Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music Copyright 2014 The Open University
Contents Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music 3 1. Using stories and games to introduce sound 3 2. Working in groups to investigate sound 4 3. Exporing musica instruments 6 Resource 1: Sound story 7 Resource 2: Sound waves teacher notes 8 Resource 3: Ideas pupis may have about working in a group 9 Resource 4: Ami Koita 10 Resource 5: Ideas for judging each instrument 11 Resource 6: Traditiona musica instruments 12 Acknowedgements 13 2 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music Key Focus Question: How can you invove your pupis in assessment? Keywords:sound; musica instruments; assessment; oca resources; game; project Learning outcomes By the end of this section, you wi have: used peer assessment with your pupis; used resources from the oca community to produce musica instruments with your pupis; used practica activities to deveop your pupis understanding of how to produce different sounds; Introduction From a very eary age, we respond to famiiar sounds a baby wi respond to its mother s or carer s voice for exampe and we earn new sounds very quicky. Your pupis wi have earnt to recognise a arge number of different sounds. In this section, you support your pupis deveoping ideas about sounds and how they are produced. The emphasis is on practica activities and active earning. Do you pay an instrument yoursef? Or know someone who coud visit your cassroom to pay to your pupis? This section aso expores ways for heping pupis to assess their own work. (See Key Resource: Assessing earning.) Being invoved in assessment heps pupis understand their earning and set goas for future progress. It aso buids sef-confidence and enthusiasm for earning. 1. Using stories and games to introduce sound It is aways wise to start by finding out what pupis aready know. Pupis wi recognise many different sounds, but they probaby haven t considered different quaities of these sounds ike pitch (ow notes or high notes) and voume (oud or soft). In Activity 1, you pay a guessing game with your pupis, where they try to identify sounds and expain how they think the sounds were made. This invoves pupis scoring their own answers, one way of invoving them in assessment. Don t dismiss answers that seem incorrect encourage pupis to expain their responses. You can earn much about their understanding from what they say. Afterwards, think about what they said was there anything that surprised you? Case Study 1 shows how one teacher used a oca story as a starting point for pupis questions about sound. Do you know any stories from your own cuture that you coud use? Or coud you ask a member of the oca community to visit your schoo to te a story? Coud one of your pupis te a story? 3 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music Case Study 1: Using a foktae to start the topic Sound Ms Sarpong, who teaches in South Africa, but comes from Nigeria, used a Nigerian foktae about a swaowing drum to introduce the topic sound (see Resource 1: Sound story). When she tod the story to her pupis, she beat three different-sized drums to demonstrate the bim, bam, bom sounds of the drums in the story. After the storyteing, they discussed the sounds in the story and how they were made. Some groups investigated how drums make sound, by using grains of dry rice on the surface of the drums to see the vibrations. They aso tried to get different sounds from the same drum. Other groups investigated what happened when they bew air over the tops of different sizes of empty pastic bottes. They made notes of what they found out, and ater they shared what they had thought about and earned. Finay, they made a ist of a the questions they had about sound and dispayed it on the cassroom wa. Ms Sarpong encouraged them to think of ways they coud find out the answers for themseves. Activity 1: A sound guessing game Gather 10 12 different objects that make interesting noises incude both famiiar and unusua sounds. You might incude sounds recorded on a cephone. Before pupis come to cass, you wi need to set up a screen to hide from view both the objects and the action that makes the sound. Sette the pupis and expain what you have panned. Te them that they wi be expected to assess their responses honesty. From behind the screen, make each sound in turn. Pupis need to write down how they think the sound is made. At the end, show how each sound was made and pupis score the sounds they identified. Finay, ask the pupis if a the sounds were equay easy to identify? How did they identify the more unfamiiar sounds? What cues heped them to identify the sounds? 