Learn English with the News: “Vegetables make Music”

Hello!

Here at ABA, some of us play the guitar, one person plays the piano and someone else is really good on the flute, but you know what instruments nobody at ABA English can play? Vegetables!

Watch the video and see how these two Chinese brothers make music from vegetables like carrots and potatoes. How creative is that?!

1. Read the text
2. Understand the vocabulary
3. Watch the video

Text

“For two brothers in China, vegetables aren’t just a source of vitamins – they’re musical instruments. Nan Weidong is carving holes in this sweet potato to play the ocarina.

– If the water content in vegetables evaporates, the tune will become higher than the basic tune or go out of tune.

Therefore we choose the vegetables with as much water content as possible. The vegetables have to be solid and hard. We can’t use those vegetables left over for days. They are too soft to be played.

While growing up on a farm, their father taught them to play conventional instruments. But the idea to combine food and sound, came two years ago. Since then, Nan Weidong and Nan Weiping have transformed bamboo shoots to flutes and yams to whistles in their Beijing apartment.

-The deeper the hole, the lower the pitch. The shallower the hole, the higher the pitch. The size of the hole also matters to guarantee the quality of the sound. The leeks only serve as decoration. I made it based on the principles of how Chinese panpipes work.

The pair play anything from traditional Chinese flute music to modern pop and folk songs, earning money from their appearances on talent shows. The duo are designing more elaborate vegetable instruments to expand their repertoire.”

Vocabulario

Source – the cause of something (such as a problem).

Carving – to make (something, such as a sculpture or design) by cutting off pieces of the material it is made of.

Holes – an opening into or through something.

Ocarina – an ancient flute-like wind instrument.

Evaporates – to change from a liquid into a gas.

Out of tune – not in musical harmony with someone or something.

Left over – food that has not been finished at a meal and that is often served at another meal.

Farm – a piece of land used for growing crops or raising animals.

Conventional – used and accepted by most people : usual or traditional.

Whistles – a small device that makes a very high and loud sound when a person blows air through it.

Pitch – the highness or lowness of a sound.

Shallower – having a small distance to the bottom from the surface or highest point.

Panpipes – a musical instrument that is made up of several short pipes of different lengths and that is played by blowing air across the top.

Repertoire – all the plays, songs, dances, etc., that a performer or group of performers knows and can perform.