Pop Bottles

by Adele Lowen
*Make sure lips do not touch the bottles. If lips touch the bottle, do not share the
bottle with anyone else until the bottle is sterilized.
- Set out a variety of glass pop bottles and plastic bottles of different sizes and
shapes for the class to see. Explain that these bottles are really musical
instruments that belong to the woodwind family because when you blow across
the hole, it creates a sound (similar to how sounds are made on a flute).
- Bottles are fun instrument to play and create music on, for very little money.
- Blow across the top of some of the bottles to create a pitch.
- Explain that larger instruments create lower pitches and smaller instruments
create higher pitches. We can change the pitch each bottle makes by changing
the amount of space (or air) inside each bottle: the more/larger space the lower
the pitch, the smaller/less space the higher the pitch.
- Fill the bottles with different amounts of water to create different pitches.
- Blow on each bottle to hear the pitch. As a class, arrange the bottles from the
lowest to the highest pitches.
- Play A Minute To Win It! mix the bottles up and give students 1 minute to put
them back in order of highest to lowest pitches or lowest to highest pitches.
- Watch the YouTube videos of bottle songs. *click on the links below
Curriculum Concepts:
Melody: 1, 2, 3
Expression: 4, 6, 11, 15
Listening: 2, 5, 18
Playing Instruments: 1, 3

- To extend the lesson: Fill bottles with the exact amount of water to create
perfect pitches. Then you can play songs on a set of bottles. (eg. Twinkle,
Twinkle, Little Star)