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| The Cello and the Violin. |
Students from Grade One to Three have been exploring stringed instruments from around the world. To begin, we examined a violin, looking at all sides (and inside!) to see how it is put together, experimenting with different ways to make sound, and even smelling the bow to see if it smells like the horse's tail from which it is made!
From this reference point, we looked at other instruments that use strings to make sound. First we listened to a video of the cello. We noticed that it is the same shape as a violin and that it makes a similar sound, but we heard that this bigger instrument sounds lower.
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| The huge Contra Bass Bar makes a low sound . . . |
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... and the tiny Glockspiel
makes a high sound. |
Someone suggested that all large things make low sounds. But is that always true? So we tested the pitch of the xylophones, and found that the largest ones did make a lower sound, and the smallest ones did make the higher sound. How interesting!
Then we listened to a video of the "erhu", a hauntingly beautiful two-stringed instrument from China. It was small, just like the violin, but the musician held it on her lap and not under her chin. Finally, we listened to a video the Arabian instrument, the "oud". It reminded us of a guitar, or banjo, or ukelele, but we counted twelve strings on its large, "avocado-shaped" body. It had such a lively sound that we just couldn't help moving!
Every culture around the world has it's own special instruments. Each one speaks it's own unique language and tells the story of the people who play them so lovingly. How lucky we are to have representatives from many parts of the world in Royal Oak School, and the opportunity to share our diverse musical heritage!
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