(upbeat electronic music) - [Mr.

C] What time is it?

- [Group] It's science time!

♪ Oh, it's science, science, science time ♪ ♪ Let's all stop and just unwind ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, here we go ♪ ♪ Learn so much your brain explodes ♪ ♪ Lessons so cool, so fresh ♪ ♪ It's so great, you'll lose your breath.

♪ ♪ Learning facts and real cool stuff ♪ ♪ Scream for more, can't get enough ♪ ♪ It's, it's science time ♪ ♪ It's fun, you best believe ♪ ♪ Explore and learn new things ♪ ♪ Come and join me, please ♪ - I'm Mr.

C, and this super smart group is my science crew.

Working together with my crew makes learning so much fun!

Actually, you should join us.

Let's give science a try with a simple DIY.

Today, we visit the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

What time is it?

- [Group] It's science time!

(musical instruments dinging) (Mr.

C humming) - Oh!

Hey.

Welcome back to "DIY Science Time."

My name's Mr.

C, and I'm so excited that you're here to be a part of our crew today.

(logo whooshes) Today, we're talking about music and instruments.

I got a new MIDI keyboard and it allows me to use any instrument on my computer to make cool songs like "Science Time."

(phone rings) Oh, hold on.

DIY Science Time hotline.

Mr.

C. How may I help you?

- [Caller] Hey, Mr.

C. This is Alex.

I'm calling you from the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

- Alex!

- [Alex] We hear you're doing a show about music.

We though we'd invite you down to meet some of our kids, meet some of the instruments that they play, and maybe make a bit of sound and a bit of noise yourself.

- Absolutely.

Let me get back to the show really quick and let my audience know what they need for materials so they can build an instrument, and then, yeah, I'll hop right down.

I'll be on a flight as soon as I can.

All right, bye.

- [Alex] Cheers!

(phone clicks) - That sounds exciting, right?

We are going to go to the Alabama School of Fine Arts to learn about instruments and play a couple of instruments with their students.

So while I get packed up and ready to go, I need you to grab a few materials that are instrumental for building an instrument.

- It's time to tune in and build an instrument together.

Grab the following materials.

String, PVC pipe, a one-liter bottle with cap, a two-liter bottle with cap, scissors, tape, and this time, we're really putting the notes into our science notebook.

(Penelope scatting) - [Linky] A science notebook is a tool that every scientist should have because it gives us a place to record all of our learning.

Taking notes and being organized allows us to be better scientists.

A science notebook allows us to go back and review all of the data and information we've gathered during our experiments.

Plus, it allows us to share results with other scientists who might be interested in learning more about what we've discovered.

Whenever you see the notebook pop up on the screen like this, it's a reminder that this is a good place for us to jot down new information during the show.

I've already added a title and a list of materials for today's activity, but our crew is still going to have lots of information to collect and organize as we go through our experiments.

Most importantly, the more you use a science notebook, the better you'll get at taking notes and recording data.

If you don't have a science notebook already, download a copy of Mr.

C's science notebook from the website.

(lively flute music) - I'm here at the Alabama School of Fine Arts with Alex Fokkens, who is the chair of the music department.

Alex, I'm so excited to be here today.

I hear this is a pretty musical and amazing place.

- The Alabama School of Fine Arts is a tuition-free school sponsored by the state of Alabama, and what it does is it allows the students of Alabama that have a passion and they want to focus all their energies on that passion, be it, you know, visual arts, creative writing, music, dance, theater, or math science, they get to do that every day.

and they get world-class facilities, world-class faculty.

They get world-class academic teachers as well, where they go and do regular high school classes.

Why is it important?

Well, the world needs artists.

The world needs mathematicians, scientists.

We need everybody to make sure that the world becomes, you know, everything that it should be.

- That's amazing.

I know we're gonna get to see the facility.

We're gonna see the building, the different wings, but will I have a chance to maybe hang out with some students and maybe learn and play some instruments?

- Well, one of the great things about the kids is that they love telling people what they do and showing people, so we're gonna get a few of them down to teach you how to play their different instruments and see if you can remember anything that you learned in high school.

- Okay, I'm super excited.

Thank you so much for having us.

- Yeah, yeah.

(upbeat marimba music) (upbeat marimba music continues) (upbeat marimba music continues) (upbeat marimba music continues) I'm here with Anna Grace, and today she's going to teach me.

Well, she's going to try to teach me how to play the marimba.

So how are you today, Anna?

- I'm good.

How are you?

- I am doing wonderful.

I'm a little intimidated because you've been warming up a little bit already.

Can you help me understand how to play maybe the first part of that, not the crazy part?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Maybe the easy part?

Okay.

- So you're gonna start from C and you're gonna try hitting the middle of the bar.

Yeah.

(marimba notes playing) And then the next note is A. And then you're gonna hit that right, left, right, left.