2. Working in groups to investigate sound Sounds are made by vibrating objects. The vibrating object causes the air partices to move coser together (compress) and then apart in a reguar pattern this is caed a sound wave (see Resource 2: Sound waves ). Thus the air carries the sound to our ear. In Activity 2, you ask your pupis to use everyday objects to make sounds and see how they can change these sounds in different ways. The pupis shoud carry out this investigation in sma groups. (See Key Resource: Using group work in your cassroom.) Spend some time at the end of the investigation taking to your pupis about how the groups worked; do they have ideas about how they coud work together more effectivey in the future? 4 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music In Case Study 2, a teacher uses an interesting set of questions to encourage pupis to think about their work another way of invoving them in assessment. Case Study 2: Measuring how far sounds trave Mrs Antwi organised her mutigrade cass into groups of six pupis of different ages. Each group was given some wooden bocks. She asked them to find out how far the sound of bocks capped together traveed. Each group organised their own investigation. (See Key Resource: Using investigations in the cassroom.) When they had panned their investigation and decided who woud carry out each task, she et them work outside. Groups recorded resuts on a poster. After they had competed their investigations, Mrs Antwi gave them the foowing questions to discuss in their groups: Did they get an accurate answer to the question (resuts)? Were they happy with their data? What woud they do differenty next time? Mrs Antwi knew this was a good way of heping her pupis to refect on their earning. The pupis came up with some exceent ideas, incuding that the wind varied and affected the resuts, not everyone s hearing is the same and that other noises were distracting. Activity 2: Exporing changing sounds Organise your cass into sma groups to investigate ways to change the sounds made by a range of objects. Give each group one set of equipment here are some ideas: Use different-sized upturned tin cans as drums. Fi five identica gass containers with different eves of water and tap them with a penci. Bow air over bottes of four different sizes. Use four identica pastic bottes fied with different amounts of sand as shakers. Pupis coud aso choose something for themseves. Ask your pupis to think about and then carry out investigations to find out: How are you making the sounds? How can you make the sound higher? ower? ouder? Each group records their resuts on a poster, incuding any patterns that they found. They aso discuss: how we they have worked together; how they might organise themseves next time; how happy they are with the group ideas on changing sounds. Groups coud swap equipment if they want to do more experiments, but make sure that they have first recorded their resuts on the poster or in their book. You may ike to use Resource 3: Ideas pupis may have about working in a group to hep your pupis with their discussions at the end of the experiment. 5 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music 3. Exporing musica instruments For centuries, peope have deveoped musica instruments using oca materias. These a invove pucking, hitting, bowing or rubbing to create vibrations of different pitch and voume. Many instruments aso have a box of vibrating air to ampify the sound (make the sound ouder). Try to find out about traditiona instruments in your community is there anyone who coud come into your cassroom and show their instrument? Read about one femae singer from West Africa using traditiona musica instruments in Resource 4: Ami Koita. The Key Activity and Case Study 3 invove pupis exporing musica instruments either from the community or those pupis have made themseves. In both cases, pupis deveop criteria to judge the instruments. In the activity, you coud aso ask your pupis to deveop criteria to judge their presentations. Inviting oca musicians into the schoo to demonstrate their instruments and to hear the pupis instruments woud be a wonderfu way to end the activity. (See Key Resource: Using the oca community/environment as a resource.) Case Study 3: Invoving pupis what is best to buy? Mrs Osei invoved her cass in the choice of a musica instrument for the schoo choir. She panned a research project where pupis researched ocay avaiabe musica instruments, such as the baafon (xyophone), musica bow, drums and trumpets. The cass suggested the kinds of questions that woud have to be asked, the points to be awarded for each answer and how they woud report back. These questions were put together to form a questionnaire. (See Resource 5: Ideas for judging each instrument ) Pupis worked in sma friendship groups for homework to get answers to their questions. To anayse the scores, Mrs Osei made a tabe on a arge mania sheet (aso in Resource 5 for hints). As the different groups brought in their reports, the scores were entered into the tabe. These