User:Pinkpanda101

Nina Tao Period 5 Mr. Evans My Instrument Project

For my project I built a instrument that is similar to a instrument used in China. It is called Pipa. I choose the instrument because it is not commonly used in America and it contains a part of my heritage in it. I got my project idea from a instrument used in China. The instrument is Pipa (another name for it is Chinese lute.) The Pipa, a combination of pi and pa, originally referred to two right-hand techniques: pi meant "to play forward" and pa "to play backward". This instrument has the history of 2,000 years. Since the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the Pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments. The most common pipa has a body with a short neck and a wooden belly. It is shaped like a pear and it has four or five strings. Its made with silk strings, that’s why the pipa is classified as a silk instrument in the Chinese Bayin (eight-tone) classification system. For this project, the materials I used are a box’s lid, different size rubber bands, colored ribbon, and two different size popsicle sticks. I started with gluing the rubber band on the lid to make the different notes. Then I wrapped a ribbon around the edge of the lid to protect the rubber band and to add a bit of color. Last, I glued the big popsicle stick as the neck of the instrument and used the small one to represent the part where you tune the instrument. I think I did a okay job on my project. When I made it, it went pretty good, but when I try to play a song on it, it did not go so well. If I could change some things on the project, I will change the notes. Because the notes does not play according to my plan. While working on the project I had a great time building it, but had a little trouble playing the song. Overall I had a great time with this project, but I did struggle in the beginning about what to built. I learned that very instrument has a special way it is built to have it playing the right notes.