Materials for making musical instruments can be found in any apartment. A lot of possibilities are provided by dishes. A drum from a pan is a fairly common thing. But you can make something like a crystal phone out of glasses, wine glasses or goblets. Professional musicians use specially tuned cut glasses or goblets for a similar instrument. Different wall thicknesses give different pitch. At home, the most common water is used for tuning.
It is necessary
- - 12 glasses;
- - scotch tape;
- - table;
- - volumetric dishes;
- - felt-tip pen;
- - tuning fork or keyboard;
- - a thin metal or glass rod.
Instructions
Step 1
Choose 12 thin glass or crystal glasses. Of course, ordinary faceted ones can be rebuilt in this way, but they are made of too thick glass. It will give a very dull sound. For a crystallophone one octave, take 12 identical glasses. If you want to make a more complex instrument, you will need more "glass keys".
Step 2
Place the glasses in a row on the table. Check if they produce the same sound. This is done in much the same way as in a store, when the seller checks for cracks on the dishes. There shouldn't be very dramatic differences. Add a little water to a glass that sounds too low. You can do it differently, taking its sound as the main tone and adjusting the rest according to it.
Step 3
Try to determine what kind of sound an empty glass makes. Use a tuning fork or any tempered musical instrument. For example, a synthesizer or virtual piano keyboard will do. They, unlike conventional instruments, give absolutely precise tuning. Take the sound of an empty glass as the main tone.
Step 4
Hear how the chromatic scale sounds when played on the virtual keyboard or synthesizer. Press all the keys one after another in turn, regardless of whether they are white or black. You can also tune the crystallophone along the guitar, clamping the string alternately on adjacent frets. Pour the water gradually into the glass. The more water, the higher the sound will be. In order not to tune a homemade crystal phone each time in the future, mark the water level corresponding to each tone with a marker. If you have a measuring container at hand, pour water from a glass into it and write down how many milliliters you need to pour to get a sound of a certain pitch. Pour the water back into the glass.
Step 5
Having rebuilt all the "keys", arrange the glasses in a row according to the chromatic scale. The glass that produces the lowest sound should be on the far left. But this order is optional - as, indeed, chromatic tuning. You can take only the sounds you need for a particular melody and arrange the "keys" as you like.
Step 6
Professional performers play the glass harp with just their fingers. You can also use this method of sound production. Hands must be absolutely clean. They shouldn't have any cream on them. It is better to degrease your fingertips altogether and then moisten them with water. Run your fingertip over the top of the glass. When performing circular movements, the hand should be relaxed.
Step 7
You can play on glasses in another way - with a hammer, like on a xylophone. A thin metal or glass stick will do, even a teaspoon will do. Remember that your "keys" are very fragile, so the force of the blow must be controlled. You can knock on the edge or on the side of the glass. The sounds in pitch will be the same, but in the first case it will be louder and more sonorous.
