People have been playing music on homemade instruments for thousands of years. But creating new instruments is much more than an art form. When you want to make a note sound higher or lower, you have to change the sound waves coming out of the instrument. That's science! When you explore the way different materials produce different sounds, that's engineering. When you speed up or slow down a song, you're counting beats -- using math. And technology makes electronic instruments and devices to record and play back music possible.
Kathy Ceceri is the author of activity books for beginners of all ages, including "Edible Inventions," "Paper Inventions," "Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future," and "Video Games: Design and Code Your Own Adventure." Her STEAM workshops for kids and educators are popular at schools, museums, libraries, and Maker Faires around the country. Kathy has written about the importance of hands-on learning as the Homeschooling Expert for About.com (now Thoughtco.com), for websites including Wired.com, and numerous magazines and newspapers. She lives with her family in Upstate New York.