Christmas Music on PVC Pipes

      On the Friday before break, my students were performing 'Jingle Bells' on pitch pipes made from PVC pipes. The lesson introduced them to physics concepts including sound and waves and music concepts including pitch and general music theory. After a short lecture, the students created music from pieces of plastic PVC pipes cut at exact lengths. The longer the pipe, the lower the pitch. The 'physical music' lecture was a success and I hope to revisit the pitch pipes throughout the remainder of the year.

-Ms. Sowatskze

      Before we let out of school for Christmas, I happened to pass by Ms. Elizabeth Sowatzke's classroom. I saw her at the board pointing to musical notes while her students were tapping the ends of PVC pipes on their palms playing the melody of a Christmas song (Jingle Bells-I believe). Each student had a different length of PVC pipe which represented a note of the melody, and they played that note as she pointed to it. I've never seen or heard anything like that before.

-Mr. Martel