Making Musical Instruments at Key Stage One

During the Summer term of 1989 Iworked with my class of 28 top infants -6-7 years old on a topic based on Soundand the reproduction and transmission ofsound. I hoped that this topic woulddevelop children's skills in most areas ofthe curriculum. I saw the topic fallinginto the following main categories:

Topic Plan1a Discussion of the meaning of sound

What is sound? How do we use it?Which senses are involved? Howwould it feel to be deprived of soundstimuli? Have all life forms a sense ofhearing? Are some better than others?Could we do some experiments to testwhether live things can hear or not?How many different ways of makingsounds can we think of? Can we useour own bodies? Can we use otherthings? What things? Can other thanhumans or live things produce sound?eg wind, rain, thunder, fIre, water,earthquake, volcanos. Man-madeartifacts such as windmills, engines,sirens, radio receivers, computers,clocks and infInitum! and so to musicor sound for pleasure.

b Listening to soundWe should listen to recordings ofdifferent types of sound in theclassroom. Can we say what is thedifference between sound and musicalsound? How do we make musicalsounds? Listening to specifIc musicalinstruments with (if possible)examples of instruments or pictureswhile listening. Discuss how soundsare made using musical instruments.We should elicit hitting, plucking,blowing, scraping, shaking. Listeningto synthetic music and looking at egCasio and other forms of electronicmusic.

c Looking at instrumentsWe can bring instruments into schooland we have a wide variety in schooland homes. However, I should like tovisit an exhibition of instruments eg atGabriels Horn House in Portsmouth orvisit the musical instrument -makingcourse at West Dean College. (I haveto do more research into this - Icould check with the Music AdvisoryService at Teacher's Centre.) Also

Toni KaneUplands County Primary School, Fareham

Mechanical Music Collection,Chichester. Particular emphasis shouldbe to elicit from the children how theinstruments are made. What materialsare needed? Why is measurementimportant? What does the instrumentneed to have to make the sound moreinteresting? (Give example ofteacher's whistle compared to eg arecorder.) An elementary discussion ofpitch using a violin or guitar, recorderor even water in bottles should follow.The children should be able to observethat pitch difference is related to sizeor volume. The loudness can also bechanged, either by putting in moreenergy or increasing the volume of airaround the sound (sound box).

d Making instrumentsThe children should now be allowed toexperiment on these aspects usingmaterials in the classroom. Musicalinstruments may be produced andthese could be put on display bychildren who should organise thisthemselves, used in music-makingsessions, recorded, used in a classassembly. All this work should berecorded in a topic book withobservational drawings, plans anddescriptive writing. We could make aclass orchestra with strings, timpani,woodwind, brass, percussion etc.

e Using the computerWe have a good programme on pitchand rhythm quite suitable for this agegroup. It is called Jolly Jack Tar andteaches rudiments of pitch and rhythm.Some children may follow this up bywriting their own simple music.

f Using an oscilloscopeI have access via my husband to anoscilloscope. At this stage it would beuseful to see how sound can bevisually presented. The oscilloscopecan be demonstrated at school.

g Art and craftThe instruments should be made tolook good - we have to look at themwhile listening to music. I should alsolike to try painting to music ielistening to music and painting whatwe hear.

h I hope that the planning, recording andmaking will all be presented in thechild's own topic book and work donedisplayed in the classroom.

I see the topic as encompassing thefollowing areas of the curriculum -English - (the discussion andrecording of work), Maths - (themeasurement involved in making; anelementary understanding of pitch andits mathematical implications: ie theconcept of ratio; ideas about volumecapacity and length). Art and Craft-(the drawing, making, painting).Design - the designing ofinstruments, Technology - the use ofsuitable materials in the manufactureof the instruments. Science -experimentation with sound and waysto produce sound in non-living things- sound on screen - theoscilloscope. Mechanical andelectronic sound - radios, telephones.P.E. and Drama - using the body tomake sounds - interpreting musicthrough movement. Computer - useof computer to teach pitch and rhythm.Music - enjoying making music-writing music, listening. RE. - use ofmusic in religious services - hymns.Environmental Studies - brieflytouching on different types ofinstruments nationally and worldwide- how we can identify a nationalmusic - often by instruments used(local materials). How instrumentshave developed through history.

