[MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) Bonjour.

Salute.

Hola.

Que tal?

Ni hao.

Ahlan.

Salve.

Ciao.

Hello to you.

Yassas.

Yassou.

Shikamo.

Habari.

Konnichiwa.

Ya yo to you.

Hello, friends and welcome to the Lincoln Center Pop-Up Classroom.

My name is Damian Quinones.

And I'm a musician and visual artist.

Today we're going to experiment with sound using strings and things from around the house and nature.

We're also going to create our very own one-of-a-kind instrument.

And we'll use that instrument to play some music together.

For our first activity, all you need is a fixed string or band of some kind, something like this.

This kind of string is called twine.

Ask an adult to help you before you go looking for it yourself.

If you don't have twine, you could also use a shoe string or one of my favorites, a rubber band.

Take your string or band, and gently pull it straight by the ends.

With your thumb, pluck the string, and listen to the sound you get.

Hmm.

At the moment, I'm not really hearing anything.

That may be because I'm not pulling the string tight enough.

Let's see what happens when I pull it tighter.

There we go.

What are some words you'd use to describe the sound you're getting when you tighten your string?

Some words I might use are plucky, buzzy, low.

I wonder what would happen if we shorten the string.

What kind of sound do you think we'd get?

Let's give you a try.

Wow, I hear a difference.

What are some differences you notice when you shorten your string?

One thing I noticed is that it sounds higher.

If I extend it, it sounds lower.

If I shorten it, it sounds higher.

The tension we put on the string allows The tension we put on the string allows it to vibrate after you've plucked it.

If we lengthen the string, we get a lower sound because the pluck string is vibrating slower and longer.

And when we shorten the string, we get a higher sound because the string is vibrating faster and for a shorter time kind of like the strings on a guitar.

That rubber band is pretty cool.

The twine is pretty cool.

But my guitar has a lot more volume.

One thing I notice is that the string is still really quiet.

What's an idea we might have to make it louder?

Let's think about this.

Hmm.

No, no.

I think I've got an idea.

For this experiment, I'm going to switch to a rubber band.

As I was drinking my tea, I noticed my voice seemed to change a little bit as I got closer to the tea cup.

When I finished my tea, it really changed.

One of the reasons is because the cup is empty.

When I talk into it, it amplifies my voice.

That means it makes it louder.

For this part, ask an adult if it's OK for you to use a cup.

A plastic cup is just fine for this if they're a little nervous about you using their favorite mug.

We are going to take our rubber band and pull the rubber band over the opening of this mug here.

If the rubber band is way too big, you can either use a bigger cup or mug or pull the rubber band down a bit to make it tighter.

Let's pluck our rubber band and see what kind of sound we get.

Let's pluck our rubber band and see what kind of sound we get.

What are some things you notice about the sound of the rubber band over the cup?

It sounds a little louder to me.

And it sounds kind of twangy.

I wonder what it would sound like if I put the rubber band over something bigger.

I found this solid container in my recycling bin.

I gave it a good rinse and a wipe down, and it's ready to go.

This container is much bigger than this cup.

Let's see what it sounds like.

Whoa.

Big difference.

Tension and length contribute to making the sounds either lower or higher.

It will also have a little effect on the volume.

The tighter the string, the tone will sound higher and a little louder.

The more slack, the string will sound lower and a bit quieter.

The length of the string will also change the sound.

The shorter you make the string, the higher the sound.

By itself, the string or band is not that loud.

But pulled over something hollow like a cup or container, it's louder.

The vibration of the string moves the air in the empty space.

This amplifies the sound.

That means it makes it louder.

Tension, length, and something hollow to amplify the sound are the three ingredients we need to make our own unique string instrument.

OK, you ready for our mission possible?

Getting supplies to make our instrument.

I have a few cool things here at home.

But I wonder what other things I could find to add to my instrument.

Huh.

Maybe a little socially distanced walk in the park will give me some inspiration.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Here we are in beautiful Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

Here we are in beautiful Prospect Park, Brooklyn.

What I'd like to do is look around and see if we could find anything that we can use for our string instrument that we're going to be making at home.

One thing that I'm going to be looking for right now is sticks.

now is sticks.

Something like this might do it.

Let's see what else we can find.

Wow.

