​For the project, I am making a violin. I have a 6 - year experience playing the violin so I know a lot about it. The violin is played when a person uses the bow, the bow strikes against the violin and produces notes. A person can either pluck strings or use the bow to get sound out of the violin.
      To change a note on the violin you press down on the strings in a specific place, almost like a guitar. A violin is shaped like a mini guitar.

For this project I have decided to make a violin. A violin is played by using your left hand to play on the strings and your right to move the bow to make the tune warmer. When you push down on a note with your left hand and move the bow with your right, you have to create an even tone and make it nice but take your time.
When playing the violin you change a note by putting you fingers on the string and moving the bow and the different strings you touch the different sounds come out.
The violin is shaped like a guitar it's just that the violin is smaller and doesn't have a hole in the middle instead it has a sort of lift in the middle where the hole would be.

 

For my Physics Benchmark my group will have to form a band with our own homemade instruments. The instrument I would like to focus on is the guitar, I would like to build this instrument because growing up I always wanted to play the guitar but I was never able to take lessons so this would give me a perfect opportunity to play this instrument.

 

The guitar is played by plucking a set of strings and sliding your fingers down the long fretted neck of the guitar that makes different sounds when touched in different places which would be the way you changed a note by moving your finger to different places on the neck of the guitar.

 

There are two types of guitars, there is the acoustic and the electric. The basic shape of a guitar I would describe as the figure eight with a hole directly in the center of the body on an acoustic guitar. However, an electric guitar doesn’t have a hole in the center of the body. They both have different but very similar shapes, both types of guitars have 12 components minimum but an acoustic guitar has 20 total.  Below is a picture of both types of guitars with their matching and different parts labeled. 

 

I believe that the hole in the body of the guitar combined with the way you move your fingers on the fret board have something to do with the way you create and change the sounds that come out of the guitar. I believe that when the stings on a guitar are plucked they send some type of vibration or wave through the fret board and that causes the strings to make the different sounds that they make causing them to turn into different sound waves.

It's played by blowing raspberries through the mouth of the instrument, this sends waves through the body of the instrument and then out the bottom. Sometimes the bottom is bigger than the top so that the sound funnels and vibrates out, but the instrument makes the same sound without a larger bottom. It's shaped like a regular shaped tube, but it's usually wood and sometimes has fancy painting on the outside. You change note by blowing harder or softer and opening your throat like you would in singing to change pitch. I think sound waves vibrate from your lips down the body of the instrument and then out the bottom to create a low pitched humming noise. 

Making instruments

         ​Personally I feel making a guitar would be the best way to bring physics into this project. With this we can measure the wave lengths of different tone and notes. 
A guitar is played by tugging on the strings to make sound, you can manipulate the sound by placing your fingers at the top of the guitar and changing the notes. Im thinking of making an average guitar and this is how its shaped.




I was initially hoping to make a drum type of instrument because I really enjoy the drums however since we can not I decided to go with the guitar, with this instrument you can hit the wood area and different other places on the guitar to make different beats and I really like that about it. 

I chose this instrument because it is fun to play and something I enjoy. 

--How is it played? What does the person have to do to produce sound?
Guitars  are played buy plucking the string on the instrument with finger or a pick.
The sound of an Acoustic guitar is from the vibrations of the strings and the hollow body of it.

--How do you change a note? (you might have to watch very carefully to see this)

depending on what guitar you are playing you have to use the pick (or your fingers).
Each string on the guitar has a different note. You adjust the notes to what song your are playing.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6192856_change-notes-bass-guitar.html

--How is it shaped?

The body of the instrument plays a major part in the sound that comes out of it. The  body of the guitar is hollow so when you pick a string, its reaction to the hollow part of the instrument gives you a sound.

--What does this make you think about how you can create and change sound?

This makes me think about what type of string I would used to create the vibration and how hollow does the body of the guitar have to be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MphdRo5_7Us
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Violinconsruction3.JPG

I am interested in playing the violent, to me its a very interesting instrument and its beautiful to me.  I am interested in learning the physics behind the instrument and i want to make my own violin after i research about the instrument.

The video is above is a video that shows people playing the violin. The use little guitar shaped instruments and use a stick with a soft edge that the rub against the strings of the instruments to produce the sound. They notes are changed by using your hands to make different keys like a guitar and also where and how the “stick” is moved. The violin is shaped like a mini guitar with more curves and cuts. The instrument looks beautiful and sounds beautiful.
When i look at the instrument i think if the curves and the way its shaped have anything to do with the sound, and i also think about why it has to be healed a certain way between the neck, why couldn't it be held like a guitar, and also does the length of the stick matter?

BLOG #2
Instrument- Trumpet

5.19.2011

The instrument that I am interested in making would be either a violin or a small classical guitar.

A violin is played by rubbing a bow across a set of different strings and then placing your fingers across different sections of the violins strings to create a higher or lower pitched sound. A guitar is played in a similar way, except there is no bow, only the strumming against the guitar's strings with either a fingernail or picker.

You can change a note in a guitar and violin by either plucking/strumming a different string or by placing your fingers on different portions of the string to create a different sound.

A violin is shaped like a pear, it has a curvy top but an even curvier bottom and in the middle lies the plane of strings. Guitars are sometimes shaped like violins with a pear-like shape as well, however instead of having a just a long strip of strings, some guitars have small holes in the center which is unlike a violin.

The shape of these instruments makes me think that the way they are held could possibly affect the way that sound is created and transferred. I know that in order to play a violin you have to hold it upright and parallel to an outstretched arm on a shoulder, yet with a guitar you can be more relaxed. A cello and violin are shaped very similarly, however they both produce different sounds and are held different ways, so that makes me wonder if the shape or the way the instrument is held can make a big difference.

The connections that I see is that when you strum a guitar and a note is played, it isnt continuous because the sound waves/vibrations eventually stop and this is very similar to the lab we did in class with the slinkys because when I would push one side, there would be a wave that would go to the other side and then stop.

 I used to play the violin for about two or three years when I was in elementary school so I am somewhat familiar with the way it works and how to achieve different sounds, however, I have never played a guitar before.

Some helpful youtube videos:

Violin Basics -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_04rjPbZarE

How to hold a violin --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dFjpdCdbXs&feature=relmfu

Simple Guitar Basics -->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RaXQKL-xbQ