"Records were how your grandparents and parents used to listen to music."
Second grade students from McBain Rural Agricultural School stared at the oversized black disc — an anachronism in less than a generation — at the Music House Museum Friday morning. Introduced to such antiques by Tom Kaufmann, a local musician and educator, the students journeyed through the history of recorded sound from the first inventors to today's cutting edge technology.
The seventh annual School Daz program at the museum — held every year the last two weeks of April — concluded Friday, including the McBain students as well as an afternoon group from Oak Park Elementary School. In all, just over 500 students from 15 schools completed the 90-minute tour and program, titled "Edison to iPod." Participating schools included elementary schools in the Traverse City Area Public School system and the Grand Traverse Academy as well as students from Frankfort and St. Mary's of Hannah.
Kaufmann, an enthusiastic and energetic teacher passionate about his subject, started with the basics of sound, including frequency, vibrations, rhythm and tempo. Students tried out a some instruments and experiment with the sounds they made.
Downstairs, he guided students on a musical history tour that began with Thomas Edison, the father of recorded sound, and ended with Mp3 players. He also demonstrated a rare Theremin synthesizer, the first electronic instrument, which makes sound without the user touching it.
"Berliner invented the flat 78 record and that's how they were for 40 years until LPs were invented," continued Kaufmann, owner of Tinkertunes Music Studios. "Then in 1949, 45s were invented and record players had to have three speeds."
The program also included a quick tour of the Music House Museum and a demonstration of some of the many automated instruments in the collection. Andy Strubel, the museum's curator, demonstrated an 800-pipe church organ and the 1922 Mortier Dance Organ, both situated in the museum's loft.
Students also enjoyed a petting zoo of string, brass and a range of percussion instruments, including a triangle, tambourine, castanets, marimba, zither, steel drum and shaker eggs, bananas, potatoes, apples and plums.
"I liked the big organ," said Gabby Hoaglund of McBain, who also enjoyed her first time playing the trumpet, baritone and trombone.
Second grade teacher Barb McGinness said the school has sent a group of second graders to School Daz every year for the past four or five years. The program dovetails nicely with a sound unit they teach to students in that grade.
"The kids just love it and Tom does a fantastic job," she said. "The hands-on part is something most kids don't get to do."
"We usually generate some real family interest from this," McGinness added of the families who come back for a later visit.
The goal of the Music House Museum's School Daz program is to share a unique collection of instruments, amassed over a decades and housed in a 12,000-square foot renovated barn in Acme. Music House Museum staff and volunteers are already planning for next year's School Daz, with an eye to a new program that incorporates the facility's Wurlitzer Theater Organ.
"The program will include a short silent film so the kids can see that kind of thing," noted Sally Lewis, president of the museum's board. "And also, an organ is the perfect instrument to demonstrate how music is created with pitch, timbre (where sound waves intersect to create a sound unique to an instrument) and those sorts of things."