2. Resources and timescaleScience packs in school on senses.Model or diagram of ear (Teacher'sCentre)Recordings of natural and mechanicalsounds (in school)Instruments (in school and elsewhere)Visits - possibly West Dean College- instrument makersMechanical Music collection -ChichesterGabriels Horn House (musical shop)- SouthseaMaterials for music making - scrapmaterials and wood, elastic bands etcCassette RecorderRecordings of different National Music

The Timescale of fifteen weeks in theSummer Term should be ample tocover this Topic very thoroughly. Iwould envisage 21;2 hours per week onthis Topic. I should imagine givingthree weeks to discussion on sound,preparing of Topic Books, collectingmaterials and made instruments,listening and experimenting on sound- recording discussions and planningand design of own instrument. (Thiscould be done individually or ingroups as I have parent helpers on oneafternoon each week.)

The making part of the Topic shouldtake 2-4 weeks depending oncomplexity of instrument.

The music making part of the Topiccould take another 3-4 weeks andsome time will be given to visitors andvisits, plus a possible class assemblywhich might take a whole week toprepare.

This will give room for expansion ofany of the aspects of the Topic -should the children be needing moretime on it, or for a look at thetransmission of sound with eg thetelephone and radio.

The Topic Review - June 1989Having covered most of the groundwhich was planned in the original layout

I now received and evaluated the work. Inorder to clarify the operations I havedecided to itemise the procedures asfollows:

I The Preparation and Timescale

2 The Timetable

3 The Visual Aids and Peripherals

4 The Discussions

5 The Making of Instruments andRecording

6 The Display7 The Visits

8 Cross-Curricular Applications

9 The Assembly

10 Samples of Children's work

II Photographs

12 Bibliography

I. Preparation and timescaleHaving decided on my topic I made out aTopic Plan as already submitted.

The work actually began on April 3rd andcame to an official close on June 8thcovering nine week with 1;2 term break ofone week on 29th May - 2nd June. Itshould be realised that for much of thepractical work I was dependent on thehelp and availability of parents and that ifthey did not arrive one day thenproceedings were accordingly sloweddown! Also I had to choose a day (in thiscase a Wednesday) when other interestsor parts of the curriculum did notinterfere, when the parent-helpers couldkeep a regular date which would notinterfere with their own arrangements. Ihave a long-standing arrangement forparents to come in on Wednesdayafternoons so this stood. Another parentwhose youngest child had just startedschool offered to help in a more flexibleway and came in on request throughmessage-by-child! I should also say thatthe week of the Assembly I had a helperin the form of a student on the TRIDENTscheme and, as luck would have it shebecame very involved with the work andwas an invaluable helper. It is importantto realise that much of the practical workwould have been extremely difficult toachieve without the help of non-teachingand in this case voluntary assistants.

Following is a list of materials which Iprepared and requested of the parents. Ihave ticked the items which I dulyreceived. A very high success rate youwill agree. I also received two largedoor-bell chimes.

2. The timetable

Following the timescale for the actualmaking of instruments. All otheractivities eg discussion - other art work- work about hearing and sound ingeneral were also going on.

