Sound Projects with a Music Lab You Can Build

Children's Literature - Julia Beiker

Have you ever wanted to build your own music lab and experiment with different aspects of sound made by instruments? Sound Projects with a Music Lab You Can Build, shows a step by step way of doing this. Each chapter breaks down how to create parts of a music lab. The introduction set ups how you would utilize a music lab, including how to present the information at science fairs and how to perform research using the scientific method. Chapters one and two educate the readers on the basic science of sound and ways it travels through solids and liquids to produce a variety of pitches. The book also explains how sound waves and octaves make up their own field of science. Chapters three through five divide the science of music into the more specialized areas of string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The author, Robert Gardner uses both illustrations and tables to demonstrate how to set up the experiments and show the different aspects of music. As a parent and educator, I appreciate that the experiments indicated whether goggles would be necessary or an adult should be present during the set-up or performance of the procedures. In the back of the book, there is a current listing of science supply companies that carry some of the more difficult to find products needed for making the instruments or doing the experiments. I feel the book is designed more for music teachers then for young readers experimenting at home. Some projects use household products, while other could get pricy. This book is part of the "Build a Lab Science Experiments" series. Reviewer: Julia Beiker