Build a Musical Band
For this project we were assigned to design and build a band of at least three instruments with which you can play the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. We needed to have a string instrument, like guitar, a wind instrument, like a flute, and a chime instrument, like a xylophone. We also needed to create a song that we could play with our instruments.
A string instrument uses strings that vibrate to create the sound. For our string instrument, we made a guitar-like instrument. We marked the places where certain notes are so that we knew where to put our knife to shorten the string and create a different pitch. For our wind instrument, we made our own instrument that sounded like a kazoo. It included 7 rubber band and 6 blocks of wood. We shortened the length of the rubber bands to each note's specific wavelength and we also had to get the right tension on the rubber bands. Finally, for our chime instrument, we made a drum. The drum could play all the different notes due to the size and hardness of the sides.
My group, Zach Roesler, Joe Malliaris, and I used this chart to figure out the sizes and markings we needed to make for each note: http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html.
Guitar-
A string instrument uses strings that vibrate to create the sound. For our string instrument, we made a guitar-like instrument. We marked the places where certain notes are so that we knew where to put our knife to shorten the string and create a different pitch. For our wind instrument, we made our own instrument that sounded like a kazoo. It included 7 rubber band and 6 blocks of wood. We shortened the length of the rubber bands to each note's specific wavelength and we also had to get the right tension on the rubber bands. Finally, for our chime instrument, we made a drum. The drum could play all the different notes due to the size and hardness of the sides.
My group, Zach Roesler, Joe Malliaris, and I used this chart to figure out the sizes and markings we needed to make for each note: http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html.
Guitar-
Wind Instrument-
Drum-
Key Concepts-
Wavelength- distance from crest to crest which is measured in meters. Wavelength is found in all instruments.
Frequency- how often vibration occurs in hertz(hz). It's equation in cycles per second.
Amplitude- distance from midpoint to crest(or trough), max displacement from equalibrium.
Wave speed - wave length x frequency
Notes are based on frequency and wavelength. The higher the note the smaller the wavelength and visa versa. You can increase frequency by increasing tension or shortening area to make it vibrate faster which results in a higher note or sound.
Frequency- how often vibration occurs in hertz(hz). It's equation in cycles per second.
Amplitude- distance from midpoint to crest(or trough), max displacement from equalibrium.
Wave speed - wave length x frequency
Notes are based on frequency and wavelength. The higher the note the smaller the wavelength and visa versa. You can increase frequency by increasing tension or shortening area to make it vibrate faster which results in a higher note or sound.
Reflection-
I learned a lot in the section. I play piano but didn't know how string are different pitches. I also had a lot of fun because of my absolutely amazing group consisting of Zach Roesler and Joe Malliaris. I found us working together very well and also efficiently. We could have used more time management but we finished in good time. It was so much fun learning and created these instruments. We worked together very well and also had fun at the same time.