What music would you like to make?
5
Making the sound louder
The children in your class may be disappointed by the lack of loudness in the musical instruments they make. There are three ways to solve this problem.
The first is the simplest and most obvious - use a microphone to amplify the sound of a live performance. You can find out more about microphones and how to use them by looking at the website recommended in More below.
The second way is to record a live performance under 'studio conditions' i.e. in a small room with no background noise and then play it back with the volume setting on the tape recorder turned up to full.
The third way is the trickiest and requires you to intervene while the children are tackling the big task. The larger the volume of air trapped inside an acoustic stringed musical instrument the louder the sound it produces. There must be an opening for the vibrating strings to pass the movement to the air 'trapped' inside. Once this air starts to vibrate it makes the surfaces of the instrument vibrate at the same frequency. This has the effect of making more air vibrate than that caused to vibrate by the vibrating string in an 'open' space. To achieve this effect you will need to guide children's design decisions and provide them with containers that are large enough to trap sufficient air yet not so heavy that the sides cannot vibrate. Large cans from the school kitchen are one possibility.
The round hole lets vibrating air in, the large flat surface traps the vibrating air and vibrates in sympathy.