Week 1.Hanging plant potsWater in bottles (milk)Xylophone - hangingDrumsBongo - Drums

Week 2.ClavesCastanetsXylophone - hanging (continued)Bongo - Drums (continued)

Week 3.XylophoneBongo - Drums (continued)Jingle Pole

Week 4.Closure on the Wednesday

Week 5.Trip to West Dean College andMechanical Music Collection

Week 6.Tubular XylophoneJingle Pole (continued)

Week 7.Visiting teacher on Work Experience forday

Week 8.Tubular Chimes

Week 9.ZitherScrapersMaraccasPan PipesASSEMBLY

3. The visual aids and peripheralsT.V. programme seeing and doing -I.T.N. - schools programme suitable for6-8 years old with emphasis on musicalinstruments and the way sound isproduced in them. I have video-taped thisseries for future reference as "sound" isto be an infant Science Topic in ourlong-term plans linked to the NationalCurriculum. On Tuesday 4th April wewere entertained by the Peripatetic MusicStaff playing violin, viola, cello andpiano. For the sound and hearing part ofthe Topic I obtained a model of the ear,showing the middle and inner ear, fromthe Fareham and Gosport Teacher'sCentre. I also made a game using 6 tinscontaining various objects. From a list ofthe six items the children had to make

their choice and mark it on a score sheetas follows:

Tina Sam early

Drawing Pin 4

Rubber 2

Marble

Cotton Wool 6

Rice 5

Dried Peas 3

I used a book of Noisy Poems - all with"sound" words - many of the childrenhave been memorising them. I read thestory of Buttons - the hearing dog forthe deaf - we discussed ways in whichan animal could give visual signals to adeaf person. We wrote Sound Poems (seechildren's work) and sound stories. Wecovered the story of Joshua and the Battleof Jericho and dramatised it. We listenedto record of sounds eg traffic, telephones,thunderstorms etc. One of the staff playsthe violin and she came and played andtalked about how the instrument is made,tuning, etc. I brought my guitar to schooland tuned it while the children watched,Also I played while we sang.

4. The discussion and science work

I started the discussion on Sound byasking the children to close their eyes andconcentrate on what they could hear.Some heard a blackbird, a creak, rain etc.We discussed sound and how it musttravel from its' source and through the air- we discussed sound waves. How issound made? We discussed this and then Iused a Tasmanian Drum (made from claywith a skin over the base and an opentop) resembling a vase - the base ofcourse has been removed before the skinis attached. It makes a beautiful resonantsound. However, if we stood the drumupside-down, so that its' open end wassealed - the sound became dull. This ledinto discussion that instruments, not just

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drums, need a space in which the soundcould resonate and also an aperture forthe sound to emerge in order to reach theear.

At a later date we did some moreexperiments. The children closed theireyes and we tested direction by takingturns to clap, click, tap etc and guessingin which direction the sound was made.We tried putting cones of paper round ourears, or margarine tubs with bases cut outto see if it made a difference to how wellwe heard but we noted hardly anydifference.

We looked at the model of the ear andsoon the children understood how soundis passed through the ear by the vibratingof the ear drum and middle ear bones. Wetalked about how you know what soundyou are hearing. Sound sources could beanimals or inanimate objects likemachines, cars etc or even weather,

Interest level was high during alldiscussions.

Having also listened to recordings ofvarious sounds eg telephone, thunder,rain, vehicles etc we came to listen tosome music. What was the difference?Many answers came up. Eventuallypitched, rhythm and being played cameand we thought about how they were

played. We came up with hitting,plucking, blowing, scraping and shaking.

Prior to the practical work we talkedabout various ways in which we couldmake eg a hitting instrument and how wecould make beaters - what materialswould be best and the strongest way tomake things. We also talked about usingtools eg saws and drills and how to usethem safely. (I must say I was ratherwary, not having used saws before withan infant class!) I am happy to report thatwe had no accidents at all as the childrenfelt very privileged to be using tools andtook it all very seriously. I had intendedto take some photographs of the childrenworking but I always got so involvedpersonally that I either forgot or did nothave time!

