Skip to main content

Projects for Kids on How to Make Musical Instruments

Hitting a drum creates vibrations that reverberate through the instrument.

Making musical instruments is a project that is educational and gives students a lesson in acoustics in a fun and entertaining way. Kids can make instruments from virtually any material they can find around the home. It is important to guide students through each project and help them learn the basics of acoustics.

Acoustics


Before starting any project that teaches kids to create musical instruments you should begin with a preparatory project on musical acoustics. Children need to know the basics of how sound production occurs if they are going to create successful musical instruments. Explain that sound production occurs by vibrations and that hitting, bowing or quickly moving objects can create vibrations. For the project, ask the kids to find several different materials and methods of creating vibrations. Ask them to be creative and find at least three ways to produce a sound on a specified instrument. The instrument could be as simple as their desk, or a can of soda.

Materials


Ask students to work on a project that helps to determine how materials used affect the sound of an instrument. Have them experiment with a variety of different objects. There needs to be a variety of materials to choose from including steel, metal, wood, paper, cardboard, plastic and even fabrics. Use the methods of sound production from the acoustics lesson to produce sounds.

Mallets


Have students create several different types of mallets. Bring a variety of dowels to the classrooms that are at least 2 feet long. They should be thick enough to be able to take a beating when the students are finished designing their mallets. Bring fishing line, string, yarn and even bouncing balls to attach to the end of the sticks. Incorporate the principles learned from the acoustics lesson and the materials created from the materials lesson by having them hit each object with different mallet types. Ask them to describe the difference in sound between objects.

Strings


The final project should deal with strings and how the length of the string will affect the highness or lowness of the pitch. Ask students to make a hypothesis ahead of time to determine if a shorter string will have a higher or lower pitch. Bring in several boxes; shoeboxes are excellent for this project. Have the students cut a triangle into the box and place holes opposite each other. Have students attach the strings to the holes moving from the smallest part of the triangle to the largest part. This will create several different lengths of strings. When it is finished let the students experiment with plucking the strings to see how the pitch changes.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Claude Debussy Never Cared About Music Theory

  Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862. So, I felt writing a blog post to celebrate would be appropriate. Debussy was a revolutionary composer who challenged the conventions of Western music. He was influenced by the impressionist painters, the exotic sounds of gamelan music, and the symbolist poets. He created a musical language that was expressive, colorful, and atmospheric. One of the most remarkable aspects of Debussy's music is his use of harmony. He did not follow the rules of tonality and functional harmony that dominated the music of his time. Instead, he used modes, scales, chords, and parallel movements that created a sense of ambiguity and fluidity. He also experimented with timbre, texture, rhythm, and form to create musical images that evoked moods and emotions. Debussy's music can inspire us to think outside the box and explore new possibilities in our own compositions. We can learn from his innovative techniques and his artistic vision. We can also apprecia...
Post a Comment
Read more

List of Musical Techniques and Their Meanings

Musical techniques are the building blocks of any basic music training. These techniques allow performers to improve their coordination and develop accuracy through repetitive daily exercises. Musical techniques progressively build upon previously learned techniques. Scales Scales form the basis for other musical techniques. Student may study major and minor scales as well as modern scales, such as the whole-tone and octatonic scales. A scale consists of patterns of half steps and whole steps. These whole steps and half-step arrangements will be different for each scale. Scales are musical techniques that can help a performer to play faster and more accurately, and make learning new pieces easier. Chords Chords require knowledge of major and minor scales. Chords come in several different forms that affect the sound. Triads consist of three notes spaced a third apart and classified as major, minor, augmented and diminished chords. Seventh chords build on triads and have an additional no...
Post a Comment
Read more

Similarities of Classical and Baroque Music

Music has evolved through the centuries and undergone drastic changes. One of the most significant transitions was from the Baroque to the Classical period of music. In this paragraph, I will compare and contrast some of the main features of these two styles, such as ensembles, instrumentation, and counterpoint study. The Baroque and Classical periods of music have many similarities. While the style of music changed drastically, certain key elements remained the same between the two styles. Composers in the Classical period sought to simplify music and create clearly audible musical lines. In contrast, composers from the Baroque period were interested in creating complex and highly ornamented musical lines. The Baroque period occurs from approximately 1600 to 1750, and the Classical period extends from 1750 to 1820. Ensembles Ensembles are groups of musicians that perform together. Both the Baroque and the Classical period had similar types of ensembles, such as operas, orchestras, str...
Post a Comment
Read more