Music Instrument Blog #2

When playing a xylophone, the sound is produced by the strike of the sticks on the bars, which transfer energy to the bar, causing vibrations. The force of the strike to the different bars plays a part in the sound as well as the size of the bars. My thoughts on size of the bars is that with smaller bars there is less room for air particles to travel, making it more concentrated, causing different pitches. Different sized bars are very important with xylophones. Smaller bars cause higher pitches while larger bars form lower pitches. In order to reconstruct a xylophone, I will be using a certain type of material for the bars. My ideas are either wood or pipe. This is because with an actual xylophone the bars tend to be wood, but I'm thinking pipe will making a louder sound. When you hit a pipe with something, it ends up being very loud, as if you can hear the vibration themselves which i think would be very useful in making a xylophone. the  For the stick that will strike the bars, I plan on using wood. For the stand, I would like to have it wood. My idea is to have two large pieces of wood standing up and being nailed to two pieces of wood that will be placed flat underneath the pipe bars to be played while standing. And of course nails and screws in order to keep things in place. 

Questions That I Have:
- Is there a certain size I will need to make the bars in order to create the notes that I want to play?
- Are the sound waves effected by how I decide to play the xylophone? (i.e. if I hit two different sizes or I hit at a certain speed, will it effect the sound waves and will the sounds mash together or not?)