Music and Sound

Maxine and Hannah here! We caught the Omni theater movie "STOMP: Worldbeat" at the Science Museum of Minnesota. STOMP is a musical group that finds rhythm everywhere. They make music with anything and everything from drumming barrels to sweeping brooms. STOMP not only had us tapping our feet, they inspired an important science question. We're curious: How can we make our own musical instruments from simple objects?

How would you investigate this question?
There are lots of ways to make simple musical instruments: some use strings, others use tubes, and still others use hollow containers. Whichever style you choose, decide on a property of that style you want to investigate (length, diameter, volume,or material) and develop an investigation that discovers how changes in that property affect the note yo hear. Describe your investigation in your notebook and discuss it with your teacher, or go to Music and Sound to learn what Maxine and Hannah discovered.