5. Making of instruments andrecording the work

I decided to keep to a structure where themethod of playing as in hitting or tappingwas the predominant factor. So wechoose from the many resources we hadwhat each group would like to make. Thebasic idea was on the work card or in thebook but the children came up withmodifications or ideas of their own withsurprising ease. Because of limitations inavailability of materials I had topre-choose what we would make on a

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certain day. On the first day of makingwe had a choice of flowerpot chimes,drums and beaters, bongos, hangingxylophone or bottle chimes.

All of these were completed on the dayexcept for the bongos which were madefrom a papier-mache mould and tookseveral weeks to complete. Interestingly,because the bongos took so long to make,the children found it difficult to recordthe procedures they had gone through.Also, we struggled to secure a plastic skinon the paper because it tended to bendand buckle with the elastic. We even triedbracing the base with dowel. Eventually achild tumed them over and found theysounded better if you tapped the 'bases'so we did not bother to put a skin on them.

The groups consisted of five or sixchildren

Week 1.Flowerpot chimes - made from claypots of various sizes - painted in brightdesigns, left to dry (powder paint) andhung with flex from a broom handlesuspended horizontally. Pots had to begraded for size. Pitch varied with size butnot as you would expect. Quality of claymust have had an effect - some potswere dead sounding but I could find nocracks.

2. Drums - base made from variouscylindrical containers; skins were plasticsheeting from a pram hood. Beaters madewith dowel and corks, conkers etc.

3. Bongo Drums - took three weeks tocomplete (a glue gun would have beenuseful to do some of the fixing eg thewedge-shaped piece of wood to join thetwo drums together was difficult forsmall children). Papier-mache basesaround a mould were very successful.

4. Hanging Xylophone - heremeasurement was involved. Children hadto decide on lengths of pieces of wood.Standard measures were used and afterthe longest piece was decided thechildren worked out how much shortereach other piece had to be. Bench hooksand saws were used. Sanding the endsand tying with string.

5. Bottle chimes - very easy to set up.Interestingly the resonance was betterwhen the part with liquid was tapped thanwhen the part with the air was tapped.

Helpers on this session were two parentsand a floating teacher so four adults in all.

Week 2.Claves - pieces of broom handle cut tosame length (measurement involved).Some of the handles were alreadypainted. Sanding of ends.

2. Hanging Xylophone - attaching tostring to hang very difficult.

3. Castanets - we made finger castanetswith bottle tops and loops of ribbon tohold them onto figures.

4. Bongo Drums - continuing.

Some of the children are now writing anddiscussing the making that they havedone. They often need help to bereminded of how to record their work. Ihave said it is like a recipe in cooking.(They have a cooking session every weekif it their group's turn.) We have to writedown the ingredients or materials used,then how we made it - finished it - andfinally how to play it and how it sounded.They most often forgot this latter part!However, with some persistence thewriting did improve and some of it isvery good quality and much better thansome of their 'news' or 'story' work.

Week3.Xylophone - wooden lengths on apainted shoe box with an aperture in thelid. The pieces of wood are resting onpieces of draught-excluder spacedaccording to the required distance.

2. Bongo Drums - continued.

3. Jingle Pole - another broom handle,beer bottle tops are painted then looselytacked to the pole. A door stop is nailedonto the bottom of the pole. The pole isbanged on the floor to make a jinglesound.

Week 6.Tubular Chime Bar - one large piece ofmetal tube is set on a painted shoe boxwith lid and aperture. Also seven gradedlengths as above.

2.Jingle Pole - continued.

Other groups are recording the makingthey have done.

Week 8.Tubular Chimes - as tubular chime barbut using several copper pipes of gradedlengths. They had to be sawed with helpfrom an adult. These were suspendedfrom a wooden frame.

Week 9.Zither - shoe box painted and reinforcedwith plywood glued into lid. Aperturemade at home by me. Screw eyes andguitar strings used to make a tuned,plucked instrument.

2. Maraccas - squeezy lemons, wash-upliquid bottles - glued, paper and painted.Filled with stones or seeds. Dowelpushed into openings and sealed forhandles.