points were a totaed up and, based on the instrument with the highest tota score, the cass decided to buy the sma ocay made wooden baafon (See Resource 6: Traditiona musica instruments.) Key Activity: Making musica instruments Organise your cass into groups of three (or more if you have a very arge cass). Te them that each group wi make their own musica instrument, using what they know about changing sounds. Ask each group to draw a rough diagram, showing their instrument and a ist of what they wi need to make it. Ask each group to organise themseves to bring in materias from home. The next day, give time for each group to make their instrument and prepare a three-minute presentation to: show the different sounds the instrument makes (ouder/softer, higher/ower); try to expain how the instrument makes the different sounds. Depending on the size of your cass, bring groups together or into four arger groups. 6 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music With the cass (or arge group), deveop a set of criteria to judge the instruments. Make a ist of these criteria on the board. Discuss whether they are a of equa importance. (See Resource 5 for hints.) Resource 1: Sound story Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis The swaowing drum A sma gir, an ony chid, ives with her parents in a certain viage. Because of a terribe unspoken oca danger, she is never et out of her parent s sight nor aowed to go and pay with other chidren. She fees ike a prisoner in her own home and ongs to be independent ike the other chidren. One day, she gets a chance to sip away when her father fas aseep after unch. The mother has gone to work in the fieds and the gir hopes to surprise her there. She is not certain of the way and when the path spits into two, she chooses the coo path by the river rather than the hot path over the hi. After a whie she comes across a sma itte drum, beating itsef Bim! Bim! Bim! Litte Gir! Litte Gir, go back home. But the itte gir is curious and she carries on regardess. Around another corner she comes across a midde-sized drum beating itsef Bam! Bam! Bam! Litte Gir! Litte Gir, go back home. But the itte gir is curious and she sips past the drum and carries on. Further on, what do you think she finds? Yes, A big drum beating itsef Bom! Bom! Bom! Litte Gir! Litte Gir, go back home. Reay curious, the itte gir ignores this warning too. The path comes to the edge of the forest and as she enters the dark forest the trees cose behind her. She can ony go on now but there is a terribe drumming noise in the forest. She comes to a cearing and faces a truy enormous drum. It is the swaowing drum the terribe danger that her parents were so terrified might get her. She gets swaowed by the drum and, as she fas to the bottom, other peope and animas rush up asking her if she has anything sharp with her. But she hasn t. A she can see as she ooks up from her new prison is the sit of the mouth of the drum and a huge wooden heart beating Ba-boom! Ba-Boom! BA-BOOM! Back home her parents are devastated when they discover her missing and see where her footprints ead. The father weeps and cries and covers himsef with ashes from the fire. But her mother doesn t rest she goes around the viage borrowing sharp things and she stays up the whoe night stitching them carefuy into the inner ining of her coak. The next day she sets out for the forest. She sees no drums but as she enters the forest, the trees cose behind her. She comes to the cearing and faces the terrifying swaowing drum, who asks, Yes fat woman! What do you want! Before she can answer, she too is swaowed and the peope rush to her asking if she has sharp things. But she first asks to see her daughter and then she shows them the sharp things. The men in the drum stand against the wa of the drum and the women stand on their shouders. The young boys cimb up with the sharp things and begin to chop away at the wooden heart 7 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music BA-BOOM! Ba- boom! Ba-boom, b-bm When the heart stopped beating, they chopped their way out of the drum, ran back to the viage to fetch hep and the dangerous swaowing drum was chopped into pieces. The peope in that viage had good firewood for more than a year. Resource 2: Sound waves teacher notes Background information / subject knowedge for teacher What is sound? Sound is produced whenever an object vibrates. The object coud be a string on a guitar, a fat surface such as a drum skin, the diaphragm in a oudspeaker or even the voca cords. Sound transfers energy away from the vibrating object, and it needs something to trave through. Sound cannot trave through a vacuum in space, no one can hear you scream! Speed of sound Sound traves at different speeds through different substances. In genera, the denser the substance, the faster sound traves through it. Sound