What Makes It Ring: teacher key

Music and Instruments, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. Resonance, harmonics and octaves explain why an instrument sounds like itself. Then the story moves to old bone flutes, an ancient lyre and a theremin.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What does a sound spectrum show?
   • How far a sound travels
   • The different frequencies present in a sound (answer)
   • What color a sound is
2. What is an octave?
   • A kind of drum
   • A ratio of 3:1
   • A ratio of 2:1 in frequency (answer)
3. What did Cristofori's hammers have on them?
   • Deer leather (answer)
   • Steel caps
   • Paper
4. What is a membranophone?
   • An instrument that vibrates air
   • An electronic instrument
   • An instrument that vibrates a stretched membrane (answer)
5. In the violin test, how many of the 21 players chose an old violin?
   • 18
   • 8 (answer)
   • 21
6. What did the Ur diggers find with a gold and lapis lazuli bull's head?
   • A great lyre (answer)
   • A flute
   • A drum

Words

• resonance: strong matching shake
• spectrum: graph of frequencies
• octave: a 2:1 jump
• membranophone: drum-skin instrument
• aerophone: air instrument
• theremin: hands-free instrument