Look at this.

Look at this.

It's a hollowed-out log.

Looks like nature took care of this tree pretty well.

I'm sure there are little creatures living in there sometimes, anyways.

And it's empty.

Just made me think maybe we could use this log or try to the way that we use the cup with the rubber band and the plastic container with the rubber band.

What if I took some twine and pulled it over this little hole here?

Maybe I can get some amplified sound.

Let's give it a try.

OK, so what I'm going to do is pull this twine over the hole in the log and see what sounds I can get.

over the hole in the log and see what sounds I can get.

If we lift it up a little bit, let's listen to and compare it.

Let's listen to what it sounds like when it's not on the log and then when it's on the log.

So we're going to lift it up.

And I'm going to pull it tight.

And I'm going to pluck it.

And I'm going to pluck it.

Twangy and kind of low.

Let's press it up against this log and see what happens.

Between the tension and the space in here, Between the tension and the space in here, we're getting a different sound.

[MUSIC PLAYING] What a lovely day.

That was really fun.

I found some interesting sticks and some other things from nature, these pods.

I also found an empty box in my recycling.

How about you?

Did you notice anything cool that you would've picked up?

Or maybe you found something at home that you can use to make your instrument?

Now that we have these things, let's get creative.

What are some ways we can use the things that we found and learned today to make our unique string instrument?

Right now we have all our ingredients to make our string instrument.

And we're using the criteria that we came up with.

The string, the twine, or the rubber band, whichever we choose to use, is going to give us some tension.

And it's going to give us some tone.

That means that we're going to get some sound out of it.

But we're going to need some way to amplify.

And that's where the box comes in handy.

Because as you can see, the box is hollow.

And that's going to help project the sound outward and give us a bit of a louder sound.

And it's going to probably affect the pitch and the tone, the actual sound, of the rubber band or the twine, whichever we choose to use today.

This branch is pretty cool.

I've had my eye on this guy for a while.

Pretty neat.

But we also have this contender here.

It's not tight enough, but I'm afraid if I go a little bit tighter that I might break this branch.

Now, one of the neat things about this box is because we have these little cuts in here, it makes it easy for me to rest my sticks.

So I think that that's appealing to me.

Look at that.

Look at that.

But you know what?

I think I want something a little bit higher-pitched, something that really pops out.

So I think I'm going to use the rubber band instead.

Because from my experimenting with the rubber band, I've noticed that the sound is a little bit higher pitched.

And I don't have to put quite as much tension on it because the rubber band itself is doing that.

We want to keep the stick in place.

It's not going to stay there by itself.

So maybe the string, the twine that I was going to use, I'll use it to hold the stick in place.

That's what I'll do.

There we go.

I think I want to add another rubber band because I have two sounds here.

[MUSIC PLAYING] This is looking quite fancy in my opinion.

And if you have paints or crayons or other kind of art supplies at home or even an old magazine and glue stick, you can decorate your instrument too and really personalize it.

So it looks really cool.

This is my one-of-a-kind, unique instrument.

It's made of sticks, a shoe box and twine, a few rubber bands, and some pods from a tree.

What's your instrument made of?

How does it work?

What sounds can it make?

I can play my instrument with my fingers.

But I can also play it with some pens or a chopstick.

Since these instruments we've made are brand new, it may take some time to learn how to play them.

You may even discover some really far out, strange sounds that you've never heard before.

I'm going to try and make a song with my new instrument.

Maybe I'll even add a little guitar.

Let's see.

[MUSIC PLAYING] I'd like you to help me play this song.

What are some things you could add to it on your new instrument?

I have a good idea.

Why don't I play the chords of this new song on my guitar, and you can add whatever you'd like to it on your new string instrument?

The guitar works in a similar way to my new instrument.

The wooden body of the guitar is hollow.

And that's what helps it project the sound.

The strings are tightened across the sound hole, which is this circle right here, using a peg to hold in the strings.

They're tuning pegs to help raise and lower the pitch.

And using your fingers or a pick, you can shorten the strings or lengthen them.

The strings themselves are also different thickness.

This also changes the sound.

This also changes the sound.

Ready to play along?

Here we go.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Coming to the end.

Oh, that was really fun.

I really enjoyed our time together.

I hope you did, too.