The Science of Sound & Music Engineering

⏰ Time: 40 min

🎓 Grades: 4-6

🎯 Objective(s): As a result of this lesson students will know and/or be able to...

• Understand the basics of physics and sounds
• Appreciate and understand the role of a sound engineer
• See how vibrations are made

💡 Required Prior Knowledge and Skills:

• Basic signs and symbols on the staff
• Knowledge of note values and notation
• Experience playing their preferred instruments.

💻 Materials:

• Solfeg.io app best used with Chrome browser
• Projector or computer and access to WIFI
• Instruments to perform
• Elastic bands

Song suggestions:

A cover of
Let It Be
THE BEATLES

A cover of
I Love Rock'n'Roll
JOAN JETT

A cover of
Ghostbusters
RAY PARKER JR.

Start of your lesson

🕐 5 min - Set up the classroom

• Log into Solfeg.io;
• Load your chosen song;
• Find the part of the song you want to play for your students
• Make sure there are enough elastic bands for every student
• Pre-record yourself playing the selected song on your phone where you have a hard time hearing yourself due to bad sound quality (trust me! It’s for the lesson!)

Inspiration

• Tell students some facts about the songs using the song description on the Solfeg.io App
• Ask students which songs on the radio they really enjoy
• Talk about careers in Music!

Warm-Up

🕐 10 min - Q & A

• Have a class discussion about sound. Here are some guiding questions for your conversation:
• What is sound?
• Is ‘sound’ music?
• How are sounds created?
• What are elements of a sound?
• How do we use sound in the world around us?
• Explain to students that sound is made up of vibrations or sound waves that we can hear. Have them take the rubber band between fingers and pluck it. Talk about what they have observed through plucking their rubber band.

Practice

🕐 5 min - Exercise 1:

• Teach students a part from one of the selected songs for this lesson on Solfeg.io

🕐 7 min - Exercise 2: (This will vary based on the type of instrument you are playing)

• For stringed instruments, pair up students and have them take turns playing the part. While one partner is playing, the other partner can take notes to see which string vibrates the fastest and which - the slowest.
• For percussion instruments, place uncooked rice on the top of drums and have students play the part. Their partner can observe which rolls and percussion techniques cause the rice to ‘jump the highest’ Then have the partners switch!

🕐 5 min - Exercise 3

• Explain to students that it is the sound engineer’s job to make sure the many lines of music in a song are recorded with a crisp sound and that all the music aligns perfectly. Listen to the Solfeg.io version of the song and then the recording of you playing the song. Discuss with students the difference in sound quality between the two and write down the words they use to describe it.

🕐 7 min - Exercise 4

• Have students play along with both your version and the Solfeg.io version of the selected song. Ask them which one they preferred playing with and why.

Reflection

🕐 5 min - Q & A

• Points of discussion
• What did you learn about the science of sound?
• What questions do you still have about sound?
• How do we react to sound in our everyday life?

Beyond the Lesson

• Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by...
• Researching where sound vibrations are used in jobs, machines, animals, to help our world function, etc.
• Doing a research project on how instruments make sounds

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