Science



The Buzzlbe By: Danielle Taormina The “Buzzlbe” is a unique, musical instrument that closely resembles those of the wind family. What makes is different than the well known instruments of the wind family such as the flute, saxophone, clarinet, is that it is played like a brass instrument. For instance, it is played by the musician buzzing into the mouth piece similar to the way you would do so for the trumpet. It is approximately twelve inches long in which one end opens up larger where the sound comes out while the other side tapers to about a three quarters of an inch circular opening. I developed this idea by first searching ideas and instruments on the web and I saw certain aspects of several instruments that I found interesting. I took bits and pieces of those that I saw and combined them in assembling my instrument.

My creation consists of a handful of household items. These include the top of a plastic coke bottle found in my kitchen, a Ziploc vacuum sealer pump in a cluttered junk drawer also located in the kitchen, a plastic funnel that I swiped from the garage, and some scrap PVC pipe found in the garage as well. Each item was then taped together with red duct tape and covered by aluminum HVAC tape to give it a metallic appearance. My mom helped by cutting some of the items with an extremely sharp craft knife to avoid safety hazards. Also, a friend of mine helped to hold the items in place while I drilled holes in it with an electric drill.

However, I did run into a few obstacles. I began by making my instrument work more like a trombone by using the sliding object that was a piece of the Ziploc vacuum sealer pump. The problem with this was that it was not long enough to make the number of notes I needed and also was not in pitch. Also, the holes I drilled were all too close in size and I came to the assumption that my instrument needed to be longer, which is where the PVC pipe came in, because at first, the pipe was not a part of my concoction. Also, I really annoyed my mother while I was not taking this task seriously and began to play with the invention. I tossed the instrument in the air; in the process, I clawed my mom’s forehead.

You play the instrument by pursing your lips into the mouthpiece and blowing almost as if you were trying to spit on someone you aren’t very fond of. To change notes, you position your fingers in different patters covering up the different holes. Each different formation causes a different sound as an outcome. You change the pitch and tune the Buzzlbe by experimenting different positions with your mouth until the musician finds the right sound. The pitch of the note depends on the tension in your lips. The volume changes depending on the number of openings that the air is able to flow through. Without using the holes, you may play various notes by tightening or loosening your lips to create musical notes, but this way makes it more difficult to hit the right note. When you blow into the mouthpiece, the air molecules begin to vibrate and move forward. The result of this action is a longitudinal sound wave. Basically, the air is compressed as it moves forward. Then, rarefaction occurs as the particles spread apart. This process continues back to back until the sound wave reaches one’s eardrum.

My reaction to this project was that I was flabbergasted. The first thought that came to mind is “How is she expecting a middle school kid to make an instrument?!” But, what I later learned is that the assignment is simpler than it seems if you know the basics about sound. I learned that as long as you change the number of openings, the resulting sound will be different. You don’t have to be a genius to make a working instrument. I liked the fact that I got to use creativity in this assignment. It was completely homemade which practically means that the sky was the limit and almost anything could be used. If I could change one thing about my instrument it would be the sound it makes. It isn’t exactly what I would call “music to the ears,” but then again, it was homemade.

This website wont let me indent, so I just put spaces between each paragraph. Please don't count off (:

[|Element Superhero]

Click on the link above to find element story.

[|Who Poisoned Rango?]

Click on the link above to find Rango lab report.