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What makes a sound?

Lots of things can make sounds. We might hear them around us in the natural world or we can make them ourselves.

We can make sounds by playing musical instruments in different ways.

Making sounds with your voice and body

There are sounds that we can create using our bodies and voice.

We can create different sounds with our voice.

You can use your body like percussion to make different sounds too.

Watch: Sounds around us

Environmental sounds are sounds that we might hear in the world around us. There will be lots of different sounds depending on where we are.

Discover what sounds you might hear in a garden or the jungle with sonic explorer J!

How to talk about sounds?

There are lots of words you can use to describe sounds.

Some sounds are high, some are low.
Some sounds are loud, some sounds are soft

We can describe sounds using adjectives like:

• gentle
• smooth
• screechy
• muffled
• harsh

What are high and low sounds?

Some sounds are low and some sounds are high. Why is that?

Well, the bigger the instrument, the more space there is for vibrations to move through the air which makes the sound low.

The smaller the instrument, the less space there is for vibrations to move through the air which makes the sound high.

In nature, bigger animals often make a lower sound and smaller animals often make a higher sound.

Glossary

Here are the meanings of some important words.

Sounds - A sound is something that can be heard.
Percussion - Sound made by hitting or striking something.
Environmental sound - Sound made by the world around us including animals, plants and the weather.
Musical instrument - An object created to make sounds.
Vibrate - Very fast movements from side-to-side. Sound can bounce off objects very fast.

Activities

High or low pitch quiz

Quiz