Clap, Tap, Sing: How We Make Music With Our Bodies

Long before drums or guitars, people made music with an instrument they always carried: their own body! Clapping hands, stomping feet, snapping fingers, and patting knees can all make music. Today you get to be the instrument.

- Four ways to make sounds with your body - What loud and soft mean in music - What fast and slow mean in music - How to copy and make your own beat pattern

Try these four sounds right now: clap your hands together, stomp one foot on the floor, snap your fingers (or pretend to if you're still learning!), and pat your knees with both hands. Each one makes a different kind of sound. A stomp is big and low. A snap is small and sharp. Musicians call these body sounds 'body percussion,' and bands all over the world use them.

Some sounds are loud, like a big stomp on the floor. Some sounds are soft, like a gentle pat on your knees. In music, going from soft to loud, or loud to soft, is called dynamics. Try it: pat your knees as softly as a whisper. Now stomp as loudly as thunder. You just used dynamics!

Put your hand on your chest right now and feel your heartbeat. When you're sitting still, it beats slowly. After running around, it beats fast! Music has a heartbeat too, called the tempo -- how fast or slow the beat goes. A lullaby has a slow tempo. A song for jumping and dancing has a fast tempo.