Piano Diana Blog: Sounds Around Town

Kazoos

If you stop and think about it, we are surrounded by so many different kinds of sounds. Just close your eyes, be real still and listen very closely. What do you hear? I hear people talking and children playing when I arrive at the kindergarten music class where I teach rhythm.

On my way to the school, I hear the sounds of cars, construction workers and tractors in the fields nearby. While I’m inside the classroom with the kids, I play the piano and I listen to the music I am creating while the students sing their patriotic songs excitedly.

Our world is full of a variety of different sounds and the sounds are made in many different ways. On the first day of school, I asked the children, “ What is music?” I was pleased to hear their responses such as, birds singing, your heart beating and music coming from the radio CD or TV.

A dog barking produces sound, as well as a clock ticking and a door closing. I suppose one could say that water from a faucet produces a rushing sound, too. The sounds described above, are made by movements called vibrations.

I have introduced homemade kazoos to the class since we are learning about sound and music. The tight wax paper that has a thin rubber band around it at the end of the paper-covered toilet paper roll, changes the sound of one’s voice. Try it sometime. It’s a fun activity. Yes, one can buy plastic kazoos at the dollar store now a days but I remember placing wax paper over a comb and listening to the altered -sound of my voice. When I was a kid, I would place wax paper behind the mallets inside the piano to hear an old player type piano.

Have you ever listed all the sounds that human voices make? Here are just a few I’d like to mention:

1. Talking

2. Singing

3. Shouting

4. Crying

5. Sneezing

6. Coughing

7. Whispering

8. Screaming

9. Humming

10. Blowing

So your voice comes from a part of the throat called the larynx. You’ll find inside the larynx that there are flaps called vocal chords. Your vocal chords vibrate when you speak or sing. In addition, your mouth and tongue help to make the sounds we hear. One way to make the sound of music is to sing. So, go ahead and sing out loud!

You hear sound when it enters your ears. The shape of your outer ear collects sound waves. From there, the sound waves travel down a tube to delicate parts of your ear inside your head. While inside, those sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate and then sound messages are sent to your brain from your eardrum.

Children can make musical sounds by blowing, too. For example, blow across the top of some bottles. By placing different level amounts of colored water in the bottles and then blowing, makes the air inside the bottle vibrate. What you have is a long column of air vibrating to make a low note. Experiment with this a little and you’ll find that short columns make high notes.

One can make sounds of music by playing a musical instrument, like hitting drums with sticks. What happens is that the sticks make the skin of the drums and the air inside vibrate that causes the sound.

Many musical instruments have strings stretched over a box or board that make the sound louder. The strings vibrate and make sound. You can strum or pluck strings on a guitar, mandolin or banjo to make vibrating string sounds.

So, you can hit an instrument, such as a drum or tap a triangle or shake maracas, you know, that gourd shaped percussion instrument that is filled with beans or pebbles. Most important of all, as you go through your day, enjoy listening to the various sounds around your town, especially your own unique voice.

Here's a very cool article regarding How To Form A Kazoo Band

Best Wishes,