4. Our Own Sound Makers
Description of the Unit
So far Mr Bolton and his class have
investigated and
talked fairly superficially about the ways in which they understand
that sound is made and communicated. In this lesson Mr
Bolton intends encouraging his students to apply these understandings
they have of how sound is made, graphic notationand other ways of
recording music, and of 'sculpturing' or artistically organising sound
as they manufacture their own sound makers and musical instruments,
For this lesson's 'focus question' Mr Bolton writes on the board 'What
does a (musical) sound maker need to produce sound?'
Once his students are serttled he invites them to share with him
finding out about 'sound makers' which can be used to make music.
they begin by surveying existing musical sound makers together.
With a student at the whiteboard 'armed' with a whiteboard marker Mr
Bolton and the class 'brainstorm' a list of musical sound-makers.
Initially this starts with conventional instruments so that the opening
list comprises
- guitars
- drum kit
- piano
- trumpet
- saxophone
- flute
- synthesizer
- violin
- mouth organ.
'All right,' says Mr Bolton. 'Let's
stop for a few
moments while I play you are piece of music. By the way what do we call
the things used to play music?'
A student raises her hand and Mr Bolton nods for her to answer.
'They're called musical instruments, sir,' she answers.
'That's correct, thank you C....,' he says. 'Now if that's true which
instrument in this music is unusual as a musical instrument?' He
plays Leroy Anderson's 'The Typewriter.'
Students laugh as they hear the typewriter play. One 'wit' says '
It would be pretty difficult these days, sir, plating that on a
word-processor!'
'Yes,' laughs Mr Bolton, 'such is progress. Now how about this
music. Which instruments are unusual?' He plays a recording
of German body percussion music. At first students have a little
difficulty working out what is going on but a student of German
extraction is keen to enlighten them.
'So,' says Mr Bolton, 'What can we say about musical instruments?'
The class agrees generally that anything which can add sound
appropriately to a piece of music is, for the time it takes part, a
musical instrument.
'Let me play you just one more piece', he says and plays a recording he
has of sheep recorded bleating at different pitches which have been
contextualised into the tune 'Baa Baa Black Sheep! The class
enjoy this and laugh.
'I know how that's done,' says a boy.
'Okay', says Mr Bolton, 'Explain away!'
'Sir, it's done by sampling sounds then copying the sample into a music
program file on a computer.'
'That's correct,' says Mr Bolton, 'although in this particular instance
that piece was done much more laboriously, a long time ago, using tape
recordings. Computers make the task much easier.'
Another boy is keen to add to the discussion. 'Lot's of
commercial musicians sample all the time in their music,' he says.
'Some even copy small clips of sound from other musicians' music.'
 'Yes,'
adds a girl, 'and they get into trouble
for doing it.'
'Does anyone know what it's called when you steal somebody else's
idea?' Mr Bolton asks. There are a variety of answers
offered. The most acceptable include 'breaking copyright,'
'breech of copyright', and one student says, to Mr Bolton's delight,
'stealing intellectual
property.' They talk around the notion
for a time.
'Now,' says Mr Bolton, 'let's go back and add to our list.' The
students are much more creative adding both conventional sound making
musical instruments and unusual sound makers to their list.
Soon there are some thirty sound makers listed.
'Perhaps we need to sort or organise our list,' suggests Mr Bolton.
'I'm sure by now you all know that books in a library are sorted
according to... what's the word we use?'
'Catalogues.' somebody suggests. 'Good,' replies Mr Bolton,
'but there might be an even better, similar word...'
' What about categories,' somebody else answers.
'That's right... categories. So how could we sort these sound
makers into instrument categories?'
'Why not like orchestral instruments,' suggests one girl.
'All right,' agrees Mr Bolton, 'Let's try that. What are the
categories?'
The class are familiar with these; strings, woodwind, brass and
percussion.
A student returns to the board and writes the first letter of the above
four 'categories' against instruments as students suggest these.
Most are straightforward but some seem to fit more than one
category. It is particularly difficult working out which might be
woodwind and which brass.
 'So what
do you think,' asks Mr Bolton, 'Is
this a satisfactory way of classifying our sound makers?'
Several students think it could be made to work. Others are less
sure. They talk around the notion of categorising sound makers.
'Perhaps we could look at how they make sound and see if we can sort
them that way,' a student proposes. Discussion
continues. Students notice that while some instruments produce
sound when air is blown through them others make sound when they are
struck or shaken. Some have strings, some have skins to make
sound. Some are a mixture, like the banjo which has a drum skin
and strings. 'Where would we fit it?' asks a student.
Mr Bolton is pleased with the direction of the discussion. They
modify the list, sorting most instruments into categories of blowing,
hitting, shaking, and strumming or bowing.
A boy observes that some modern instruments use electricity to make
sound so they make another category and add 'electric guitar', 'bass
guitar', 'synthesizer' to this new category.
 'So,'
says Mr Bolton, 'we have come up with
another way of sorting instruments. IS it better than the
orchestral way?'
