Support fo Curious Crew is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union, offering a variety of accounts for children and teens of all ages while teaching lifelong saving habits.

More information is available at MSUFCU.org.

Also by the Consumers Energ Foundation dedicated to ensuring Michigan residents have access to world class educational resources by investing in nonprofits committed to education and career readiness.

More information is available a ConsumersEnergy.com/Foundation.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Rob Stephenson and this Curious Crew!

Welcome to the show, everybody.

We always like to start every episode with a couple of discrepant events because discrepant events stimulate curiosity.

That's exactly right.

And I've got such a treat for you all today.

In fact, in the studio, I hav invited members of the horn line from Michigan State University's Spartan Marching Band, and they're actually going to perform the first discrepant event.

But first, let's meet these instrumentalists.

We're going to start with some trumpets.

Hi, I'm Michael, and this is an E-flat Cornet.

Hi, I'm Andrew, and these are B-flat trumpets four.

And now let's meet th mellophones and the trombones.

Hi, I'm Travis.

And these are mellophones.

Hi, I'm Nick.

And these are tenor trombones.

Hi, I'm Ryan, and this is a bass trombone.

And we have one pair of instruments I want you also to meet.

I am Jacob, also known as Ford.

And this is a tuba.

Hi, I'm Seth, and this is a baritone.

So let's take a look at this first discrepant event.

And as you're listening, I want you to pay attention to what you notice and how the music makes you feel.

Let's watch.

So isn't that amazing, you guys?

Okay, First of all, Sydney, what?

Did you notice?

Each instrument makes a very unique sound.

That is very true.

And keep that in mind because we're goin have to sort of figure that out.

And how about how did it make you feel?

Sariah how did it make you feel?

It was really exciting when all the instruments are playing together.

I know.

Me too.

I get so excited.

You know, it's funny how music can really influence our emotions.

Now I have another discrepant event and it has to do with this.

So I like to call this phenomenon balloon lips and you'll see why I've got a couple of balloons that have been rubber bande right on the end of this hose.

Now I' going to blow into the other end and place this up against the mouthpiece.

And Milo, what do you think's going to happen?

It's going to make a lot of noise.

Oh, my goodness.

Okay.

Well, that was a pretty good prediction.

Now I'm going to ask three of you to do a little scientific modeling to see if you can explain these phenomena and of course, by the end of the show, you might revise your thinking and change your ideas a little bit.

But who would like to d a science modeling moment today?

Okay, Olivia, Will, Varsha!

You three are going to do that now.

Does anybody have a guess what we're going to be investigating today?

What do you think?

I think really investigating instruments.

You're right.

Instruments and specifically brass instruments and the science of brass instruments.

Stick around.

This is sure to be fun.

And this is more than just lip service.

Let' see if we can figure this out.

It's interesting that the brass instruments produce such different sounds.

Even the tone is different.

Yeah, I hear that too.

We know that the larger instruments, like the tuba, make lower sounds, but that doesn't really explain the tone difference.

That's true.

I was surprised that the Balloon Lips actually produce a sound through the trumpet.

I know that got me wondering about what a musician's lips are doing when they're playing the brass instrument.

Brass instruments are aerophones or wind instruments developed thousands of years ago as simple horns or shells.

By medieval times, the first trumpets were made from silver or brass and used b militaries to convey messages.

By the end of the 16th century Germany was making three kinds of brass instruments: the trumpet, bugle and circular horn.

The next big design change came in 1814, when the first valves were added.

Valves were continually redesigned through 1938, when the piston valve was developed, which most brass instruments still have today.

So as we start to investigat brass instruments, let's start with one of the most important parts, the mouthpiece.

I've got a variety of them here.

What do you notice about these, Lilly?

They're higher and lower.

Okay, so we got small ones, giant ones.

This one goes to a tuba or a sousaphone.

And this one way over here goes to an E-flat Cornet.

