We've just carried in all the tools and materials. Mr. Radford finds tools and helps arrange the space. Tools and wood for tone bars are ready for tuning and sanding The best way to double check the tone bars is to lay them out on the frame. Sanding blocks and buffing rags are used to make the tone bar wood very smooth. A mallet, a chisel, a wood stopper and an electronic tuner are used to tune each bar. Eleven stations are set up in the workspace for students to work. Nail holes are drilled exactly 2/9 ths from the end of the bar. The nail holes are filed to fit the head of the nail perfectly. Students are shown how to tune each bar. These are the bars for the Aussie waiting to be tuned. The students watch a demonstration of how a bar is tuned. Here they are checking the electronic tuner. Students learn that the chisel is sharp enough to carve wood chips from the center of each tone bar. Students watch as small cuts are made with the mallet and chisel in the bottom of a tone bar. Each bar is held up to a tuner and checked for the correct pitch. Brent Holl helped make the marimbas for the school. Here's one finished bar. The tuning process begins. Two students work on each bar at a station. A student works on a tone bar for the Bass. Mr. Radford helps explain the tuning process Holding the chisel securely, ready to make a chip. Cutting towards the center line, a chip is on the way. Mr. Radford finished the fine tuning for many of the tone bars. Here's a fifth grade class working on the bars for the Aussie. As bars are finished they are mounted on the finished frame. A tube resonator is held under each bar to hear it RING! Younger students worked outside with sanding blocks and buffing rags. The students worked in pairs as they sanded and buffed each tone bar. This is an activity for all the grades! Students were invited to sign the bottom of each bar. Every child that worked on the marimba this week signed their name on a bar. Students gather around the new marimba to give it a go. The new Bass Marimba is finished! It's a blast to play! It's just as much fun for adults! Some very important folks stopped by the music room to see the new instruments. The Bass Marimba gets a workout. Students are amazed at the sound of the new marimbas. As the last bars are finished, students are invited to take a turn at playing the marimbas. More students get to try it out. The instruments are finally finished. These instruments will provide many years of dynamic music making for the students of Lee Hill Elementary School.