If you stop and think about it, we are surrounded by so many different types of sounds. Just close your eyes, stay still, and listen very carefully. What do you hear? I hear people talking and children playing when I get to kindergarten music class where I teach rhythm.
On the way to school, I hear the noise of cars, construction workers, and tractors in the nearby fields. While in the classroom with the children, I play the piano and listen to the music that I am creating while the students sing their patriotic songs with enthusiasm.
Our world is filled with a variety of different sounds, and sounds are produced 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 birdsong, heartbeat, and music from radio CDs or TV.
The barking of a dog produces sound, as does the ticking of a clock and a door closing. I suppose you could say that the water from a tap also produces a fast sound. The sounds described above are produced by movements called vibrations.
I have been introducing homemade kazoos to the class since we are learning about sound and music. The tight wax paper that has a thin rubber band around the end of the toilet paper covered roll changes the sound of the voice. Try it sometime. It is a fun activity. Yes, you can buy plastic saucers at the dollar store today, but I remember laying waxed paper over a comb and hearing the altered sound of my voice. When I was a child, I would put waxed paper behind the mallets inside the piano to listen to an old piano.
Have you ever listed all the sounds human voices make? Here are a few that I would like to mention:
1. Talk
2. Sing
3. Screams
4. Crying
5. Sneezing
6. Cough
7. Whispering
8. Screaming
9. Humming
10. Blowing
So your voice comes from a part of the throat called the larynx. You will find inside the larynx that there are flaps called vocal cords. Your vocal cords vibrate when you speak or sing. In addition, their mouth and tongue help make the sounds we hear. One way to make music play is to sing. So go ahead and sing out loud!
You hear the sound when it enters your ears. The shape of your outer ear picks up sound waves. From there, the sound waves travel through a tube to the 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 also make musical sounds by blowing. For example, blow off the tops of some bottles. By putting different levels of colored water in the bottles and then blowing, it makes the air inside the bottle vibrate. What you have is a long column of air that vibrates to make a low note. Experiment a bit with this and you will find that short columns produce high notes.
One can make sounds of music by playing a musical instrument, such as hitting the drums with sticks. What happens is that the sticks vibrate the skin of the drums and the air inside that causes the sound.
Many musical instruments have strings stretched across a snare or board that make the sound louder. The strings vibrate and sound. You can strum or pluck strings on a guitar, mandolin, or banjo to vibrate the sounds of the strings.
So you can hit an instrument, like a drum or hit a triangle or shake maracas, you know, that gourd-shaped percussion instrument that’s full of beans or pebbles. Most important of all, as the day progresses, enjoy listening to the various sounds of your city, especially your own unique voice.