Now, I'm going to ask you to try something real quick.

Go ahead and grab one for yourself.

And I would like us to thin about how these actually work.

While you're holding that, I'm going to demonstrate something with a funnel.

If I were to blow into this funnel do you think I can get a sound?

You don't think so?

Okay.

Yeah, you're kind of right.

That's not very exciting.

Now, I know you play the trumpet, Milo, don't you?

What should I do to produce the sound?

Buzz your lips.

Okay I'm gonna try to buzz my lips.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

That totally works.

That's not pretty, but it totally works.

Okay, so we know we have to buzz our lips and what we mean by that is we're going to let ou lips get kind of close together.

Little space in betwee and the air rushing through will buzz your lips.

Let's try it.

Oh, oh, oh.

Oh, gosh.

Okay, excellent.

Now let's think about this.

So we're buzzing our lips and we're sending a wave of energy inside the mouthpiece.

Now the mouthpiece focuses that energy and goes right into the horn.

Here's something I want you to think about.

You put that down for just a minute, but I'm going to have you grab it again and again.

So remember, which one is yours?

Okay.

If we can send that energy in there.

It is kind of like a slinky.

We are sending in what's called a compression wave, and that buzzing lips hits the air particles and they travel right through the instrument as a compression wave, and it comes out the end as sound.

Now, when I look at this tube, because it's a tube, really, it's just this long curlicue tube with all these twists and turns.

It's an open pipe.

It's open on this sid and it's open on the other side.

But it only works if you'r going to buzz your lips, right?

Now, I have another tube right here and I want to show you something about this tube, because it's kind of interesting.

Llily, can you look inside there and tell me what you notice in the end?

Looks like a metal screen.

Yeah.

Okay.

Excellent.

Now we're going to try something.

And this might seem kind of strange, bu I'm going to turn on this torch, and we're going to heat up that metal screen and heat up the inside of the pipe.

But safety first.

Let's get some goggles on here.

And I'm even going to us a pair of heat resistant gloves so I can handle the pipe.

And we're going to turn this flame on real quick.

Oh, my.

Now, this part is kind of crazy.

I am heating up that screen.

I am heating up the air particles inside.

Now, what happens when air particles heat up?

They start moving faster and faster and faster and they are rushing out of the top right now.

In just a moment I'm going to turn off the flame and some cold air particles are going to start to enter from the bottom.

But as soon as they do they're going to bump into that hot screen and create a compression wave.

And I can even turn it off.

How about that?

Okay.

You can go ahead and take off your goggles.

So let's think about that.

In both our trumpet and in the singing pipe, we are sending a compression wave going through.

We have to buzz our lips, though, to make ours to work as opposed to the air particles hitting that hot screen.

Do you remember which was yours?

I think you need to practice one more time.

Good brass musicians are always working on their mouthpiece technique.

Go for it.

Oh, oh, oh.

Very nice.

When a brass musician plays, exhaled air from the lungs moves past the player's lips, causing them to buzz in the mouthpiece as tiny bursts of air.

Those air pulses continuously supply energy as compression waves that vibrate the inner column of air in the tubing and out the open bell.

Those waves of particle continue to travel to our ears, where the vibrations are interpreted as sound.

The full range of an instrument happens when a musician knows how to change lip vibrations known as embouchure.

Hard to believe such beautiful music is the result of buzzing lips.

And so we have a lot of brass instruments here.

And I asked each of you to do a little observation and share something that you notice.

What was something that you noticed, Sydney?

The bells.

It's amazing how the bells flare out like that.

Yeah, that is really cool o every one of these instruments.

That bell just sort of fans out and it doesn't work like a funnel because if it was shaped like that, actually a lot of the soun would get reflected back inside.

So we want that to flare out.

Now, here's a question for you.

If we've got this compression wave sending sound energy right through this bell, anybody have a guess on the percentage of energy that actually makes it all the way through and comes out of sound?

