Music Instrument Blog #1

A xylophone is a very interesting instrument. 

To play a xylophone you have two sticks made of either rubber or wood. The instrument consists of bars ranging in size from large to small. The longer the bar is, the lower the pitch. The smaller the bars, the higher the pitch. As seen in the video, this xylophone was made like a piano type instrument, where there were also bars located above the bars that are mainly played. These bars are for flat and sharp notes. They are in sets of either two or three. The sticks that are used to be played with, also, effect the sound the bars play. Harder sticks make sharper sounds, unlike with softer sticks that play more gentle sounds. The shape of a xylophone is actually pretty simple. It is shaped in a line, from larger bars to smaller bars. The sticks are normally thin with a ball shape at the top (the part of the stick that strikes the bars when a xylophone is being played). This makes me think about how you interact with a material can create sound and the size of that material may also effect it. Like on a guitar, the strings are different thicknesses. What I know about a wave, is that when energy is transferring through it, you can change how fast it pulses or how long its wavelength is. So in other words, if you play with how hard you hit an instrument, it will effect the wavelength and the frequency depends on the size of the bars.