Most, but not all of the class prefer their new method. One
students says that she still thinks the other way is fine if the
instruments fit the orchestral categories. She believes it suits
a symphony orchestra.
Mr Bolton explains that people who study music across cultures use a
system very similar to the one they have devised.
On the whiteboard he writes 'The
Hornbostel-Sachs System of Instrument classification'
He then introduces and talks about the system of classifying
instruments which Erich von Hornbostel (1877-1935) and colleague
Curt Sachs (1881-1959) devised. He explains that it divides all
existing instruments between five categories. These are
idiophones, aerophones, membranophones, chordophones and
electrophones.
Students find the name idiophone amusing. Mr Bolton explains that
'idio' is about 'self' and idiophones are instruments
which make sound without their 'material' appearing to change.
Gongs and rattles are good examples. Students have no problem
with the name aerophone, which puts brass instruments like trumpets and
tubas in the same category as flutes and clarinets. Nor does
membranophone cause any confusion. 'That's another word for skin'
a boy explains. 'Drums and other instruments with skins stretched
across them!'
'Chordophones are instruments that play chords!' 'Not necessarily
but possibly. Actually, they're instruments which produce sound
using strings.'
Mr Bolton tells them that electrophones weren't about when Hornbostel
and Sachs first invented this way of classifying instruments and the
name was added after 1914 for any instrument which needed electricity
to make sounds.
 A girl raises her hand. 'So a banjo is both a
membranophone and a chordophone,' she says.
Time is running out and Mr Bolton had hoped to get the class to try
inventing their own instruments as a drafting exercise. He
decides, on the spot, to suggest a 'homework' exercise.
'I haven't set you any other homework tonight so I'm going to challenge
your inventiveness,' he says. 'I want you all to look around home for
some unusual sound maker and, provided your parents don't mind, I'd
like you to bring it to school tomorrow.'
'Then what, sir,' asks a student.
'We might try making our own sound sculpture using these sound makers.
At the same time you could ask yourself which of the categories above
it fits.
Assessment
Mr Bolton bases today's anecdotal
assessment on
students' active participation in the discussion and the significance
of each contribution.
Evaluation
In his own evaluation of the lesson Mr
Bolton asks
himself, did the students generally enjoy the unit, did they achieve
the learning outcomes, were the activities appropriate to this
particular group? Concerned that some of the language in today's
lesson was complex, academic and technical, he asked himself, do I need
to incorporate more language activities to help students understand and
talk about what they are doing?
Forward Planning
Finally, reflecting on the lesson and
contemplating
future work he asked where do I go from here, and how do I build on to
what they have learned today?
5. Rehearsal and
performance
Teaching/Learning Sequence
The final session continued from the
previous one.
Most students remembered to bring an 'unusual' sound maker from
home. Aware that some would forget Mr Bolton arrived armed with
empty plastic 'Coke' bottles and an assortment of small objects
including marbles, stones, rice and maltezers to try in the bottles as
shakers. The maltezers were a whimsy and he wasn't sure whether
he would hold on to them and distribute them later or have students try
them in Coke bottle shakers! He also brought two old metal wheel
rims which he suspended with heavy wire from a beam in the centre of
the room.
The remainder of the lesson involves the class working together to
create a 'sound' composition using all their sound makers in a balanced
work. This involves establishing what motifs or short patterns of
sound small groups of students will contribute to the whole. To
achieve this end Mr Bolton encourages students to work with three or
four friends and invent interesting combinations of rhythm and timbre
(tone colour) as small five second 'motifs' or patterns.
Then, when groups come back together as a class they enjoy sharing
their ideas. Returning two or three times to their small groups
to refine motifs students finally say they are satisfied with their
musical 'outcome' products. Mr Bolton reminds them that music
seems to work well when it is a balanced mix of repeated ideas and
other contrasted ideas challenging these. Most of the six small
groups have created more than one 'motif'. Each group gives its
motifs a title they though appropriate, such as 'jumpy tune' and
'smooth rhythm'. Then, to simplify setting up the sound sculpture
chart, they change this to a letter of the alphabet.
Mr Bolton unrolls a five metre length of newsprint from a roll he keeps
for shared classroom 'brainstorming'. Taking a marker he rules a
four metre line along the centre of the paper, parallel to its running
edges. Then, across this line and at right angles to it he draws
nine equidistant lines from edge to edge and numbers each square like a
musical bar:
'Let's see if we can fit our motifs into a piece of sound sculpture,'
he says. He invites each group to contribute its motifs to the
grid. They work together mixing contrasted motifs with repeated
ones. They play through the chart they have created several times
amking changes by consensus until most are pleased with the
outcome. Now they rehearse it.
They practise the piece daily, performing it for visitors to their
room, which includes the Principal, two parents, and a visiting student
social worker.
Assessment
Then as an assessment point the students
present a
public performance of their sound sequence. Mr Bolton uses, as an
assessment criterion, the students' willingness to present their own
work to an audience
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