How to Make a Musical Scale With Water Bottles
In the 1700s, when Benjamin Franklin was serving as Colonial America's delegate in England, he attended a concert where the player performed on musical glasses, which were filled with various levels of water to create different pitches. This inspired Franklin to create a musical instrument called the glass harmonica. The idea of using vessels of water to create instruments was continued with glass bottles. It's fun to create this instrument, and fun to make a scale with water bottles. Add a glass harmonica, and other instruments of your choice, and you've got an orchestra.
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Instructions
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1
Find glass bottles to play in a musical scale. This step may take a while. Take a spoon with you to more than one store and strike glass bottles gently until you find ones that create the tones you like.
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2
Empty the bottles of their original contents, and fill them with water. The water should be at various levels.
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3
Decide where you would like your scale to start. A good place to start is middle C. Turn on the tuner and set it to middle C. Hit one of the bottles with a spoon. Adjust the level of the water in the bottle until when you hit the bottle it sounds like C.
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4
Continue tuning the rest of the bottles by adjusting the level of water and comparing it to the tuner. Do this until you have all the notes of the scale: D, E, F, G, A and B.
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5
Play your glass bottles in ascending order of pitch to create the scale beginning with middle C.
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