May 21, 2019
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seen from Malaysia
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My orchestra conductor told the woodwind section that our tongues are weapons of mass destruction today
None of us could play we were laughing too hard
Leaf blowers push 300 to 700 cubic feet of air per minute at 150 to 280 MPH. The resulting dust can contain PM2.5 and PM10 particles including pollen and mold, animal feces, heavy metals, and chemicals from herbicides and pesticides. Plus, leaf blowers are noisy. When you engage in conversation, you are exposed to a noise level of about 60 decibels, according to the Center for Hearing and Communication. 🍁🍂
Gatis Sluka https://karikatura.lv
Ah, Music!
How many of you out there play an instrument? Raise your hand if you play one. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. . .
. . . 80, 81, 82, 83. Whoa! There’s a lot of you out there. Well, here’s the good news: If you don’t get your dream job, you could play in the orchestra!
An orchestra is a large group of people that play instruments together. They’re in that cockpit in front of the stage to make music when you dress up and watch a play. There’s a string section, a woodwind section, a brass section, and a percussion section.
The string section has all the stringed instruments like the violin and the cello. Everyone knows the violin. It’s like a guitar, only smaller and with a slightly higher pitch. You rest your chin on one end and hold on to the other, using the free hand to play the violin with a bow. Just in case you’re asking, no, it’s not the ‘bow and arrow’ type. Then there’s a viola, which is like a violin’s second cousin, twice removed. It’s a little bigger than the violin, with a deeper pitch. Now let’s not forget the cello. How low can you go? The cello has a really low pitch. Bigger instruments produce lower notes. The cello’s no exception. It’s HUGE. It reaches the ground! Cello players have to play it standing up or sitting down. They hold between the cello between their knees. No one except a circus strongman could lift a cello!
The woodwind section has all the wind instruments like the flute and the piccolo. Woodwind instruments are played blowing air across holes. You can make different tunes by covering up holes. The flute has a high pitch. It’s usually made of brass or nickel (not the coin) and sometimes silver. If you’re really good, you could play a gold one! The piccolo is a flute with a really high pitch. When I mean high, I mean really high. Take the volume of your voice at the highest it can go. The piccolo’s higher than that! Piccolo players have to wear earbuds when they practice. Yeah, it can go that high. Screech!
Next up is the brass section. These instruments are made of. . . you guessed it, brass. So boo with the classical music; this section is ready to rock’n roll. If you were royalty, a trumpet fanfare would announce your arrival wherever you go. You blow into one end of the trumpet and the sound comes out through the bell. You can control the sounds by pressing different valves. The French Horn has only four valves! That’s not a lot of options to make music, but the French Horn is still important. Players put their hand into the bell to make a deeper sound. Then there’s the good old trombone. This brass instrument is a little different from the rest. Instead of valves to control the sound that comes out of the bell, there’s a type of slide that they pull up and down to control pitch.
I’m thinking about learning to play the drums. You bang on the surface with sticks to create rhythm. It sounds like fun, because you get to make a whole lot of noise, and your mom can’t complain. Drums give out vibrations, which is called percussion, so naturally, the drums are a percussion instrument. The cymbals our like hands clapping, only WAY louder. You can’t make noise missing either one, but if you do have a pair, you’re neighbors (and household) shouldn’t come to close! The gong, too, is a force to reckon with. If you find a good mallet, then everyone had better watch out! I know, it’s like noise is the percussion instruments’ special characteristic.
Finally, there’s the head of the whole orchestra. He’s the guy who stands on a box and waves a stick called a baton around. He’s the conductor! Conductors wave their batons at certain parts of the orchestra at certain times in a way of telling them what musical pieces to play. They have to look at each instrument’s parts to see what they have to do, or, even harder, they have memorize all the pieces by heart! It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it, right?
Next time you go and watch the The Nutcracker, you’ll know that the music doesn’t just appear out of nowhere!