3. Scrapers - children chose pieces ofwood or cane and cut nicks in them. Onechose corrugated cardboard and mountedit on a piece of wood.

4. Pan Pipes - tubes of cardboard cut tograded lengths and mounted in variousways onto card or board with card,decorated. One interesting one wasmounted on a detergent bottle.

1have selected some of the written workof the children and the main feeling I getfrom looking at this is that the childrenhad to be much more precise andsystematic in their writing than they havepreviously had to be. Samples of writtenwork can be found in the Class 2K Book- 'Musical Instruments'.

6. The displayThe display in the classroom graduallybuilt up as the instruments werecompleted. However, we had otheraspects of the topic to explore. Thevarious agencies of sound could beinvestigated and so paintings ofmechanical objects which can producesound - such as aeroplanes werecontrasted or compared to live objectswhich produced sound such as a personshouting, clapping etc. Good paintingswere produced and displayed. Later onwe made up or thought of sound 'words'and used letter templates to cut out lettershapes and made sound words to hand upfrom the ceiling.

One child brought in a musical box (afterthe visit to the mechanical musiccollection) and after observing its'workings we made an attractive displayof musical boxes in the classroom for ashort time.

I drew a large diagram of the ear and its'internal features and the children

coloured and labelled it. this also formedpart of the classroom display.

The instruments were always a focus ofinterest and constantly handled andplayed by the children when they came inafter play or at other times when theywere free to play. the flowerpot chimeswere the only instruments subject todamage and two of them got broken.

The doorbell chimes brought in by aparent were also hung on the back walland made a lovely sound showing thesize of the tube made a difference to pitch.

The cloakroom was decorated with workabout the trip to West Dean College andthe Mechanical Music Collection.

Eventually the best parts of the displaywere moved to the school entrance halland stayed there until the end of term.

Photographs of these displays can be seenin the additional book by 2K - 'MusicalInstruments' .

7. The visitIn the fifth week of the term we made avisit to the West Dean College wherecourses in early musical instruments takeplace. The main part of their work is themaking of violas and the Director of thedepartment very kindly showed thechildren the various aspects of instrumentmaking starting with the types ofmaterials used and the procedures gonethrough to achieve the very beautifullooking instruments on display. We wereactually in a workshop with tools andmaterials easily observed. Manyquestions were asked by children andaccompanying parents and I wassurprised at the detail recalled whenwriting was done over the following fewdays. We stayed here for about an hourand after lunch visited the MechanicalMusic Collection near Chichester. Thistoo was an enlightening experience aswell as entertaining as many instrumentswere made to play for us.

The flavour of these two visits can beappreciated better by reading thechildren's writing and looking at thepictures they made. These can be foundin the book - Musical Instruments by2K.

8. Cross-curriculum applicationsScienceThe exploration of sound. this topicfulfils A. 14 National Curriculum.

Level I - Pupils should: know whatsounds can be made in a variety of ways.

Level 2 - Know what sounds are heardwhen the sound reaches the ear.

- be able to explain how musical soundsare produced in simple musicalinstruments.

Level 3 - Know what sounds areproduced by vibrating objects and cantravel through different materials.

- be able to give a simple explanation ofthe way in which sound is generated andcan travel through different materials.

The topic also goes some way towardsA.T. I - the general approach toexploration and science.

AT. 2 - The Variety of Life.

A.T. 3 - Processes of Life.

MathsMeasuring using standard measures.simple ideas of ratio (the pitching ofsize). Counting and sorting. Estimatingbefore making. Simple concepts ofvolume, capacity and length.

EnglishThe discussion, writing and reporting.The poems, stories, sound words.Vocabulary - words used to name partsof musical instruments - words used todescribe sounds.

History and GeographyVery briefly - the early musicalinstruments and pictures of people andthe costumes they wore.

Some discussions of places from whencewood to make violas and bows came.