(marimba notes playing) And then go to F.

- No.

That was the wrong note.

(marimba notes playing) - Yeah, there we go, so... (marimba notes playing) And then go to C again.

(marimba notes playing) - Nope.

(marimba notes playing) - Yeah.

- Okay.

(marimba notes playing) - And then go back to F.

(marimba notes playing) Then you play the notes you've already played.

(marimba notes playing) Mhm.

- Is that correct?

- Yeah, that's it.

- Hah, let's go!

All right, so thank you for taking a couple of minutes to show me how this beautiful instrument actually works and plays, and with that, let's finish it with our little routine together.

- Okay.

- Maybe.

Here we go.

You want to count us in?

- Yeah.

- Go slow though.

- Okay.

Okay.

One, two, ready, go.

(marimba notes playing) - Let's go.

I missed the last note.

That was awesome.

Thank you so much.

That was so much fun.

- Believe it or not, you can make a xylophone with a set of wrenches.

Make notches on each side of the styrofoam cup and place a wrench into the notch.

Do this with eight wrenches to create an octave.

Now, play a tune and see if your friends and family can identify the song you're playing.

(wrenches dinging) - Oh, I'm trying to do "Science Time."

(wrenches dinging) (audience applauds) May the wrench be with you.

Sounds are made by vibrations and all sounds have this origin.

Instruments allow musicians to produce controlled sounds to generate tones with specific pitches and rhythms.

Stringed instruments like a bass vibrate the strings to produce sounds and notes.

Pluck the string to make it vibrate, and your sound is produced.

(flute whistles) Wind instruments like flutes vibrate columns of air to produce sounds.

(lively flute music) (lively flute music continues) And percussion instruments use sticks and mallets to strike objects like drums and cymbals to create the vibrations.

(drums booming) (drums continue booming) Remember, no matter what the instrument, all sounds are produced by vibrations.

We're building a guitar that you can play tunes on.

Grab yourself a bottle.

Two-liter, one-liter, or a 20-ounce bottle.

This one (air whooshes) (bottle thumping) has a deeper sound than this one (bottle clanging) because it's a bigger container.

It has more air inside that's going to resonate differently.

So I think we're gonna start with this.

The other thing you're going to need is a piece of PVC pipe.

It's a half-inch diameter, and it fits right into the bottle.

So now we have our guitar.

It's gonna have this shape.

In order to make this actually work, on the front of this guitar, then you're going to have to groove a little piece here against the stone, and I've just created a little groove so that the string can go over it without any issue.

You're going to need to use three lengths of string for your guitar.

One, two, three, and then we're gonna cut that off.

Now, in order to build your guitar string and connect it, you're going to run this so the little feet on the bottle are going to hold the string in place, and if you want, you can actually get a little piece of tape.

So this is just gonna help it stay kind of where I want it for now.

Now, you're going to take this up and you're going to tie yourself a bowline knot.

(upbeat music) Now, I know that was really hard to see, so I'm going to use this orange string to show you how to actually make the bowline knot.

You're going to now take the string.

You're going to pull it over the top, right over that notch that we notched out on your doorstep.

I'm going to take a piece of tape and I'm going to just tape the PVC to the bottle opening so that my bottle and my PVC don't spin.

This is going to help keep the string in place and hopefully allow my guitar to be more functional.

There we go, and now I'm going to set this up and I'm going to bring it down the back and I'm going to run it through the centerpiece again where my string was.

I'm going to bring it back out, and now we have one more little knot we have to tie, and this is called a hitch knot.

I'm going to bring this over, bring it under.

Bring it under again.

Take it over.

Bring it through, and I'm going to pull it all together.

(upbeat music continues) It will hold it.

Look at that.

I know.

That was really quick.

Let me show you how to make that hitch knot up close.

It might take one or two tries to get the hitch knot perfect, but once you do, you can create tension on this, and that way, if your guitar goes out of tune, well, you can fix it.

I'm going to flip it over.

I'm going to take my little lid and I'm going to slide it right under that knot just like that, and now the moment of truth.

(string twangs) Hey, it doesn't sound bad.

(string twangs) And now if I push down on my string.

(string twanging) (string continues twanging) Isn't that awesome?

You can actually start playing a song.

(string twanging) That was it.

That was it.

It's science time!

(upbeat music) ♪ Build one of these guitars ♪ ♪ They're fun for all of you ♪ ♪ Yeah, it's science time ♪ (Mr.

C humming) (lively violin music) (lively violin music continues) I am here with Abigail, who is a senior violinist, and she is going to talk to us about how this beautiful instrument makes its sound, produces sound, and more specifically, how it's played.

How are you today?

- I'm doing well.

How about you?

- I am very excited to be here with you.

We're looking at this violin.

It has a body and its strings.

So it's part of the string family, correct?

