Musical Instrument Blog #1

The flute is played by blowing air from your mouth into the mouthpiece end of the flute. There are different types of blowing techniques. Most flutes are about 67 cm. There are over 6 types of flutes. The flute that I am going to model/made is "the concert flute." This flute is made of 3 parts, the headjoint, the body and the footjoint. To change the sound the the flute creates, you simply place a finger or fingers over a whole or wholes that are placed along the longer half of the flute. You can also change the sound by limiting the amount of air released from you mouth when blowing into the flute. The flute makes many different sounds, in many different pitches. When comparing the sound that the flute makes and sound waves, I imagine that the higher the wave, the higher the pitch and that if the pitch is low then the wave will be smaller.

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Baby

i was going to post something about Hangover 2, but then i was completely blown away by Freda's picture below.

:(

shit like that gets me so depressed.

many of you may not know this, but i love birds.

and during this season, so many birds die from falling from their nests. and for some reason, i keep stumbling upon all of these dead little babies.

i know it's a part of life, but i hate it.

many of you know about my tragic experience of when my pet parakeet died of cancer a few years ago.

but once, about two summers ago, i tried to save a baby bird who had been thrown from his nest in a thunderstorm. i kept him for a few days in a small box and fed him as though i was his mother. i would have to feed him every 25 minutes and wake up with him in the morning when he would start to cry. i was giving him this gross mush mixture of baby food, cat food, and bread. he would actually sit in my palm and open his little mouth so i could drop the food in. he would also cuddle next to me to keep warm when i took him outside to sit in the grass.

ughh.

he died in my hands about a week later as i kissed him goodbye.

:(

apparently he had been pretty traumatized by the fall, considering his missing patches feathers that weren't growing back.

i will always have a place in my heart for my "adopted baby".

....

Let I breathe. Jedi Knight. The more space I get the better I write. Never I write. But if ever I write. I need the space to say whatever I like.

#teamheat

The NBA Finals start on Tuesday. My team as you should know by now (Miami Heat) are going up against the Dallas Mavericks. This is the rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals when the Heat came back from an 0-2 series hole to win four straight games and beat the Mavs for the title. DWade averaged 34 points. I hope I can relive that championship experience! #teamheat

Last Week

One more week of classes left. I have two benchmarks due this week, my art portfolio, I still have some things on my capstone to finish up, and make up any work that I'm missing for classes. On top of that I work some days this week. #killmenow

Blog Post #2: Xylophone

To produce sound on a xylophone, you need to hit the bars on the xylophone with mallets. That sound is produced by vibration. When the bars are hit with the mallets, they vibrate and produce sound waves that are recognized and heard. However, bars with different properties produce different sound. Shorter, thinner bars create higher pitch while longer, thicker bars create lower pitch. To raise the pitch, I can start out with one long bar, and keep shortening bars and placing the after the next. It would go from low pitch to high pitch. I will be using rosewood or the metal bars as the material for the bars because they are the easiest to access and can produce the best sound. Another way to approach it is by getting a set of wine glasses and adding water gradually from the one glass to the next. The more water, the lower the pitch; the less water the higher the pitch.

    I can play the instrument by striking the wood or glass with mallets or something along those lines.

I don't have questions really, just feedback would be great from Ms. Echols.


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cubs-glass-xylophone-150h

Musical Instrument Blog #2

Marquis Simmons

For the xylophone, the sound is produced when the plates on the xylophone are hit with the stick being used. The impact causes a vibration between the objects which results in a sound. Of course these sounds, put together melodically, makes music. i think that to change the pitch of the xylophone I would have to change the size of each plate, or pipe, which should result in a different sound.

To create my xylophone, I will use those bronze colored pipes, a piece of wood to attach them to and something to hit them with. To make sure that I have a different pitch for each pipe, I will make then different sizes. The xylophone will be easy to play by using the stick (I haven't decided what I will use), and hopefully easy to make.

Blog Post #1: Xylophone

To see a xylophone being played, click on the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHP5xjBP-9I

     The instrument that I plan on playing for the benchmark is the Xylophone. The xylophone originated in Asia and Africa. It consists of bars of different lengths that can be struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber to produce sound. Bars of different lengths produce different sound. The xylophone is played by striking the bars with mallets. The bars vibrate producing sound.

      The general form/shape that a xylophone is in is a rectangle or sometimes a square. To change the notes that are played on a xylophone, all you have to do is strike a different bar on the xylophone. You can change the sound by altering the density of the specific notes. This makes me think about the density of the notes and if the type of mallet matters. Also it makes me think whether hitting the bars with more force will make the sound louder. I wonder if the material of the xylophone (what its going to made of) will make a difference on the sound. The vibration of the bars when hitting them makes me think about the connection between that and the sound, and how the length matters as well.

bontempi-12-note-wooden-xylophone_3699_500
bontempi-12-note-wooden-xylophone_3699_500

Musical Instrument Blog #1

Marquis Simmons
I've always enjoyed the percussion parts of songs. So when thinking about the idea for my instrument I immediately thought about making a drum. Since we couldn't make a drum, the next  instrument I was interested in was the xylophone.

