*2Flower* To You

Who would have thought that

Who would have thought that you could have hours of fun with a soda straw? Well, I wouldn't have thought it, but that's what we did last night for fun. (We're geeks, obviously.) Ian (my only kid who goes to public school) had to make a homemade instrument for a school project. He had tried the box with rubber bands thing, but he wasn't very happy with the sound quality, plus we only had one rubber band. I got on the internet and found something really easy at http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ph9416.html:

1. Take a soda straw and pinch one end flat.
2. Cut off the corners to form two little reeds. The fact that it's cuttable
means you can make it into an oboe.
3. Hold the reeds in your mouth without squeezing them.
4. Now blow hard.
5. Carefully cut small holes along the length of the straw about one inch or so
apart.
6. Blow in the straw while you cover and uncover the holes to play simple
tunes.

The two reeds opening and closing at high speed first allow air to flow into the
straw and then stop the flow. The vibrating air is what produces the sound.

We used a small nail to punch holes in the straw, and then widened the holes with a pair of scissors. Two or three straws connected together make a really nice bass sound. The higher sounds actually sound a lot like cell phones, LOL. You might have to work with the "reed" part for awhile and experiment until you can play it. Sometimes cutting it a little more can help.