traves at 5,100 m/s through stee, 1,480 m/s through water and 330 m/s through air. This is much sower than the speed of ight. Light traves neary a miion times faster through the air than sound does. This is why you hear the thunder cap after you see ightning in a thunderstorm, and why the sound of someone hammering some distance away does not match the hammer bows. Echoes Sound can refect from the surface of an object. This is caed an echo. Hard surfaces refect sound better than soft surfaces. Loudness The oudness of a sound depends upon the size of the vibrations. Big vibrations transfer more energy than sma vibrations, so they are ouder. Pitch A sound can range from a high to a ow pitch (high to ow note). The pitch of a sound depends on how fast the origina object is vibrating. If there are ots of vibrations per second, the frequency is high and the sound has a high pitch. If there are few vibrations per second, the frequency is ow and the sound has a ow pitch. Checkpoint The tabe summarises some features of sound waves and vibrations. Size of the vibrations Number of vibrationsin each second Sma Big Low High Sounds ike Quiet Loud Low pitched High pitched Exampe Whispering Shouting Man taking Chid taking 8 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music Hearing We hear because sound waves enter the ear and cause the eardrum to vibrate. Three sma bones in the inner ear carry these vibrations to the cochea (pronounced kok-eea ). The cochea contains tiny hairs, which send messages to the brain when they vibrate. A diagram of the ear Hearing damage Our hearing is easiy damaged and as we get oder we find it more difficut to hear very ow or very high sounds. The three sma bones may join together as we age, so they are not so good at passing aong the vibrations from the eardrum to the cochea. Loud sounds can eventuay damage our hearing. If the eardrum is damaged, it may repair itsef again, but if the cochea is damaged, the damage is permanent. Peope with damaged hearing may find it difficut to foow conversations and may need a hearing aid. Resource 3: Ideas pupis may have about working in a group Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis Choose one of these methods to hep your pupis tak about how they worked together in a group. 1. Write each of the foowing words on to a card, or on the board. Give each group of pupis a set of cards to hep them deveop three sentences to describe how they worked. They shoud try to use some of these words in their sentences: decide, persuade, te, ask, argue, describe, agree, opinion, isten, share, organise, ead, 9 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music 2. Write these statements onto a set of arge cards (keep these for different group work activities). Dispay the statements around the room and ask each group to choose the statements that describe the way they worked. Encourage your pupis to add further statements. Everyone in the group had a chance to speak. Everyone in the group was encouraged to speak. Not everyone spoke during the activity. We reached agreement in our group. We istened carefuy to each other. Sometimes we found it hard to isten to others without interrupting. Not everyone in the group agreed with our way of drawing the poster. Not everyone in the group contributed to the poster. Everyone in the group was abe to add to the poster. 3. Choose one or more of these questions. Read it/them out to your cass and ask each group to discuss the question(s) in their group for five minutes. Ask for feedback from some of the groups. How did sharing your ideas hep you? Did everyone have a chance to speak? Did you encourage each other to share your ideas? Did you isten carefuy to each other? Resource 4: Ami Koita Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis Ami Koita Since ancient times, Manding griots have sung histories, ineages and praise songs with grand stye and devastating conviction. Of Mai's many jaimusou-femae griot singers, none has earned more aduation than Ami Koita, a roe mode for a Mai's contemporary women singers. Koita's big, vibratoess voice and her dazzing ineup of nimbe-fingered instrumentaists make her songs of pride, ove, tragedy and joy accessibe even without transation from her native Bambara. Her traditiona acoustic work surrounds her voice with an irresistibe chattering of meodies from baafon (wooden xyophone, see Resource 6), kora (21- string harp), ngoni (sma, banjo-ike ute) and guitar, which pays in the ightning-quick manner of the other instruments. Recenty, Koita has aso branched out to record with eectric instruments, even coaborating with Tabu Ley and Afrisa, one of the great od bands of Zaire. I am proud to be a griot, sings Koita over the chiming of Zairean guitars. I become a bird and fy above the peope. Brighty cooured traditiona gowns spreading wing-ike beow her gesturing arms reinforce the image. 