Learning science of symphony

NORWALK — The sounds of music. The pitch of blowing into a bottle will change depending on the size of the bottle. Reflector Photo/JOE CENTERS Students at Pleasant Elementary got an up close and personal music lesson last week from Jody Chaffee, a musician with the Firelands Symphony Orchestra. Chaffee visits local classrooms teaching the "Science of the Symphony," a program totally funded by the Geotrac Foundation of Huron County. Students learn how to create string instruments out of a box and rubber bands, create various pitches from water bottles with different amounts of water in them, create tuned water glasses like keyboard percussion instruments and each student received a plastic shaker to take home. Chaffee also performed some science experiments showing the effects of musical vibration on real objects. The students, in effect, had five demonstrations of the science behind vibration, creating sound, how pitch changes based on size, material and tension, and the concept of pitch variation because of physical dimensions.