Combining Science and Music for Deeper Learning

The science of sound provides rich opportunities for interdisciplinary learning in music class. Students’ being able to “see” sound can help them understand rhythm, pitch, and other concepts central to music making and learning. These science concepts aren’t one and done, but build in complexity as students mature. This spiral learning puts elementary music teachers in a perfect position to introduce and revisit science concepts throughout the time students are in their classes. Music teachers introduce concepts in basic ways with students in kindergarten, then revisit these concepts as students’ musical and scientific understanding increases. 

Seeing Sound

Sound is produced by an object vibrating. Kindergartners (and even preschool students) can start to understand this by seeing objects move with sound. While this can be shown by directly playing an instrument and watching something on it vibrate, the idea of sound moving through air and being a kind of energy is even clearer when sounds can be seen and heard vibrating something else without touching it directly. This phenomenon, known as sympathetic resonance, has many musical applications from snares on drums to strings on a sitar.

The most common medium that sound moves through is air, which typically cannot be seen. I have often used the Schlieren flow visualization to show students how the density of the air changes with sound. Even though younger students may not grasp all of the technicalities of this technique, they can understand that the sound is moving the air.

Seeing Frequency and Pitch

Another basic science of sound concept is that the smaller the size of the object, the faster it will vibrate (if all other factors are constant). This can be taught with frequent, casual associations whenever music education begins. For example, kindergartners can notice or be directed to notice the difference in the size of bars in classroom xylophones and how that variance affects pitch. Through videos, demonstrations, and guest performances, students can see how, in general, the size of an instrument affects the pitches that instrument produces. A piccolo plays higher than a tuba; a violin plays higher than a string bass.

Next, students learn how manipulating the size of an instrument can change the pitch. My in-class demonstration of trombone playing includes letting students pull the slide in and out, allowing them to see and hear the science in action. Older students can see how covering and uncovering holes in a recorder essentially makes the instrument longer and shorter to create the different pitches.

Another way to manipulate an instrument to produce different pitches is to tighten or loosen its strings. While tuning strings does not change the size of the string, students can notice how the vibrations move faster when the strings are pulled tighter. Students can also recognize how putting fingers down on frets or the fingerboard changes the length of the string and affects the pitch.

Another way to show how the speed of vibration affects pitch is with spinning tubes. The frequency, the rate at which an object vibrates, determines the pitch. This can be clearly seen by spinning tubes that increase in pitch as they are spun faster. This is also a demonstration for beginning band members who are learning how to play brass instruments specifically because it relates to how air speed determines pitch. Faster air creates higher pitches. This is a fun, visual way to counter a common misconception in beginning players that higher pitches are achieved by pressing the instrument harder into the mouth.

Math, science, and music come together as students use these concepts to create their own instruments. There is a specific set of ratios that determine pitches. While any material could be used, paper towel tubes work well to demonstrate this concept since length is the only dimension that needs to be calculated. Students create tubes of different lengths and then experiment with ways to secure them while still allowing them to vibrate enough to create sound. By calculating the ratios, students can create tuned instruments that can reproduce tunes and music.

The Sound Waves experiment in the Chrome Music Lab is a great online demonstration that shows the visualization of molecules vibrating as a piano is played. Students can clearly see the difference in vibrating frequency (speed) for higher and lower pitches.

Understanding Sound and Energy Transfer

Sound is often also included in learning about energy transfer. Young students can see how they can touch instruments and produce sound—transferring mechanical energy to sound energy (even if they don’t have the precise terminology).

Microphones, speakers, and other electronic sound devices offer many more possibilities to older students. In a combined workshop I led with seventh graders and third graders, third graders were able to identify the electronic, magnetic, and sound energy transfers involved in playing an electric guitar with just a little guidance.

Students encounter the science of sound every day. Through the explicit instruction and informal opportunities described here, music teachers enable students to build layers of understanding and learning on top of these frequent occurrences. Students are able to build a vocabulary, both scientific and musical, to understand the world around them and have fun doing it!