10 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music Adapted from: http://www.afropop.org/expore/artist_info/id/5/ami%20koita/ (Accessed 2008) Resource 5: Ideas for judging each instrument Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis 1. These are some questions pupis coud ask about each instrument. Brainstorm a ist of questions with your cass. What is it made of? How od is it? How robust (not easiy broken) is it? Does it need to be kept in a specia pace? How easy is it to carry around? How do you make a sound? How do you make the note higher? ower? How do you make a quiet sound? oud sound? Is this easy to do? Can you hear the quiet sound? What is vibrating? How easy is it to earn to pay? How much does it cost? 2. Decide which of these questions are important when judging the instrument. We suggest that pupis in your cass choose a maximum of five criteria/questions to judge each instrument. 3. For each of the five criteria or questions your cass has chosen, deveop a scoring scae out of 5. The maximum for each instrument woud then be 25. 4. As each group presents their instrument, the cass gives them scores for each criterion. 5. These scores coud be recorded on the chakboard or a arge sheet of newsprint on the wa. Each group shoud summarise their work by saying: The fina score for our instrument is: Our instrument is a good choice because (strengths) Our instrument might not be a good choice because (difficuties and probems with the instrument) 11 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music Resource 6: Traditiona musica instruments Background information / subject knowedge for teacher The baafon (or baa ) is a resonated frame xyophone of West Africa. It is a ameophone with wooden keys. There are many different baafons in Africa. They fa into two main categories: the free-key type, in which the keys are independent of one another and of their supports, and those with fixed keys, in which the keys are permanenty strung together and attached to their support. In the free-key baafons, the oose keys are assembed on temporary supports; for exampe, the payer s egs, banana-tree trunks, straw bundes or ogs padded with grass. The fixed- key baafons are generay mounted on or suspended from a frame, with or without caabash resonators. http://www.africacub.com/baafogr.jpg (Accessed 2008) The keys themseves are suspended over the resonators by means of two ines of twisted eather cord, which pass through two vibration knots. Each key has its own particuar ength, width and thickness. The keys are struck with two beaters with rounded ends, formed by winding the tips with rubber strips. Paying techniques There are two main paying techniques for the baafon: 1) The baafon reproduces the timbres and tonaities of the spoken anguage. A tona anguage is one expressing difference of meaning by variation of tone. Thus, the same word pronounced at different pitches wi have a different meaning. If the musician pays and sings: the baafon repeats a phrase that has been sung; or the singing repeats a phrase that has been payed; or the same phrase is payed and sung simutaneousy. In this case, as the baafon paying is faster than speech, the musician performs meodic phrases to fi in. For this, each interpreter deveops his own particuar formuas. These formuas may sometimes be as simpe as the repetition of a singe note. If the musician pays without singing, he expresses himsef in a coded manner by transferring his speech to the baafon. Baafons are payed aone or in pairs, with or without accompaniment from other instruments. Some pieces may be payed by two, or even three or four payers on the 12 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 2 : Exporing sounds and music same instrument. One or two of the keys of the baafon are sometimes struck rhythmicay with the hande of the beater or with wooden sticks. Adapted from: http://www.masabo.com/baafon.htm (Accessed 2008) Yusuf Ahmed, Baafon Musician from N. Ghana with Baafon http://portamarket.com/baafon.htm(accessed 22/06/07) Acknowedgements Gratefu acknowedgement is made to the foowing sources: Photographs and images Resource 2: Sound waves teacher notes: Adapted from http://www.bbc.co.uk (Accessed 2008) Ami Koita: Adapted from http://www.afropop.org/expore/artist_info/id/5/ami%20koita/ (Accessed 2008) Baafon: http://www.africacub.com/baafogr.jpg (Accessed 2008) Yusuf Ahmed, Baafon Musician from N. Ghana with Baafon: http://portamarket.com/baafon.htm (accessed 22/06/07) Text Resource 6: Traditiona musica instruments: Adapted from http://www.masabo.com/baafon.htm (Accessed 2008) Every effort has been made to contact copyright hoders. If any have been inadvertenty overooked the pubishers wi be peased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. Return to Science (primary) page 13 of 13 Wednesday 18 May 2016