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.

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!

Curriculum Relevance

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.

Background

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.

Activities

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.

Links

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/

Making It: Programmes 27–39 Programme 34: Junk Yard Band

Aims