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| 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,
"Jazz washes away the dust of every day life." -- Art Blakey
