How to Make Water Glasses

You can create musical tone with a glass of water and your finger.

A variety of musical instruments utilize the vibration of glass to create tones, including the glass harmonica, musical bowls, and the glass organ. If you love music, whether you play an instrument or not, creating water glasses -- also known as a glass harp or musical glasses -- is an easy way to make and play your own instrument.

Things You'll Need

• 12 wine glasses
• Water
• Electronic chromatic tuner
• Measuring cup

Instructions

1. Turn on the chromatic tuner and place it close the wine glasses. An electronic chromatic tuner is a small device that can tune all 12 notes of the scale.

2. Hold one empty wine glass steady at the base, with your non-dominant hand. Wet the index finger of your dominant hand and, pressing gently, rub that finger continuously around the rim of the the glass until a tone is produced. Read the chromatic tuner. It will show the note to which the tone of the empty glass is closest. Chances are it will not produce a perfect tone.

3. Add small amounts of water from the measuring cup into the glass, until the tuner shows that the tone produced by the musical glass is the desired note. For example, if the note closest to the tone of the empty glass was A -- then you will add water until the tone is a perfect A note.

4. Follow the above steps for each subsequent note: A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#. You now have 12 glasses that produce the 12 tones of the scale.

Tips & Warnings

• Crystal wine glasses are best because they have very few flaws which impede the tone.

• Be careful with the glass as it can easily break if mishandled.

References

• The Naked Scientists; Kitchen Science Experiments; Making music with wine glasses; Dave Ansell
• Science Buddies; Singing Wine Glasses; Andrew Olson Ph.D
• Glass Virtuoso: Glass Music and the Glass Armonica

Resources

• Glass Harp; Glass Harp Music; Brian Engel