TechnologyAT. 1 Identifying Needs andOpportunitiesThe need to make musical instrumentsand to produce musical sound forenjoyment. Levels 1,2.

AT. 2 Generating a Design ProposalTo produce a realistic, appropriate andachievable design.

Level I & Level 2The designs were from a choice ofpre-designed instruments but manymodifications were achieved.

A.T. 3 Working to a Plan - Make anArtefact. System or Environment

Level I. Level 2 & Level 3I see this area as the strongest in this topicand also most relevant to the age group.

AppraisingAT. 4 - Pupils should be able todevelop, communicate and actconstructively upon an appraisal of theprocess, outcomes and effects of theirown design - also the design from othertimes and cultures.

Level I,Level2 &Level 3These aspect of the topic are also stronglyfeatured.

The weakest feature of the work, from adesign point of view was that childrenmay not have been given sufficientopportunity to design their owninstrument and I see this as a challengefor the future when I shall be doing thistopic again as part of the Science schemeof rolling topics related to attainmenttargets right through the primary agerange in the school. See science topicssheet at end.

MusicAppreciation of instruments - pitch andwhy instruments look the way they do.Unfortunately we did not get time to domuch music making on the instruments astime just disappeared. However, therewill be time for that in the future and Ihope to make some recordings. We diduse a computer programme about pitchvery successfully.

Art and craftThe instruments were made to lookaesthetically pleasing. Instruments haveto be seen when being played before alive audience. Paintings ofsound-producing things.

Drawing of instruments.

Illustrations on Sound Poems.

P.E. and dramaUsing the body to produce sound andrhythm. Listening and moving tomechanical, electronic and natural soundseg thunderstorms, rain, windy weather etc.

R.E.Briefly discussed musical instrumentsused in religious festivals or of differentcultures.

9. Assembly

After the half-term break we had threedays to prepare an Assembly for theThursday morning when parents wereinvited. I should have liked longer toprepare the children as they seemed tolack confidence on the day of theAssembly and I did not feel it did justiceto all the hard work they had put in.

However here is an outline of theAssembly:-

I. Hymn - 'He Made Me'.

2. Sound words marched silently acrossstage.

3. Talking auout sound and hearing withlarge diagram of ear to help.

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4. Talking about the sound tins gamewith graph to show peoples' guesses.

5. Reading out sound poems composedby themselves.

6. Showing pictures and talking about theVisits.

7. Showing the instruments and tellinghow they were made.

8. Telling story of Joshua and Battle ofJericho.

9. Reading from Noisy Poems.Ia.Reading of child's own prayer about

the gift of hearing.II.Final Hymn - 'I Listen'.

BibliographyI am grateful to the School's LibraryService who found most of the followingbooks for me - having had advancewaming of the Topic. These were readyfor me when the Library Van visited theschool after Easter.

School resourcesLively craft cards set 2 - Makingmusical instruments - Mills and Boom

Make Music and Making more music byRichard Addison - Holmes McDougall

The sense of hearing - science 5-13 -stages I and 2 - MacDonald

Schools Library ServiceButtons - Linda Yeatman - (Hearingdogs for deaf)

Making musical instruments - MargaretMcLean, MacMillan

Making musical sounds - MarySouthworth, Studio Vista

Experimenting with sound - Alan Ward,Dryad

Musical instruments in colour-Gammond, Blandford Press

Your nose and ears - JoanIveson-Iveson, Wayland

What happens when you listen? - JoyRichardson, Hamish Hamilton

Hearing - Mary Gribbib, MacDonald

Hearing - Henry Plunkrose, FranklinWatts

Music Maker-Robina Beckles Willson.Viking Kestrel

Scrape rattle and blow - ChrisDesphonde, A and C Black

Hearing - Ed Catherall, Wayland

The Pied Piper of Hamelin - RobertBrowning, Spencer

Alarm bells - John Escott, HamishHamilton

Noisy Poems - Jill Bennett, Oxford