What do you think, Kian?

60%, 60% would be an excellent guess.

This amazed me.

3%, only 3% gets out.

97% of that gets captured.

Inside is friction.

You can almost imagine what would it sound lik if it was a frictionless horn?

Oh, my gosh, That would be so loud.

So I've asked our trumpets t model something with the bells.

Let's watch close.

They're going to play a piece with and without a mute for Isn't that funny?

So the mute really does sort of change the sound quality too, as well as dropping down even less than 3%.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, so Varsha, what was something you notice in your examination here?

Well I know that, like right before, the bells it really flares out a lot.

Okay, so we got these flares before the bell, too.

That's super interesting.

When we look at all of these instruments, the tube is a combination o cylindrical and conical parts.

But I really want to look at the difference between this trumpet, for example, and that flare.

Now, notice how that flare is really, really, really gradual and stretched out, whereas in the cornet it's a little shorter and here in the melee phone, it widens out a lot.

This really changes the qualit of the sound when it comes out.

That mellow sound awesome.

Now, what was the notice that you had?

Can I notice that the instruments themselves were very cold and they have these nifty little spit valves, cold to the touch?

Yeah.

You guys can all feel that.

Which makes sense, because metal i a good conductor of heat, Right?

But the split valves are kind of interesting.

I've got a glass of water here with ice in it.

What are you noticing on the outside of the glass you guys noticing there, Varsha what are you noticing there?

Condensation.

Yeah, exactly right.

So we've got condensation happening on the outside of the glass.

The water vapor that's close to it is slowing down and turning into a liquid.

Something similar happens when a musician plays a brass instrument.

They're blowing that warm breath inside.

That warm breath has water vapor and if it's traveling around and around this cold tubing, it can condense and turn into liquid.

And so they have to open that up and blow the water out.

Actually, a better name for thi would be a condensation valve.

Don't you think, you guys?

So great noticings everybody.

Now, when I think about the designs of brass instruments, all I can say is, wow, they are truly impressive.

Brass instrument have a main active tuning slide that can be adjusted to tune the instrument, as well as additional tuning slides connected to different valves that activate when used.

When playing brass instruments, especially in the cold, musicians often adjust their slides to get in tune.

If they need to lower the pitch or go flat, they can lengthen tuning slides or shorten them to make the pitch go higher or sharp.

Now the slide on the trombon is actually a giant tuning slide with seven different positions, one being closes and seven being fully extended.

That slide sounds great.

STEM Challenge!

So have you been having fu investigating brass instruments today?

Yeah.

I'm so glad.

I've got a really interesting one here.

This is a bugle, Another example of a brass instrument.

And Sariah noticed something.

There's no valves.

And also there's really no slide.

We've got this one slide, but that's for tuning it.

And so to play this, the musician is going to do everything with the mouth, which is kind of amazing.

Now you all are going to make a special kind of bugle, a hose, bugle.

And I know you've selected some parts.

So you ready to start your build?

Yeah.

Okay.

Have fun.

Start with them which way they're going to do this.

So I think I'll just put the funnel on over here, the single to back It goes in like here for like the mouthpiece.

Yeah.

I'd like to be where they blow from.

Our objective is to make a hose bugle.

I think I got this.

I think like these together.

They.

This.

Oh, yes!

The materials we're using ar two plastic tubes, a connector, a cork, a plastic funnel, and a trumpet mouthpiece.

And I like the tubes.

Ours is like, the smallest.

Yeah.

Okay, Let me know when you get your piece, because mine is actually kind of hard to put on.

I was thinking I was going to be easy, but I had a hard time tryin to get the funnel into the tube.

Okay.

I think I got it all the way.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

So we ended u putting the tubes on backwards, so we had to flip it a lot to be able to get the funnel on it.

All good, this is a process.

I think our instrument is going to have a lower tone because of our tuba mouthpiece.

I think it's going to soun like a really bad tuned trumpet.

