move through the slinky while you change how often you create the sound waves, and how hard you push the slinky.
Lay it flat on the ground and stretch it out. Have one student on one side of the slinky push the end forward and back to create the waves.
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Change in LOUDNESS=
change in the strength of the whaps (force)
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Change in PITCH=
change in the number of whaps (frequency)
This instrument is what I call the Rain Stick. It's purpose is to show how we can manipulate the loudness of a sound.
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It is made with a toilet paper roll filled with some salt and wrapped in aluminum foil to hold the salt in the roll. I also used a rubber band to hold the foil in place and prevent the salts from coming out the roll.
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Below is a video explaining how it works and how the loudness of the instrument is manipulated through playing.
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MATERIALS:
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Toilet Paper Roll
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Aluminum Foil
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Salt
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Rubber Band
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http://www.howweelearn.com/spectacular-homemade-musical-instruments/
HOW IT WORKS:
This instrument is what I call the Baby Guitar. This instrument not only varies in loudness but also the pitch of the sound.
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It was made with a plastic container and some rubber bands. This idea was similar to some ideas I viewed on this website linked below.
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Below is a video explaining how it works and it's sounds is manipulated.
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MATERIALS:
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Plastic container
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Rubber bands*
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*A note that these rubber bands are the same size, but can be different sizes and widths to experiment how those factors change the pitch
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http://www.howweelearn.com/spectacular-homemade-musical-instruments/
HOW IT WORKS:
The Combination
Adding an element of writing to the project, and to practice with our instruments, we created a poem about sound. We then used our instruments and all their varying degrees of loudness and pitch to construct a piece of music to go with our poems.
Here is the poem and the music below...
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With this project, students are asked to create instruments with any materials to experiment with sound.
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How can we change the loudness of a sound? How can we change the pitch? How will testing the instruments in different environments affect the sound? How does sound work?
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In this project, we made two instruments to manipulate loudness and pitch. We also wrote poems and conducted pieces of music with our instruments. All of this is to incorporate sound and how it works.
Sound
Sounds are vibrations that we hear
Traveling through air towards the ear
Clapping is a force between two hands
Carrying vibrations to the ears of man
The sputter of water from a spicket
The hum from the legs of a cricket
The trickle of water from a stream
The tear of the thread from a seam
The whisper of the wind on a sunny day
The patter of the rain in the middle of may
The bang of the nails in the house made of wood
The zipping of the zipper and of the hood
The hum of the AC in the middle of summer
The notes of the drums from the song of the drummer
Some are sounds that from hands are man made
Others are notes the world forever has played
Some sounds will be noticed with accolade
Being made ready to be put on display
Others are ignored and tossed in the waves
Hidden in the darkness of the deep caves
We often turn to drown out the noise
Of the sadness that some sound employs
While turning our ear to some of the joys
That we experience in the midst of the noise
But there is beauty in the sounds that man overhears
When the music of the world goes to the music in our ears