Music Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 5)

Pluck Out & Pick New String Materials for Your Guitar

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Walk into any music store and you'll find a dizzying array of string choices for your classical guitar, including rectified nylon, clear nylon, carbon fluoride, bronze wound, phosphor bronze wound, silver-plated copper wire, Polytetra-flouro-ethylene (PTFE), each in a range of tensions from low to high. There is no single best brand or best material. All have their advantages and disadvantages. A set of strings that sounds "sparkling" on one guitar might sound dull on another, primarily because… Read more

Ring on the Resonance!

STEM Activity

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Have you ever been on a swing set and suddenly noticed that the person on the swing next to you seems to be swinging almost exactly in time with you? You go up and down at either the same time, or exactly opposite each other. This might seem random – but it’s actually physics! Like many things in nature, swing sets have a ‘resonant frequency’, which means that they have a ‘favorite’ frequency (or speed) of movement. The swing set will naturally want to swing… Read more

Singing Science: How High and Low Can Your Voice Go?

STEM Activity

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Do you enjoy getting together with family and friends to sing familiar holiday songs? It can be fun to do this time of year, gathered around a piano with a warm fireplace nearby, or bundled up together outside. Have you ever wondered what the highest note is that you can sing? How about the lowest? Or what about other people – do you think males and females can reach the same notes? How about children and adults? In this “note”-worth science activity, you’ll get to… Read more

Sound Bites: Tasting the Texture of Classical Music

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Have you ever bitten into a thick, fragrant casserole and tasted the layers of flavor? Or maybe you've licked of a vanilla ice cream cone and thought, "This is so pure, simple, and refreshing!" These observations about the taste of the food are also comments on its texture—the casserole is complex and thick, and the vanilla ice cream cone is simple and thin. You might not realize it, but sound can also have texture. In this music science fair project, you'll learn how to "taste" the… Read more

Spooky Science: The Sounds of Halloween

STEM Activity

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Do you enjoy watching scary movies at Halloween, or going to haunted houses? However you may want to have a thrilling experience this time of year, spooky sounds and music will likely play an important part. Part of what makes a haunted house or a mysterious movie perfectly eerie is the soundtrack that goes along with it – all the noises orchestrated to raise the hair on your arms, make you shiver, and leave you with little doubt that there are things unknown lurking about. In this… Read more

Standing Waves on a Guitar

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

In this project, you'll investigate the physics of standing waves on guitar strings. You'll learn about the different modes (i.e., patterns) of vibration that can be produced on a string, and you'll figure out how to produce the various modes by lightly touching the string at just the right place while you pick the string. This technique is called playing harmonics on the string. By the way, we chose a guitar for this project, but you can do the experiments using any stringed instrument, with… Read more

Music Projects, Lessons, Activities (46 results)

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