Yay!

Good job guys.

Yeah.

Good job, guys.

Oh, my goodness.

You guys are done already.

Oh, okay.

That was awesome.

Now, before we try these out, I do want you to report out what materials you used.

Lilly, what did your team use over there in that bugle?

Well we first got this funnel thing, and then we have these two plastic tubes, and then we have a connector with a cork, and we have a trumpet mouthpiece.

Trumpet mouthpiece.

Nice.

Okay, Sariah, what did you and Will use?

So we used a plastic tube, a plastic funnel, and then a tuba mouthpiece.

Tuba mouthpiece and a long tube there.

I noticed that.

Okay, we got one more table.

So, Kian, what did your team use in your bugle?

Our group used a metal funnel, some plastic tubing and a trombone mouthpiece.

Trombone mouthpiece.

Okay, now, I've got a great idea.

Before you test them, I think it'd be really fun if we move the tables and have our musicians give them a try first for Okay, so that was super impressive.

And we know they actually work, so we've got our mouthpieces sanitized and now it's time for us to give it a try.

Milo with the trumpet.

Good job, Milo.

Okay.

And I believe Will is going to be playing with the tuba mouthpiece.

Oh, that was awesome.

Okay.

And one more to demonstrate Kian with the trombone mouthpiece.

Oh, I love the slide action.

That was fantastic.

Why don't you try building your own hose?

Bugle.

And if you don't have a mouthpiece at home, not to worry.

You can always substitute with a little funnel.

Take it away, band.

Let's hear one more.

Oh!

Ha ha ha ha ha.

The crew discovered tha the hose bugles could get long, so it was easier to hold the when they were slightly coiled.

This is true of all brass instruments because they're just long metal tubes.

Bending them makes them much easier to handle.

But what if you stretch them out?

How long would a trumpet be?

A trumpet would stretc between four and five feet long.

An uncoiled french horn would be 17 feet long.

And as for the tuba, that could be as long as 26 feet.

Yikes.

No wonder we coil them up.

We've go a lot of brass instruments here.

But first, I would like our musicians t demonstrate a chromatic scale.

Be sure to watch closely, because I want to hear some observations.

Let's take a look.

Awesome.

So what was one of the things that you noticed, Sariah?

So the trombone used a slide to change pitc while the others used a valve.

Okay, very good.

So you could definitely see that.

And what does that actually do?

Using the slide or the valves?

How does that actually help change the pitch, Will?

By changing the length of the tube.

That's exactly right.

And we can see that with a trombone.

You can see that to get longer and longer and longer, shorter and shorter and shorter.

So you can relate that to the pitch change.

But the valve instrument, that's a little harder to see because there's something going on inside.

And in fact, I'm going to open up one of these valves and we're going to pull this out, because what you're going to notice is there's a series of holes.

And depending upon which combination of valves the musician uses it will direct the air through different paths a longer path or a shorter path, which will, of course, change the pitch as well.

Now, in fact, I've asked our baritone to demonstrate two things.

Let's watch.

It's pretty amazing, right?

So, Olivia, what was one of the things that you noticed?

He increased the volume by a lot.

A lot.

And of course, just by moving more air, you actually produce a lot more sound.

Great.

What else did you notice?

Well, he changed the pitch without touching the valves, which seems strange, right?

Because we were just talking about how you change pitches by using the valves.

But the amazing thing is musicians learn how to manipulate their mouth and use their breath differently to come up with different notes.

And there's five different ways that they do this.

I think this is an unbelievable phenomenon.

First thing that they can do, change the tension in their lips.

More tense lips, higher pitch.

Second thing they can do change the opening in between their lips.

It's called the aperture.

A little more air coming through.

Third thing they can do vibrate more of their lips in the mouthpiece to get a lower pitch.

They can also exhale with more pressure.

And this is the one that's most amazing to me.

They move their tongue int different positions in the mouth to change the airflow and that can change the pitch.

