Fifth grade students of
Longfellow School were supposed to create a
musical instrument. The name of my musical
instrument is The Double Sided Xylophone. I
got the idea of making it when Mrs. Rexford
shoed us musical instruments that other
people made last year. I thought, "I can't
copy that idea, so I will put the glass jars
on the cardboard." When I finished it, it
looked like a xylophone except you can play
both sides of it. That's when I got the idea
of naming it. The Double Sided Xylophone is
part of the percussion family.
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The materials I used for my musical
instrument were cardboard for the base, water to
increase or decrease the pitch, jars to make the
sound, Chinese chopsticks for the mallets, and
plastic eggs so the mallets would stay and also for
making sound. I found the cardboard on the top of
my mom's Avon box (the cover). I got water from the
sink. I found the chopsticks in our pantry.
Finally, I found the plastic eggs in my
room.
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I made my instrument
when I saw my mom's Avon box. I cut the top
off and painted it all kinds of colors. Then
I went to the pantry to find popsicle sticks.
Instead I found chopsticks. I painted them
and let them dry. Finally I asked my mom if
she had any glass jars. She said, "Yes, I can
give some to you". Then I painted a piece of
paper and glued it on to the jars. I played
it for my mom and she said it sounded better
without the paper on. So I painted it with a
special kind of paint for glass.
My mom helped me by giving me the glass
jars and letting me use her glass paints. I
did the other things, mainly. One problem I
had making this project was deciding whether
to put the jars straight or upside down. I
figured I would put them upside down because
it would be easier to glue them to the
cardboard.
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The way you play The Double Sided Xylophone
is you take a mallet and swing it across the jars.
It makes a great sound. You can change the pitch by
putting water in the jars. You can change the
volume by tapping a little bit harder to make it
loud. You can make it soft by tapping softly.
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I really had fun making this project. It was
kind of challenging but it was lots of fun. My
favorite thing was painting the cardboard and
painting the jars with the special paint. Also, for
the jars I got to use sponges to paint and they
made really cool shapes. When I was making this
project I learned that you can use water to change
the pitch.
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