The Flute:

The flute is an instrument that interests me because woodwind instruments seem fairly easy to manipulate to me. In addition to this, there is a lot you can test as far as sound waves are concerned. They act as a sort of large tuning fork, and therefore testing for them can be done with a fair amount of efficiency. When playing the flute, the player essentially alters the length of the pipe by covering or opening the holes that are spaced over the length of it. This, in turn, changes the note that one plays. So depending on what combination of holes are covered and are not, when the player blows into the primary hole on one end or the other, he or she can play a note, creating different kinds of music. Now the reason for this, presumably, is because altering the length of the pipe alters the concentration of the air molecules. This, in turn, alters the amount of vibration that they are allowed, and the consequence of this is an alteration in the frequency of the sound wave that is released. 

​A thumb piano produces a sound by the vibrations of the metal pieces. It travels into the hollowed out box through the sound hold like a piano and makes a sound. The longer the piece vibrates the longer the note is held. The thumb piano consists of different length, flat metal pieces. You can change the lengths and tune it by undoing the bar holding them down and moving the pieced back and forth to the correct tune and pitch. For the box I'll be using wooden boards I'll cut and shape for the correct size. Then i'll take some pieces of spring metal from a rake and use that as the keys. A metal bar to hold down the pieces with screws for tuning.

A thumb piano produces a sound by the vibrations of the metal pieces. It travels into the hollowed out box through the sound hold like a piano and makes a sound. The longer the piece vibrates the longer the note is held. The thumb piano consists of different length, flat metal pieces. You can change the lengths and tune it by undoing the bar holding them down and moving the pieced back and forth to the correct tune and pitch. For the box I'll be using wooden boards I'll cut and shape for the correct size. Then i'll take some pieces of spring metal from a rake and use that as the keys. A metal bar to hold down the pieces with screws for tuning.

A thumb piano produces a sound by the vibrations of the metal pieces. It travels into the hollowed out box through the sound hold like a piano and makes a sound. The longer the piece vibrates the longer the note is held. The thumb piano consists of different length, flat metal pieces. You can change the lengths and tune it by undoing the bar holding them down and moving the pieced back and forth to the correct tune and pitch. For the box I'll be using wooden boards I'll cut and shape for the correct size. Then i'll take some pieces of spring metal from a rake and use that as the keys. A metal bar to hold down the pieces with screws for tuning.

The sound is produced by the pressurized air of my breath as it travels through the pipe. The casing acts as a tension which once the sounds reaches the specific holes, is released and produces varying pitches. I am chaining the pitch by placing the holes along the pipe in specific spots. The spacing in between the holes are essential because it determines the pitch released. I will be using PVC piping to create the pipe. It is a material that I have used to build with before and it also seems like a the perfect material that'll help produce the specific sound I want. I still need to learn on where it is that i need to specifically place the holes and how it'll effect the sound produced.

The xylophone produces sound through force hitting the bar, where the vibration travels through the bar and into metal tubes called resonators. This is why the xylophone looks like it contains a vertical counterpart similar to the actual wood keys. These are important characteristics in a xylophone. To change the pitch, you strike a different key, arranged in octaves like a piano.

I intend on using an old computer frame stand as the base of my xylophone. I would only create one full octave because the frame is not as large as others, and the keys and bars would be made out of polished wood. For the resonators, it would be ideal to use metal pipes, but I would like to try using wood or plastic (PVC) to see what happens. I will play my instrument by using a mallet and hitting on the keys. I would use my time at home and Engineering class to build my instrument.

A lingering question I still have is: How will I separate each and every key while having it suspended on the computer frame?

Piano/Thumb Piano

When looking into the instrument I wished to play I thought that making a simple small piano would be easy. It's just a box with strings and keys you press that hit the corresponding string. While doing light research I noticed it was actually very difficult to piece something like that together. Then a friend of mine happened across an instrument called a thumb piano. It sounded like the perfect thing to make. So when i got home I looked it up. Basically its a bunch of different sized metal pieces that are bend in the middle and held down. It's played my pressing down on a metal piece and then releasing it causing a sharp crisp sound to be produced. The number of pieces can be varied so the range of notes is easily acquired like an actual piano. Its shape can be a small box with metal strips on top and a piece of wood that acts as like a ditch above the box like board. The metal strips are places strategically on top of the wooden ditch and then a bar is placed across them and pressed down to bend the metal pieces in a out wide U shape. I'm not sure about how tuning takes place but the vibrations of the metal to metal makes the nice sound.

To see for yourself check out this youtube video.

​Guitar

--How is it played? What does the person have to do to produce sound?
It is played by applying force to frets and strumming the strings.

I know I must alter each of the thickness of strings and also I must alter the tightness of the strings along the neck.


I know that the sound waves travel into the hole of the guitar and travel outward. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL-MrZKU3Js

Acoustic Guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsD6uEZsIsU

Acoustic Guitars are played by strumming up and down various strings that produce different sounds. You change the notes by placing your other hand along the top of the string on the metal bars that are called frets. An Acoustic Guitar is shaped like a number eight that is hollow and only has one hole in it which is located at the bottom. When the strings are strummed the sound travels down them into the hollow eight shaped part and the sound bounces off the walls of it to produce a much better sound. Above the base of it there is a long bar like object which has all of the string attached to it and runs all the way from the top to the bottom of the number eight shaped base. This makes me think that I would need something that is very good acoustics and is able to let sound move freely in it. A connection that can be made with what I already know about waves is that as the sound bounces off the inside of the guitar the sounds waves slowly dissipate jus as the energy from the slinky did.