The science of actually playing a brass instrument is truly phenomenal.

It's important to maintain brass instruments.

Here are a few tips before putting it away.

Blow out the water valves.

Be sure to keep your valves oiled and your slides lubricate to keep the parts moving freely.

Don't store it in a place that's too hot.

Poor, too cold.

Always put it away in the case with the latches closed.

Each week you can clean your mouthpiece with liquid soap, water and a mouthpiece brush.

And you can even give the instrument a bath every three months.

Now, that will last a long time.

Are you curious about careers in science?

Hi, I'm Aikem, and today we're here with Kiki Kilburn.

Hi, Kiki.

Can you tell me where we are and what you do?

We are at Michigan State University in Murray Hall.

I'm the assistant conductor of orchestras.

We have four main sections of the orchestra.

There are the strings, the winds, the brass, and there's percussion and sometimes harp and piano.

And how is STEM involved in your work?

When I study my scores I try to discover the underlying architecture of the music, lik instrumentation, orchestration, color, texture, conducting, sound so interesting and fun.

Can I try it?

So there's four beats per measure.

You lift your hands.

They are going to get read and you're going to give a prep and you're gonna breathe on the before.

Kiki Kilburn conducted me through scores of STEM knowledge.

Explore your possibilities!

And now back to Curious Crew.

So we know that some brass instruments are more conical than others.

Right.

We can see that with the mellophone, and that explains the difference in tone that we heard, especially when you compar the mellophone with the trumpet and with the balloon lips.

We know that when the musician exhales air, their lips will vibrate in the mouthpiece.

And the mouthpiece focuses the vibration into the instrument where it gets amplified and produces the sound.

So have you had fun investigating brass instruments today?

Yeah!

That is music to my ears.

Now let's go ahead and retur back to our discrepant events.

And I know you've been thinking a lot about this.

So what did we figure ou about the brass family, Olivia?

The larger instruments have a deeper tone than the smaller ones.

The deeper tone come from the mouthpiece and the size and the length.

Very good.

Anything you want to add to that, Will?

When the instrument's more conical like the mellophone it makes a different sound.

Exactly.

And that kind of make a nice name for the instrument, you know, often because it's kind of mellow sound.

That's exactly right.

Okay.

So what about these balloon lips, Varhsa?

What's going on here?

Well, the balloon lips are like a musician's buzzing lips, because as the balloon vibrates, the energy goes to the instrument to make the sound.

Exactly right.

And what's really strange is when I blow on this, nothing really happens.

Right.

But we know that the air is going by those balloon lips and they're vibrating.

Now, if we put this up to the horn, we can create a compression wave going through the tube and it produces a glorious sound.

Wasn't a glorious sound.

Now, of course, if I chose a different instrument, I could put it up to a tuba I could put it up to a trombone, and we'd end up with a different pitch.

We'll do it one more time just because it's fun.

Oh, yeah, that's delightful.

Now, I think it would be a good idea for u to move the table out of the way and bring out our musicians one more time.

So let's bring out some of the members of the horn line from the Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band.

We want to thank them for sharing their musical talents with us today.

And perhaps we could even get one more song?

Outstanding!

Outstanding.

So remember, my friends, stay curious!

And keep experimenting.

Get your curiosity guide and see more programs at wkar.org.

Support for Curious Crew is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union, offering a variety of accounts for children and teens of all ages while teaching lifelong saving habits.

More information is available at MSUFCU.org Also by the Consumers Energy Foundation, dedicated to ensuring Michigan residents have access to world class educational resources by investing in nonprofits committed to education and career readiness.

More information is available a ConsumersEnergy.com/Foundation.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Travis and these are mellophones.

We're ready.

We're ready.

Well done, my friend.

Well done, my friend.

Curious Crew, season 11, episode three.

Take one.

You guys rock, You guys rock, you rock, you rock.

So proud of you guys.