Hey there, kids.
Abby Brown here from Iowa PBS.
Come wander and wander with me.
As we explore the multiple cultures of Rafa’s family
through music.
So this is my friend Rafa.
And Rafa lives in a house where mom and dad come from different cultures.
Right. So where was your mom born?
Do you know? In Iowa. In Iowa, that's right.
And do you know where your dad was born?
In Peru. In Peru!
So in your family, you have at least two different cultures.
Right.
And my family is a lot like yours because my mom and dad were both born in Iowa.
So I bet we have a lot in common. Right.
But your family is a little bit different
because you do a few things that you learn from your culture in Peru.
Do you know what some of those things are? Hmmm...Cuy?
Tell me about Cuy?
Cuy is a guinea pig.
Cuy is a guinea pig, and does cuy mean guinea pig in Spanish? Yes.
Can you tell me about what Cuy is wearing?
Clothes! Clothes and...?
A Peruvian hat. And a Peruvian hat.
That's fantastic.
So in Iowa, we speak English and we both do.
But, you know, one more language than me and you know
the language of the spoken in Peru, which is...?
Spanish. Yeah.
That's so interesting and so unique.
Now, there's one part of Peruvian culture
that I don't think you know as much about, and neither do I.
But it's a super fun way to learn about all cultures, and that's music.
So your dad told me about these cool instruments that are played in Peru,
and I thought we could learn about them together.
Does that sound fun? Mmmhmmm!
So the first instrument that your dad told me about is called The Pan Flute.
Okay. And it looks like this.
And this is a homemade pan flute, but what does it look like to you?
There's a bunch of just what do you think?
Holes?
yeah, there are some holes and this is made out of PVC pipe, but it does work.
So I give it a try. Okay.
I got it.
Do you want to give it a try?
Do you want to try one of the other ones and see how it sounds different?
Oh, could you hear how
it sounded a little different.
You are a musician, aren't you?
Now, how did it sound different
from when you were down here and all the way up here?
And then this part sounded lighter and this part stronger.
Sounds stronger.
A little bit stronger down here or a little bit lower there.
Pitches are lower down here when the pipes are extra long.
Right.
But down here, where the pipes are shorter, the pitches are a little higher.
Do you think we should make our own pan flute?
Yeah. Let's give it a try.
One like this?
Yes, exactly.
These are ones that I made earlier today.
And you can see we just took some straws and taped them together,
but I think we can do it.
All right, so we've got straws.
And I like to choose eight or seven
because that's about how many notes we have on a scale.
Want to do just seven?
Okay, go ahead and pick your seven straws.
Well, if you line them up perfectly,
one way to do it is to cut off a half of an inch
for each next pitch. Ok.
Because we want to have those longer ones for the lower sounds
and the shorter ones for the higher sound.
Okay.
Got them all lined up and carefully tape it.
Perfect.
Now that it's stuck together, you can wrap it around.
Should we give it a try?
One, two, three.
Can you hear the different pitches?
Yeah. Yes!
You did so good.
What do you think of the Peruvian flute?
Do you think you could be a professional someday? Maybe.
I think so, too. This was super fun.
Should we learn about another Peruvian instrument?
Yeah. Okay.
All right. Rafa.
The next instrument is called.
Do you know what it is?
Ma-ca ra-cas?
That's very, very close. It's a maraca.
Do you want to lift one up and see what it feels like
you do with it once?
Yes. There you go.
You can try this one, too.
Listen.
Let's listen and see if it sounds different.
A little bit different.
Right.
So the maracas are a little bit different than a pan flute, because the pan flute,
remember how they had those low sounds and those high sounds?
The maracas have different sounds because of what's inside,
but not necessarily difference in pitch like the pan flute did.
But we can use these to keep a beat
and that makes the song really interesting.
Do you think we can make our own maracas?
Yes. Okay, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to start
with a toilet paper roll.
Okay.
You can have that one and I'll take this one.
And what we're going to do is fill it up with you can either choose popcorn or rice
and just use these beautiful, different colored tapes to decorate.
Okay.
So you want to do rice?
Okay, you do rice. I'll do popcorn.
So what what do we do?
We have to close off one of these ends in order to get it.
Then how do we close it?
That's a good question.
I think we could use some tape. Don’t you?
What color do you want? The green one So green.
All right.
Just like that.
Perfect.
Can you push it down all over the place?
Do you want to do one more piece of tape
just to make sure it's completely sealed off?
Or do you think it's good?
One more piece. One more piece. What color you want?
Um orange? Orange?
That's for you.
I'm going to do pink.
Oh, yeah.
You're doing great.
Very good.
Okay, now that we have one end sealed off, we can start to put stuff inside my.
Now it’s going to start eating.
Oh, I love your imagination.
Can you scoop it up?
And you have to just decide how much you want in.
There could be a little.
Could be a lot.
It's going to make a little bit different sound,
depending on how much you have in and what you put in.
We have rice and popcorn today, but we can also use beans, corn kernels,
any type of thing that would make a beautiful sound.
And we give it a shake and see if it's good.
That sounds pretty good.
You do even more.
I feel like this is enough.
Okay, so the next thing we have to do is close off the other end.
And once you have it all
closed off, the only thing that's left the new to decorate.
Okay.
And since we have these beautiful colors of tape,
we can use different sizes of pieces of tape.
We can wrap it up in different angles and just make it beautiful.
All right, Rafa, what do you think?
Are they beautiful?
But the real question is, do they sound good?
Should we test them?
They do sound good, don't they?
Do you want to try mine?
I'd love to try yours.
Let's trade.
Yours definitely has a little bit different sound than mine.
And you know what? You could do this with anything. Couldn't you?
Anything you can put inside and shake.
You could call a maraca. Don’t you think?
Rafa and I had
so much fun learning about your Peruvian culture through music.
We learned about the zampoña, which is the pan flute,
and we also learned about the...? Maracas.
You got it.
What adventures will you go on?
Have fun with it!