Watch: Found sounds and an orchestra
Making music with other people is lots of fun. You can use musical instruments, your voice, body percussion and found sounds to make music together.
YolanDa and her Mighty Music Makers have come to meet the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and play their found sound instruments.
Listen as they play with musicians from the orchestra and their musical instruments.
YolanDa: Hello everybody, I'm outside the home of the BBC Philharmonic. They're an orchestra full of really talented musicians, and some of them are going to meet me here today. But first I need to get inside and meet up with my amazing Mighty Music Makers.
Hello, it is great to meet you all and I'm so excited to see and hear the instruments that you've made. Let's start over here. This must be the big box bass, can I hear a little bit? And is that how you change the sound? Amazing.
And these must be the blues kazoos. Can I have a listen? I love that sound. Is this the jam jar liquid xylophone? Can you play a little bit?
Oh, it sounds amazing and you can change the sounds when you change the amount of liquid in the jar and I love all of the different colours.
And is this your hose pipe horn? Let me hear it in action. Ah, wow. Mighty Music Makers, you have done a great job. Do you think we could all play together as a band?
Children: Yes!
YolanDa: Well, before we do I have some professional musicians who want to come and join in our band. Should we meet them and their musical instruments?
Children: Yeah!
YolanDa: Let's have percussion.
Let's have wind instruments.
Let's have horns.
And let’s have strings!
OK, are we ready to play together?
Everyone: Yes!
YolanDa: One, two, three, four!
Mighty Music Makers, thank you so much for all of your hard work on this project. And musicians from the BBC Philharmonic, thank you for joining our band today. And to everyone watching, start exploring where you can find your own sounds, everywhere.
Did you notice which instruments from the orchestra are similar to those made by the Mighty Music Makers?
Can you remember their names?
- A big box bass sounds like a double bass or cello.
- A hosepipe horn sounds like a trumpet.
- A comb kazoo sounds like a clarinet.
- A jam jar liquid xylophone is like a xylophone.
Watch: What instruments are in an orchestra?
There are four main families of instruments in an orchestra - strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.
Watch musicians from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra play and talk about their different instruments.
What is YolanDa's instrument?
YolanDa's instrument - the saxophone - is part of the woodwind family.
It's not normally found within the orchestra but that doesn't mean YolanDa can't play along in her own band with the other instruments.
You can mix whatever instruments or found sounds you like to create your own music.
Experiment and see what sounds good to you! You might find an instrument that you would like to learn to play.
Discover more about the instruments in an orchestra with the films above.
Activities
Quiz
Glossary
Here are the meaning to some important words.
Body percussion - Sounds made by using the body such as tapping and clicking.
Found sounds - Sounds which can be made using objects around us.
Musicians - People who play instruments.
Orchestra - A group of musicians who play different instruments.
Woodwind - Wind instruments that you normally blow to make sounds such as a flute or clarinet.
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