I watched a video of someone playing a big xylophone. He uses some wooden sticks with balls on the end to make the music. I'm not sure what the material of the xylophone or the balls on the sticks are. My guess about how tao change a note would be that the thicker the piece of the xylophone is, the deeper or lower the note that it makes will be. The entire xylophone is a rectangle, while each piece is also a rectangle which I guess helps make the sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ngt9CxBaMQ&feature=pyv&ad=2837289356&kw=marimba

Musical Instrument Blog #1

Marquis Simmons
I've always enjoyed the percussion parts of songs. So when thinking about the idea for my instrument I immediately thought about making a drum. Since we couldn't make a drum, the next  instrument I was interested in was the xylophone.

I watched a video of someone playing a big xylophone. He uses some wooden sticks with balls on the end to make the music. I'm not sure what the material of the xylophone or the balls on the sticks are. My guess about how tao change a note would be that the thicker the piece of the xylophone is, the deeper or lower the note that it makes will be. The entire xylophone is a rectangle, while each piece is also a rectangle which I guess helps make the sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ngt9CxBaMQ&feature=pyv&ad=2837289356&kw=marimba

Musical Instrument Blog #1

Marquis Simmons
I've always enjoyed the percussion parts of songs. So when thinking about the idea for my instrument I imediately thought about making a drum. Since we couldn't make a drum, the next  instrument I was interested in was the xylophone.

I watched a video of someone playing a big xylophone. He uses some wooden sticks with balls on the end to make the music. I'm not sure what the material of the xylophone or the balls on the sticks are. My guess about how to change a note would be that the thicker the piece of the xylophone is, the deeper or lower the note that it makes will be. The entire xylophone is a rectangle, while each piece is also a rectangle which I guess helps make the sounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ngt9CxBaMQ&feature=pyv&ad=2837289356&kw=marimba

Ooppss......

I had a long shift at work today: 9:30-5.  It must have been near the end; I was getting tired.  I had taken the customer's change, $2:75, from the register.  I guess my coworker was in front of the register, so I had to hand the change over the bar. Being the clumsy, short person I am, I was unable to reach her hand and had to get on my tiptoes.  In the midst of all this confusion, I dropped two quarters. In the strawberry sauce. I'm just glad my boss wasn't there to see it. 

Blog post 2 - xylophone

The xylophone makes sound, as similar to other percussion family instrument, by vibrating. To be more specific, when the mallet hits the bars, it makes the bars vibrate. From that vibration, it creates waves in the surrounding air, and finally, these waves are recognized as sound by humans' brain! It is so interesting to discover how these bars' properties are accountable for the pitch that they make. First, shorter, denser, and thinner bar makes higher pitch(I used to understand this as the other way around). In order to adjust the pitch, the bars need to be adjusted, according to its properties. To higher the pitch, I can make the ends thinner, or carve out a semi oval [or rectangle] section in the middle of the bars between the nodes, or shorter the bars. However, the density of the bars cannot be changed, since that's a permanent property of the material. I only have properties for pitches of rosewood, so I'll be using rosewood as the material for my xylophone. I will be constructing my xylophone by using wooden bars (lengths are according to the property table that I downloaded :D), and hammer them into a triangle wooden box. 


Questions: How does the box underneath the bars amplified its volume? And why does longer bar has lower pitch? Please answer this (or show me how to find out the answer) asap, Ms. Écholsawnsome:)




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wooden-toy---12-tone-xylophone-hq-009-131

I Feel...

Like my previous post wasn't a story so here is another one...

Ms. Hull: "Marchella, I saw your senior picture the other day and it was so pretty!" 
Me "Ummmm...Thank you Ms. Hull!"

Random complements when stressed make you feel pretty awesome. 

Saturday

Today I played wiffle ball with my sister, brother, father, step-mom and my sister's friend, Sam. They put me, Sam and Giana on a team. And my father, brother who is on a baseball team and my step-mom on a team together. We lost 5-4 in the last inning. Damn.

English Portfolio- Reflection

As 9th grader who's on her way to being a 10th grader, I feel that my work in the beginning represented someone who was transitioning from the 8th grade. However, as the year progressed and I was guided on how to become a better writer, my work became stronger. And rather than receiving a 70 as a grade, I received 90's. When people read my work, I want them to think of the actual subject and not who's behind it. Why? because I want people to actually think about what ever it is that I wrote and not form an opinion about me personally, until the end.

Ninth grade English was definitely not what I suspected. I thought it was going to be a breeze because I have always been an A student when it came to reading and writing. Boy was I wrong, I was challenged form the very first day we came into Ms. Dunn's Class. Regardless of how challenging it got, Ms. Dunn was always there for us-And ms. Findlay too-. I am grateful to have been given the chance to be taught how to become a better writer. My writing now compared to my writing in September is completely different. But different in a good way. My weakness as a writer I would have to say is the fact that my vocabulary isn't broad enough. I work on that everyday by just sitting down and picking up the dictionary every once in a while. One of my strengths would probably be comprehension. I understand text immediately and already have a response to whatever it is I read.

For this project I may have encountered an Issue as far as uploading and putting things onto the blog. But this was mostly because of technical difficulties. Anyways, when I went back through my work, I was proud of the few errors I had, but disappointed in the errors that were made. There were some things where I felt like it shouldn't have been a mistake that I made. I simply had to retouch most of my work however. It felt great to go back through my old work and look at what I have become over the past few months.