Music I ANSWER KEY

UNIT 1: SOUND. QUALITIES OF SOUND

UNIT ACTIVITIES PAGE 10

1. If you put your ear to the table and hit the wood gently with your fingers, youll notice how well
sounds propagate through solid objects. Try to make it louder and softer by putting your ear away
from the table. Write your conclusions in your notebook.
The purpose of this exercise is to carry out a small research work by analyzing the steps of this
procedure and by writing down the conclusions. This experience can also encourage the students to
think about other everyday experiences that they may have perceived in other situations. They will sure
know about the typical scene in many westerns where the Indian scouts put their ears on the ground
or on the railroad tracks in order to calculate how far the enemy is. Or even when the nosy neighbors
put their ears on the wall so that they can hear the conversation in the room next to theirs.
It would be interesting to collaborate with the Science Department that, without a doubt, could expand
the experience with other suggestions.

2. Investigate your surroundings and give examples that prove the different speeds of sound
depending on the physical mediums.
The closest example would be the propagation of sound through air at 340m/s, which many students
may have been able to prove by calculating how far away a storm is by measuring the time between the
lightning flash and the clap of thunder.
They may have also experienced the propagation of sound through water (in a swimming pool or in a
bathtub) at 1450m/s. And they will easily be able to resolve that the higher the propagation speed, the
higher the intensity of the sounds heard underwater.
We can complete the research by suggesting the construction of a homemade telephone with a
couple of plastic recipients linked by a thread. Or, for example, by playing around with a tuning fork: we
can make it vibrate and hold it in the air, and then put it on several objects or instruments of the class.

UNIT ACTIVITIES PAGE 11

1. Listen to the beginning of the Toccata and fugue in D minor by J. S. Bach and answer the questions.
We can use this moment to present Bach, the chronology and the main characteristics of the Baroque,
as well as the relevance of instrumental music, by emphasizing (in this particular case) organ music. We
can explain the listening of the Toccatas beginning (an improvised piece with fast and virtuoso parts),
which precedes the Fugue based on the systematical imitation of a subject.
We will ask the students to find the equivalencies between rest notes and pauses or punctuation marks
in written languages in order to understand their function as structural elements of the musical
discourse.
We can give the students the adjective groups sheet that we present in the Curriculum Project
recommendations for the listening activities, so that they can express the different feelings or emotions
that rests cause.
We will encourage the students to remember different musical examples in which silence plays a key
role. In this sense, movie soundtracks can always be well-known examples.

3
 Music I ANSWER KEY

SELF-ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES PAGE 14

1. Copy in your notebook this word search puzzle and find (vertically and horizontally) all the concepts
that we have seen regarding the qualities of sound.
Amplitude, short, long, harmonics, low, voice, duration, instrument, pitch, persistence, intensity, timbre,
loud, frequency, high.

2. Copy on your notebook and match the waves with their corresponding sounds:
1-d, 2-f, 3-b, 4-e, 5-a, 6-c.

3. Draw in your notebook a picture of:

a low and loud sound a long and low sound
a long and soft sound a low and short sound
a high and long sound a low, soft and long sound
a soft and short sound a high, long and soft sound
a low and soft sound a high, loud and short sound
a loud and high sound a low, short and loud sound

4
 Music I ANSWER KEY

4. Copy in your notebook and complete the following diagram summarizing the qualities of sound:

5. Find the mistakes in the following statements and write them correctly in your notebook:
Sound is produced when the vibration of waves is transmitted as a body up to our ears (when a
body vibrates and it is transmitted as a wave up to our ear).
Sound propagates through air at 340 kilometers per minute (meters per second).
The ear picks up sound with the vocal chords, which connect the inner and middle ear (with the
eardrum, which connects the outer and middle ear).
The qualities of sound are: pitch, duration, intensity and loudness (timbre).
The pitch of sound depends on the wave persistence, which is the vibration speed (frequency).
The intensity of sound depends on the wave frequency (pitch).
The pitch allows us to distinguish between low and soft sounds (intensity).
The timbre depends on the mixture of just one sound (root and harmonic).
The duration allows us to distinguish between low and short sounds (long).
Conventional musical notation tries to represent the size of sound (pitch, duration, intensity and
timbre).
The duration of sound depends on the vibration frequency (persistence).
The intensity of sound allows us to distinguish between loud and high sounds (soft).
The timbre allows us to distinguish between loud and soft sounds (voice and instruments).
Echo is a kind of reverb which makes sound louder (which creates the repetition of sound).
Sound propagates at a higher speed through air than through iron (lower).

