Play a Merry Tune

Stage: 2 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Have you ever heard of a gourd? A gourd is a hollow, dried shell of a fruit from a family of plants which grow in parts of Africa, Asia and the US. They have lots of uses, one of which is as a musical instrument, and that is the focus of this problem.

Below you will see that you have five different gourds, each one makes a different note from the others when it is played. You can listen to them by dragging them onto positions on the wheel. As the wheel turns, you will hear the sound of the gourds.

You can place any gourd on each of the eight places on the wheel and you can leave spaces too.
Your challenge is to explore the tunes that can be made.

You could start by limiting yourself to using only two different gourds. For example, how many different tunes could you make just using these two:

first two gourds
You could decide on your own "rules" for making a tune: Do you need to use at least one of each gourd? Are you allowing yourself spaces?

Explore other combinations of different gourds too.

Try listening to this tune:

tune AABBCCBB

Now compare it with this tune:

tune BBCCDDCC

You might want to listen to them more than once.
How are they similar?
How are they different?
Can you create another tune which relates to these two?

You could investigate other "families" of tunes too.
Send in some of your ideas!


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Published November 2006,December 2006.