Musical Blog Posts 1 and 2

Blog Post #1

​For my physics music assignment I decided to build a wind chime as my instrument. A wind chime is played not by mouth or string but my a hand and a hard object, ie mallet. Sound is only produced when another object hits one of the wind chimes. Typically a person has a mallet or stick and hits the wind chimes that are of different lengths to produce different sounds. Wind chimes are a bunch of pipes made out of metal that are of different lengths. They are generally places on strings and hung from ceilings. The shape of the wind chime makes me think that the length plays a big part in the sounds that are produced. For instance if you have a longer pipe the sound will be deeper and lower. When learning about waves I related it to my instrument. Different wavelengths produce different sounds because of the different frequencies. All of the pipes of the wind chime have different frequencies.


Blog Post #2

I want to design my instrument in a way where it isn't necessarily "easy" but more manageable. I want to make it so it is portable but still large enough to produce a good sound. Since taking a more in depth look into waves, and energy transfer with waves I've learned that, with my instrument, when another objects strikes against it, the energy form it transfers into the pipe and vibrates it. The vibrations cause the sound waves and the sound waves have wave lengths that make the sound. With my wind chimes the pitch of the instrument will change according to the length of the instrument. To build my instrument I will be using copper pipes, string, and wood. I'm using copper because it was the metal my teacher chose but really any metal will do. Once my instrument is built I will play it by taking another piece of metal and hitting it on the pipes. 


WindChimes
WindChimes

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