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Making It: Programmes
27–39
Programme 34: Junk Yard Band
After watching the
programme, pupils should be able to:
- measure and mark out materials;
- explore the sensory qualities of materials and how
to use materials and processes;
- assemble, join and combine components and materials
accurately;
- design and make assignments using stiff and flexible
sheet materials and textiles;
- investigate and evaluate a product to appreciate how
it works and how it is used.
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Gilles Street Primary School is in Adelaide,
Australia. The kids are busy putting together their own junk yard
band. They make all kinds of instruments. The only rule is that
they have to be made from things that other people would throw
away. Plastic tubing is turned into shakers, rainsticks and
didgeridoos. Bottles and cans become xylophones. A sheet of
corrugated iron makes a brilliant zither and old pots and pans are
turned into drums and cymbals. The kids even find a use for some
strong plastic sacks: they cut them up, decorate them with tape and
turn them into waistcoats for the band members to wear.
When the instruments are made, the scenery painted and everyone has
rehearsed, it's time for the big performance. It might have started
out as junk, but now it makes a pretty amazing sound!
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- Art: investigating and making art, craft and
design.
- Science: sound.
- Music – play tuned / untuned instruments;
improvise, developing rhythmic and melodic material; analyse and
compare sounds.
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Any band needs different sorts of instruments to do
different jobs. Instruments like trumpets, recorders and pipes are
blown to make tunes. They are known as wind instruments. In a junk
yard band, they are often made from bottles, cans or cut-up pieces
of hosepipe.
Percussion instruments emphasise the rhythm or beat of a piece of
music. They are instruments you hit, rattle, scrape or shake, such
as drums, cymbals, maracas or zithers. Some percussion instruments
are pitched, which means you can make the notes they play higher or
lower. A xylophone is an example of pitched percussion and so is
the thumb piano, which you can make in the Ideas to
Try section of these notes. You can play a tune on a
pitched percussion instrument.
Most bands have stringed instruments like guitars, harps, violins
and double basses. It is easy to change the pitch of the notes made
by these instruments by pressing down on the strings in different
places. All these instruments can be used to play a tune, though
the low notes of a bass instrument are mostly used to give the
music rhythm and to keep everybody else playing in time.
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Make a String
Bass
You will need: ball of string;
large plastic tub with a lid (such as an ice cream tub); long
straight wooden pole at least 1 metre long (for example a broom
handle); strong sticky tape (for example carpet tape); scissors;
bradawl; hammer and a small (3 cm) nail.
Before you
start: Think about how to use the equipment safely and
whether you need an adult to supervise. Check with your teacher if
you are not sure.
- Use the bradawl to make a hole in the centre of the
plastic tub lid.
- Feed one end of the string through the hole and knot
it on the inside of the lid. Put the lid back on the tub.
- Stand the pole next to the tub. Wind strong sticky
tape around the two objects to join them together.
- Hammer a nail into the wooden pole, about 5 cm from
the top.
- Wind the other end of the string around the nail
until it is tight. Cut off any string left over.
- As you pluck the string, you should hear a low note.
You can change the pitch of the note by holding more or less of the
string against the wooden pole.
- Use the string bass in the rhythm section of your
band.
Make a Thumb
Piano
You will need: rectangle of
wooden board (about 15 cm by 20 cm and 3 cm thick); strip of wood
15 cm long and 5 cm wide; small nails ('panel pins' which are about
2 cm long are ideal); 6 lolly sticks; small hammer; sandpaper; pva
glue.
Before you
start: Think about how to use the equipment safely and
whether you need an adult to supervise. Check with your teacher if
you are not sure.
- Lay the lolly sticks along the width at one end of
the board. Overlap each stick by a different amount, so that when
it is twanged, it will make a differently-pitched note.
- Experiment with different notes, until you are happy
with your arrangement.
- Carefully nail each lolly stick in place.
- Next, lay the strip of wood across all the lolly
sticks and nail it down too.
- Carefully rub off any rough edges or splinters with
sandpaper.
- Paint your thumb piano with 2 or 3 coats of pva glue
to give it a shiny, finished surface.
- Try playing a tune on your thumb piano. Add the
piano to the percussion section of your band.
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Gallery of the Junkyard Symphony Band:
www.junkyardsymphony.com/gallery.html
Percussion instruments made from scrap:
www.soundhouse.co.uk/bands/wos.html
Loads of ideas for instruments from an organisation called 'Bash
the Trash':
http://home.earthlink.net/~jbertles/
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