Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom

- Today we're going to study about...

- Ancient history?

- Love and mystery?

- Mathematics?

- Acrobatics?

- Reading?

- Spelling?

- Storytelling?

No, no, no!

The study of musical instruments

is the subject for today.

# The study of musical instruments

# Is the subject for today #

Did you ever stop to think

when the band plays rink dink,

where all the music comes from?

From a toot and a whistle

and a plunk and a boom.

# That's where the music comes from

Did you ever understand

that a symphony so grand,

so bright and yet sentimental?

# Add a toot and a whistle

and a plunk and a boom

# How very instrumental

- # For the horns go toot

- # The woodwinds whistle

# The strings go plunk, plunk too

# Then the drums boom, boom

with a bing, zing, zoom

# And it comes out fine in tune

So remember what I say

when the band begins to play

just where the music comes from.

# From a and a

And a and a

# That's where the music comes from #

Now, students, fly with me

to the dawn of history.

We'll start investigating

the toot and the whistle

and the plunk and the boom.

It's very stimulating.

Oops.

OK, boys, you're on.

# Goo ah ga ug

# Goo ah ga uh

When a caveman blew

through an old cow's horn,

right then and there

the first toot was born.

Duh.

Now, let's look ahead in history,

and here we are in Egypt, 2000 BC.

# And now on the banks

of the River Nile

# The toot has certainly

changed its style

# And the kind of a note

that the caveman blows

# Is not good enough

for the old pharaohs

# No, it's not good enough

for the old pharaohs #

Now, the longer they made

these ancient trumpets,

the lower they sounded.

One day someone

bumped into a very startling fact.

He had discovered

that changing a trumpet's shape

did not in the least

change its pitch.

The curled or curved bass horn

had been invented.

Ah. But this horn could

produce only certain notes.

To play a simple tune, you would have

to use four horns of different lengths.

Now, cut off these extra lengths,

attach them to one horn,

add valves to control the passage

of air through the extra lengths.

Now you can play your tune

on just one horn.

And this is a basic principle

of our modern brass horns.

Now, let's go back to our whistle.

# Goo ah ga ga

When this caveman

blew on a tube of grass,

the very first whistle came to pass.

In order to make his cavegirl smile,

he had to improve his whistle's style.

And when he saw he was doing fine,

he added more holes,

about eight or nine.

By using his head instead of his feet,

some genius found a way

to beat this problem

in a manner neat.

# Roo ah ga uh

When our third caveman

plunked on the string of his bow,

it was the first plunk,

as far as we know.

# First you take the bow

and sometime later

# Add a little jar

to make a resonator

- # Add a few strings

- # Listen, how it rings

# Change the jar to a box of wood

- # Slide the box down

- # Ah, pretty good

# Add a few pegs

to tune it fine and sharp

- # Change the shape a little

- # Now it looks like a harp #

Here there are two ways to go.

You can either plunk it...

...or play it with a bow.

# Goo ah ga uh

# Goo ah ga uh

From our last caveman

with his rhythmic slap

have come all things

that click or tap.

Came rattles,

bells,

and, we presume, all other

instruments that go "boom."

# With a toot

# And a whistle

# And a plunk

# And a boom right

from the old Stone Ages

# Everywhere you hear a band

or a symphony so grand

# In music Oriental

# The toot and the whistle

and the plunk and the boom

# Are very instrumental

# Or the trombone's toot

# The calliope's whistle

# The banjo's plucka-wucka-wucka too

# Then the drum boom, boom

with a click, clack, zoom

# In a Latin rhythm too

# So remember what we say

# When the band begins to play

# Where all the music comes from

# From a toot

# And a whistle

# And a plunk

# And a boom

# That's where the music

That's where the music

# That's where the music comes from #

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes