Have you ever listened to music that made you want to dance or gave you chills? Music can make us feel all sorts of emotions, like happiness or even sadness. When we listen to music, it’s not just our ears that are involved; our whole body reacts to it!
When we hear music, our brain gets excited and sends messages to our body, making us want to move or dance. This happens because of patterns in the music. Songs are made up of different notes, and these notes create a scale, like a little family of sounds. One important note in every song is called the “tonic.” It’s the note our brain waits to hear, and when we finally hear it, it feels like a big moment called the “resolution.”
Composers, the people who write music, know that we expect to hear the tonic. They play a fun game with us by making us wait for it, which keeps our brains excited and our bodies moving to the music.
Did you know that our voice works a bit like a balloon? When you sing a high note, you tighten something in your throat called vocal folds. These are like folds of skin that vibrate to make sound. When you sing a low note, your vocal folds are looser.
Our lungs help us sing by pushing air through our vocal folds, just like air coming out of a balloon makes it vibrate. Professional singers practice controlling their breath to make their voices sound soft or loud.
Imagine a rubber band. If you pluck it, it makes a sound. But if you wrap it around a box and pluck it, the sound is louder and fuller. This is similar to how our throat and mouth help make our voice sound better. They act like the box, making the sound of our vocal folds louder and richer.
So next time you listen to music or sing, remember how your brain and body are working together to enjoy the sounds. Music is not just something we hear; it’s something we feel and experience with our whole body!
Musical Emotion Journal: Listen to different types of music with your family or friends. After each song, write down or draw how the music made you feel. Did it make you happy, sad, or excited? Share your feelings with others and see if they felt the same way. This will help you understand how music can affect emotions differently for everyone.
Sound Exploration with Rubber Bands: Take a few rubber bands and stretch them over an empty box to create a simple musical instrument. Pluck the rubber bands and listen to the sounds they make. Try changing the tightness of the rubber bands to see how the sound changes. This activity will help you understand how tension affects sound, just like your vocal folds when you sing different notes.
Find the Tonic Note Game: Play a simple song on a musical instrument or listen to a familiar tune. Try to identify the tonic note, the note that feels like “home” in the song. Once you think you’ve found it, hum or sing it out loud. This will help you recognize patterns in music and understand how composers use the tonic to create excitement and resolution.