PERFORMANCE ACTIVITIES PAGE 16

1. Take a look at the indications seen in the cards below.

a. Your teacher will individually and secretly give you one of these cards to perform it.
b. In order, one at a time, using your voice or an instrument of the class, you will perform the sound
or the group of sounds your card indicates. Think twice if you decide to use an instrument, not all
instruments have the same acoustic possibilities. You have to choose the best one.

5
 Music I ANSWER KEY

c. Your classmates will write it down to try to guess the card you perform.
This activity serves the purpose of consolidating the main concepts of the unit as well as several other
goals: the comprehension and connection of different concepts with sound, the exploration of the
different expressive possibilities of instruments and voice, and listening discernment. The teacher will
individually and secretly give each student the number of the card that he or she has to perform; or
he/she could also give individual cards and point out other sound possibilities or groups of sounds.
The individual assignment of different instructions and their different levels of complexity will make it
easier to manage many students. We can use this activity to further develop the expressive possibilities
of the voice and the different sonorities of the instruments in the class. The students will have to think
about (or check) the sound possibilities of the chosen instrument to carry out the performance.

CREATION ACTIVITIES PAGE 17

1. Pay attention to the instructions of the diagram below and perform this piece with the whole class.
The freedom that the alternative graphic notation symbols offer, will favor the creative ability of the
students regarding the group performance. We will emphasize the two main reading axes: the vertical
axis for an approximated representation of the pitch of sound; and the horizontal axis for the duration
(in seconds).
We will individually analyze each instrument with its symbols, and separately rehearse the possible
performances of each voice.
We will evenly distribute the different voices among all the students of the group. The vocal part will
need a greater number of performers so that they can back each other up in a continuous emission and
reach the strong dynamics that are indicated.
After the group performance, we will ask the students to give the composition a name that expresses
the atmosphere that it suggested. The idea of the piece and, therefore, the hidden title, is Storm in the
sea.

LISTENING ACTIVITIES PAGE 18

1. Listen to these four musical pieces we present you.

a. Which do you think is the predominant quality of sound in each one of these fragments? Match
each track with its most highlighted quality.
We will use this exercise to briefly present the main information about each composer and their styles.
b. Which of the following pictures would you choose to represent each track?
The corresponding graphic association will be oriented by the representation of each quality:

a) The representation of the crescendo: R. Strauss.

b) The representation of the rhythmic model

quarter notetwo eighth notesquarter note
quarter note: Beethoven.

6
 Music I ANSWER KEY

c) The representation of the melodic design: Brahms.

d) The representation of the blend of colors-

timbres: Holst.

c. Choose some of the adjectives below to describe what the tracks make you feel or the mood they
put you in.
shiny monotonous surprising simple
energetic delicate bold clear
optimistic sad disturbing calm

We can use the diversity of examples that we heard in order to work on the different emotional
responses that the music provokes. The list of adjectives shown should be enough to define the mood
caused in each situation. Although we can expand the possibilities by using the adjectives diagram given
in the Curriculum Project recommendations for the listening activities.

CHALLENGE ACTIVITIES PAGE 19

1. Look at the following diagram in which the different speeds of sound are expressed in meters per
second. Fill the right column in your notebook, calculating the speed of sound in kilometers per hour.
Physical
Speed m/s Speed Km/h
Medium
Oxygen 317 1.141
Air 340 1.224
Lead 1.190 4.282
Hydrogen 1.286 4.630
Water 1.450 5.220
Copper 3.810 13.716
Wood 3.900 14.040
Aluminum 5.100 18.360
Iron 5.190 18.684
Granite 6.000 21.600

7
 Music I ANSWER KEY

2. Write your own musical composition using alternative graphic notation:

First, think about the environment you want to represent. You can compose a soundtrack that
reflects, for example, the sounds of the city, the country, the sea, an action scene, etc.
Choose the timbre with which you are going to represent all the elements of your soundtrack. You
can choose among the instruments of your class, voice or instruments you can make with various
objects. Create a symbol for each instrument that identifies it clearly.
Draw two axes (vertical and horizontal) in order to write your score. On the vertical line you will
indicate the intervention of the different instruments or voices. On the horizontal line you will
indicate the durations on a scale expressed in seconds.
This exercise is about observing and appreciating not just the students creative abilities, but also their
autonomy regarding the creation of codes and symbols that can reflect musical ideas. It is also about
checking their understanding of the basic concepts of the qualities of sound. It is as well a first and
encouraging approach to the experience of sound, to some voice techniques, and to the different
instruments and objects around the class that will, without a doubt, pave the way for future activities.
We will value creativity, the use of all possible resources (high sounds, low sounds, long sounds, short
sounds, loud sounds, soft sounds, and the variety of sources of sound), the connection between graphic
notation symbols and sound, planning and teamwork.
We suggest that you record the different compositions of the class in order to make the students
perform with care, and to be able to analyze the piece afterwards.