Let’s make a xylophone

Let's make some music!

You don't need a fancy instrument to be able to play some music – get some bottles, we will make a home-make xylophone and learn to play the famous "Do Re Mi" from the movie soundtrack "The Sound Of Music".

What do you need? Simple! Just 8 identical glass bottles, a good example will be the normal 600ml soft drink bottles, easily available. We also need a mallet for the xylophone – you can make a simple one out of a pencil, to make it more sophisticated you can glue a wooden bead to the sharp (with lead) end.

Why do you need 8 bottles? This is so that we can have the basic notes in the tune, these will be the eight notes in a scale : do re mi fa so  la ti do

(Graphic by ClipArt)

do(1) re(2) mi(3) fa(4) so(5)  la(6)  ti(7)  do(8)

Do you know this scale? If not, ask someone who knows.

What next? Just fill the bottles with varying amount of water. Start with the first bottle (do) with the bottle full. Use the mallet (pencil), hit the bottle now, listen to the sound – this is do !

Then? Take the second bottle, fill up with water. Next pour a little out (so that it has less water than bottle do), hit the bottle now with the mallet and listen carefully – does this sound like re? Adjust the amount of water in the bottle until it sounds like re when hit. Remember, re will be a notch higher in pitch than do.

Repeat with the rest of the bottles (do re mi fa so  la ti do). You will find that each subsequent bottle will need less water than the previous one, this is because they go up in pitch in the scale. It will take a bit of time to get the pitch right for each of the bottle, be patient! Once you have the bottles all filled up with the right amount of water, don't forget to put the caps/lids back on, and label all the bottles appropriately.

Now we can enjoy some music! See if you can play the following ….

do re mi do mi do mi …

re mi fa fa mi re fa …

mi fa so  mi so mi so …

fa so  la la so fa la …

so  do re mi fa so la …

la re mi fa so  la ti …

ti mi fa so  la ti do …

do ti la fa ti so do …..

do re mi fa so  la ti do .. so do!!

This article is contributed by a member of GoKids.

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