TUBE HORNS
Hear it
YOU WILL NEED -
A cardboard tube - a gift wrapping tube or paper towel tube is best.
A piece of construction paper or a file folder
Tape - Masking tape or duct tape is preferable.
PROCEDURE:
1. Shape the paper into a funnel with a hole just big enough for the tube
to fit into.
2. Tape the funnel to the tube as shown:
The tube shouldn't stick too far into the funnel - just enough to be secure.
That's it! Now to make some noise!
How to Play:
1. First, practice making your lips buzz. It's kind of like when you used
to make machine gun sounds with your lips. Also you might consider the
way that a horse does it...
2. Press your lips up to tube and buzz away!
3. Try making your lips buzz faster and slower. You'll soon discover that
if you buzz your lips just right, you'll get the best sound from the horn.
This is because of an effect of sound waves. When the length of the sound
wave you create matches up well with the length of the tube, the sound
gets stronger. The funnel acts as an amplifier - it makes the sound much
louder. If you don't believe me, try one tube without a funnel and one
with a funnel. There should be a BIG difference!
Variations:
1. Try different lengths of tube. If the tubes have the same size hole,
the longer the tube is the lower the sound. Therefore, the shorter the
tube, the lower the sound.
2. If you get a nice long tube (2 or 3 feet) with just the right size hole
(pretty small, about an inch or so across) you can actually start to get
different sounds (also called pitches) by changing the tightness of your
lips and blowing harder or softer. By experimenting a lot you should be
able to get a lot of different pitches. This is exactly the way that certain
brass instruments like bugles work.
3. You can even use other kinds of tubes. Garden hose works pretty well,
especially the variety that has a wider hole. The thinner hole kind is
a bit hard to blow, but will get a good sound if you really blast it. I
would NOT recommend using metal tubes as they might be a) sharp at the
ends; b) rusty; or c) once been attached to something nasty, say, a bathroom.....
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