Blog #2 Musical Instrument

The xylophone produces sound through the vibrations created when the mallet hits the keys. The vibrations displace air molecules, which creates waves because the air molecules are now bunched together and they are trying to rearrange themselves, but that causes more areas of bunched up air molecules.
These sounds are changed when the waves are altered. This can happen when the tension in the instruments changes or when the size of the object creating the waves changes. The latter is what the xylophone uses. Different keys of different sizes change the pitch: the smaller create higher notes and the bigger keys create lower notes.
To get the best sound, I will use metal tubes to create my xylophone. I think metal creates clear, sharp sounds and it will be easy to change the size of the tubes. I will need to research how the size changes the pitch in much more detail. Then, I plan to attach them to a base and hit them with mallets with metal tops to them.