Musical cake tin

Goal: How to make a musical cake tin

Material needed

. A square metal cake tin

. 5 rubber bands

. A piece of thick cardboard

. 5 soft drink caps or small pebbles

Instructions

1. Measure and cut out a rectangular piece of cardboard. It should be slightly wider than the cake tin and should cover about half the length of the tin.

2. Lay the piece of cardboard over one end of the tin and stretch the rubber bands lengthwise around the tin. Space them evenly across the cardboard. Beside each string write a number-1,2,3,4, and 5.

3. Slip one of the soft drink caps or pebbles between each of the rubber bands and the cardboard.

4. Pluck one of the rubber bands at the uncovered end of the tin and listen to the sound it makes as it vibrates. You can change the sound that each string makes by moving the soft drink cap or pebble back and forth under the string. Experiment to find out out how to make the notes higher and lower.

5. When you have tuned all of strings, try picking out a tune on your instrument. When you’ve found one you like write it down by recording the number of each note in turn. Put a dash where you want a rest or break in the tune.

For example:

333 - 333 - 35123

Play your tune back to yourself.

Then see if a friend can play it back to you!