- Family.

So the string, what it's laying on is the fingerboard.

This is the bridge which supports the strings from the tailpiece.

That is the chin rest.

Right below it is the shoulder rest.

Inside the instrument is the sound post, and that helps produce the sound you create with the bow.

- So that's what resonates it.

- Mhm.

- Would you be able to show me a couple of chords or notes, maybe like an octave or something?

- Sure.

Okay.

I will show you how to play D major, one of the most easiest scales that anybody can play.

- Anybody.

- This is the D, or G, D, A, E string.

- [Mr.

C] Okay.

- The one that's the second is the D string, and you place your bow on there.

This is how you properly hold your bow.

Thumb right here.

You put your fingers right here.

Pinky, ring, index, and then like that, and then put it down and then you... (violin note plays) You made a sound.

- It sounded like yours.

- Exactly.

- Okay.

- All right, so now.

(violin note plays) There you go.

(violin notes play) There we go.

(violin notes play) (violin note harmonizes) That is- - I can't even tell the difference.

- That is a one-octave D major scale.

Shall we play it together?

- Yes.

Slowly.

- One, two, three, four.

(violin scale playing) (violin scale continues playing) - Oh, another finger.

(Abigail chuckling) That's close.

That's close.

- It's all right.

It's all right.

The more you practice it, the more you'll get better at it.

- This is really cool.

I've never played a violin before, and that's the first time I've ever played a D major octave.

- A D major octave.

- Let's go.

Thank you so much for taking the time to spend with me today.

- No problem.

- Awesome.

How about you lead us out?

- Okay.

- And I'll follow along.

- All righty.

You ready?

- Yeah.

- All right.

- Let's make a rain stick.

(lively violin music) - Take a used wrapping paper tube and randomly press brass nails along the length of the tube.

Make sure that your brass nails do not pop out through the other side, and tape it securely.

Carefully close one end of the tube and tape it securely.

For this rain stick, we're going to add black-eyed peas, rice, and some sprinkles.

(sprinkles clattering) Close the open end of the tube and securely tape it.

Gently tilt your rain stick and, (rain stick clattering) ta-dah!

It's raining!

(rain stick clattering) This rain is music to my ears.

- Oh, that's so cool.

They always say toot your own horn.

(Mr.

C imitates horn blaring) But we're gonna make actually an instrument that does it for us.

So here's what we do.

Take a little piece of PVC and we're gonna cut an inch off, and now you're going to put that into a balloon.

(lively music) And now you're going to fold this across the edge like this and tape it.

(lively music continues) And now we have our horn.

(balloon whooshes) (horn blaring) Isn't that awesome?

It's so loud!

(whistle squeaking) - Let's build a slide whistle with two straws.

First, take your scissors and cut the top of your small straw to create a reed.

Take a small piece of tissue and wrap it around the bottom of your straw.

Carefully tape the tissue in place.

You want the large straw to fit snugly around the bottom of the small straw.

This ensures air can't escape at this connection.

Now, blow into the straw.

(slide whistle squeaking) Try moving the larger straw up and down.

Listen to the pitch change.

(Mr.

C chuckles) The larger the column of air, the lower the pitch.

The smaller the column, the higher the pitch.

- Build one!

We're gonna make a pan flute out of straws and some tape, and it's super simple and super fun.

And super fun.

I was trying to get a C note.

This is a C5.

(straw tweets) Pretty cool, right?

This column of air is what's resonating and it's producing that sound.

Here on the bottom I've taped off, I folded my straw to pinch it.

So this is how we're going to control the length of the tube, and then we can snip off the top.

This is our first note.

It's a C5.

So now what we're going to need is a D. C, D, E. We're gonna go up the octave.

We're gonna go C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and here, I have a little tuner that's going to allow me to tune the pan flute as I'm making it.

The first thing you're gonna see, I'm gonna fold this bottom part.

It's probably about a half-inch fold, and then I'm just going to take a piece of tape and I'm going to tape it off.

This gives me that pinched straw so that the air doesn't come out the other end.

We don't want air to flow through because then we're not gonna be able to get that note, and here we have.

(straw tweets) That's a lower D, so I need to actually cut off about that much.

I'm gonna use this as sort of a measurement.

(straw tweets) We got the D, and now we're going to go to E. C, D, E. And I'm going to fold up the bottom again, about that half inch, and you can see here, it's nice and pinched.

Take a piece of tape, fold it around, and then I'm going to just use this measurement.

I'm going to cut off just about that half inch on my straw.

(straw tweets) There's an E. C, D, E. Now we're gonna do the F, and we're gonna go through all of our notes, and we're gonna cut off about the same amount every time.

(straw tweets) Got an F5.

(straw tweets) That's a G.

(straw tweets) There it is.

(straw tweets) B5.

Look at that.

