Build A Band Description
In the Build A Band project we had to build 3 musical instruments; one string, one chimes, and a wind instrument using the knowledge of sound waves. Each instrument had to play 7 notes on the C major scale; C, D, E, F, G, A B. Making these three instruments came as far as being pretty simple to really complex. We created a sort of trumpet out of a PVC pipe, a guitar made out of wood and a piece of fishing wire as the string, and a chimes instruments using metal pipes measured at different lengths that create different notes.
The Guitar
Our guitar, by far, took us the longest to make. First we constructed a base and shaft which took a lot of work including sawing the pieces of wood needed and gluing them together overnight. This took about a week of construction until we got to the easy part. After that we just had to string it and tune it to what we preferred. To tune our guitar we used different wood objects to create more tension and provide different ways to shorten the wavelengths thus making the notes higher, visa-verse.
The Trumpet
The trumpet was a quickly constructed instrument where we looked up the wavelength of a C4 to cut our PVC to that length. Then we looked up the measurements of the other notes and drilled holes into where the measures were. Once we drilled all the holes, we had our basic instrument. To play each note, one had to cover all the holes and release one finger at a time to make each note up the scale, each hole shortening the wavelength when starting at C.
The Chimes
The chimes was made out of metal with a good natural frequency that we could modify to make the notes we needed. Similar to the flute, we had to use the wavelengths online, but instead we cut 7 pipes to each length instead of all seven on one pipe. We strung each pipe to an elevated piece of wood where each pipe rested on a rubber band to help the vibrations sound better. If you look at the picture you can see we had to put nails beside each pipe because they kept moving around.
Justification
Concepts Covered
Vibration - A wiggle in time
Wave - A wiggle in space and time
Wavelength - Distance from top of crest to troughs, units meters
Crest - High point of wave
Trough - Low point of wave
Amplitude - Distance from midpoint to crest, units meters
Frequency - How often a vibration occurs, units hertz
Period - Amount of time between waves, units seconds
Velocity(Wave Speed) - Wavelength x Frequency, units meters/seconds
Hertz - Unit of frequency
Pitch - The subjective impression about the frequency of sound
Compression - A pulse of compressed air
Rarefaction - The disturbance in air when the pressure is lowered
Natural Frequency - The vibration of an object's set of frequencies
Resonance - When the frequency of a forced vibration matches its natural frequency
Beats - The periodic variation in the loudness of sound
Shorter wavelengths = Higher notes
Longer wavelengths = Lower notes
Wave - A wiggle in space and time
Wavelength - Distance from top of crest to troughs, units meters
Crest - High point of wave
Trough - Low point of wave
Amplitude - Distance from midpoint to crest, units meters
Frequency - How often a vibration occurs, units hertz
Period - Amount of time between waves, units seconds
Velocity(Wave Speed) - Wavelength x Frequency, units meters/seconds
Hertz - Unit of frequency
Pitch - The subjective impression about the frequency of sound
Compression - A pulse of compressed air
Rarefaction - The disturbance in air when the pressure is lowered
Natural Frequency - The vibration of an object's set of frequencies
Resonance - When the frequency of a forced vibration matches its natural frequency
Beats - The periodic variation in the loudness of sound
Shorter wavelengths = Higher notes
Longer wavelengths = Lower notes
Reflection
After we finished the project I thought it was an interesting one. I never thought that you'd be able to make an actual instrument out of household materials. To convert what we learned in class to building a musical instrument was awesome. Even though we struggled sometimes it was worth it. Two things our group could have done better was time management and more planning. We nearly passed the due mark on our chimes instrument and after we got our directions we just broke off and tried to make what we briefly thought of. Two things we did well were working together and making modifications. Without each others help and input we wouldn't have an instrument as good as it is now. The things I learned included everything from waves to beats, the lengths at which each note can be made with natural frequency, and lastly how to make a basic instrument.