Make a Joyful Noise

Using the design cycle, students created original musical machines, aka "instruments," using everyday recycled and repurposed objects. At the festival's culmination, groups of instruments were combined to perform interpretive "sound stories."

Part 1: What is That Sound?: Short listening & contemplation exercises (Chapel assemblies)

• Turning on Our Ears: Birds, Frogs, and Onomatopoeia - Feb. 3
• What's That Instrument?: Fascinating Instruments video collage - Feb. 17
• Layering Sounds: Arthur's New Power - Feb. 24

Part 3: Design Challenge: Design, Build, Test, Improve...and Perform - 1 hour installments on March 7 & 9, full day on March 11.

WE LIKE TO "UPCYCLE"!

In preparation, we asked families to scour their garages and junk closets for unwanted commonplace objects that could be used in the construction of never-seen-before music-generating machines. Think Dr. Seussian designs or Ken Butler, the master of hybrid instrument design. We called these our "speciality" items. Student design teams received one specialty item at the beginning of their challenge and then they "bought" regular recycling-bin objects like cardboard, plastic cups, etc. with their allotted design budget to engineer their vision. The only rule about specialty items is that they could't be from a pre-existing musical instrument. We've discovered that these made especially good specialty items:

• old tennis rackets, hockey sticks, roller blades
• bicycle rims, car hubcaps (preferably with oil rubbed off), film reels
• old cooking sheets & tins
• broken tripods, retractable handles from rolling bags
• springs, slinkies, bungee cords
• door hinges, pulleys
• small (clean) trash cans, bendy-head lamps...
• mailboxes, ceiling fan parts...yes, we've received those and they're great!
• PVC pipes and connectors
• ....oh my gosh, it's so fun to think of new uses for our clutter!