C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

♪ Now we need our final C ♪ (straw tweets) And now we need to tape it together to make the pan flute.

So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to take a long piece of tape.

You flip it upside down.

I'm gonna do two pieces of this.

All right, we're gonna lay this down, and I'm going to try to keep all of my straw openings at the same height.

Even though these look like they're the same length, where the straw is technically pinched on the inside, that's where it's determining the length of the column that's resonating.

All right.

I'm just gonna flip this.

(lively music continues) Here we go.

Let's try to play something.

(flute tweeting) That's not a song, but I thought it was.

(Mr.

C laughs) (flute tweets) Ah!

(Mr.

C laughs) (notes tinkle) I'm here with Gavin, who plays the French horn, and this is a very difficult instrument to play is my understanding, right, Gavin?

- It is so hard.

Trust me.

(both chuckle) - Okay.

Could you help me?

Show us a little piece of something so that we can see what the French horn has to offer.

- Oh, yeah, sure.

- And then you can try to maybe teach me something.

(melancholic horn music) (melancholic horn music continues) (melancholic horn music continues) That's beautiful.

- Thank you.

- That sounds so awesome.

So the French horn's part of the brass family, correct?

- Oh, yes.

- And what makes it part of the brass family?

- All right.

So, first off, it's made out of brass.

It's mainly, like, the way that we make sound, and it comes from the mouthpiece.

With the mouthpiece, you are supposed to make a good vibration sound from your lips, (mouthpiece vibrates) and you do that by blowing in air.

(mouthpiece squeaks) - So I know I can't do it very well, but maybe we can try a little song and I can try to work on this part.

- Oh, yeah.

- What do you got for us?

(gentle horn music) (gentle horn music continues) I don't know if I can do that, but we shall try.

- We shall try.

- All right, so- - Oh, yeah.

- When it comes to trying to make, like, trying to make a good buzzing sound and hitting the right note, you are to make sure that your lips are not too tight, because if they are, you'll get a higher note than what you're going for.

So your first note will be trigger one and two.

- [Mr.

C] Okay.

- And then it will be open fully.

No trigger, no nothing.

And then one.

Only one, no trigger.

(horn blaring) Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

That was so good.

- You'll be graduated before I get this, I think.

(Gavin chuckles) - All right.

(discordant horn music) (Gavin giggling) - Stay with me.

(horns honking) (both laughing) All right, one more time.

All right.

Don't laugh because you're messing up when you laugh.

- Oh, yeah, you're right.

- Yeah, I was there.

(screen whooshes) - One, two, ready.

(discordant horn music) (discordant horn music continues) (discordant horn music continues) - That was beautiful.

Great job.

Thank you.

My hands are so hot.

I can feel the hot air coming out of here.

That was amazing.

I will try to continue to practice this, but this brass instrument is so cool.

Thank you for taking the time to try to work with me and help me with this.

You are spectacular, and I wish you the best on your musical endeavors.

- Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

- Yeah.

You want to take us out with a song?

- Oh, yeah.

- Wowzers!

(lively horn music) Science really was instrumental in today's field trip.

It was music to my ears.

Mr.

C and the crew explored so many awesome instruments.

I think we could start a band.

Remember, all sounds are made by vibrations and all sounds have this origin.

Which instrument would you like to play or maybe even build?

I think I'd like to get drum lessons because I could be really good at drum rolls!

(sticks clacking) (audience cheers) - Wow!

I've been practicing since I hung out with those percussionists at the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

They were amazing.

They taught me about the timpani, the marimba, and I also got to learn about the violin, the French horn, and the flute.

They are very difficult to play, but I have some instruments here that allow me to continue my quest for understanding instruments just a little bit better, and you can too.

Build one of these, give it a try, and if you make changes, put it into your science notebook.

That's right.

We're putting the notes into our notebook this week because this notebook allows you to keep track of everything that you do when it comes to making instruments.

So much fun, right?

Guitars, pan flutes, (pan flute tweets) (rainmaker clattering) rainmakers, and my favorite, the balloon horn.

(balloon whooshes) (horn honks) But before I let it go, keep learning, keep exploring, keep having fun, and remember that science and horns are wherever you are.

(horn blaring) (Mr.

C laughs) (screen whooshes) (Mr.

C imitating whooshing) (Mr.

C laughs) ♪ Science time ♪ Instrument day.

You can also become an instrumental.

♪ It's science time ♪ Okay.

I (indistinct) down.

Ah!

- And you, you can do, ooh, ooh, ooh.

That was amazing, be able to hang.

Ugh.

(Alex chuckles) So now I'm gonna make another one.

We have our C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

(Mr.

C clears throat) Whoa.

♪ Learning fun for everyone ♪ ♪ Everyone ♪ - So I have one question for all of you.

What time is it?

- [Group] It's science time!

♪ Here with Mr.

C ♪