Project Description
For this project our task was to build four different instruments in a group and make a band. The instruments include a wind, brass, string, and percussion. In out group each person took on one them. We started out in class with learning about sound waves. After that we started to design our instruments. We started with a blue print and then started building. Once we were done we wrote a little description about how it worked and how we made it.
Description
How Our Instruments Work
The instruments we have are a saxophone (woodwind), a violin (string), chimes (percussion), and an E♭ Alto Horn (brass).
Saxophone:
The saxophone is a woodwind instrument and it uses a reed to make sound. The user makes the reed vibrate by blowing onto it, resulting in a sound that flows through the instrument. The sound escapes through open holes, which would make a note with a higher pitch. So the closer the hole is to the mouthpiece, the higher the note is if it is left open. Also, the holes should be placed according to the wavelength. If you want to play a note, take ¼ of the wavelength (cm), and use that distance to place the hole. For example, the wavelength of a C4 is 131.87 cm, and ¼ of that is about 32.97 cm. So, you should place the hole 32.97 cm from the beginning of the mouthpiece. To play a louder note, blow more air into the mouthpiece, and the note will be louder. To play a quiet note, just blow less air into the mouthpiece. I placed holes in my instrument to play notes from B3 to A4, resulting in a total of ten holes (excluding G#4 because there wasn’t enough space). Also, it looks like a saxophone but it sounds like a clarinet. I made it look like a saxophone mostly because I wanted it to look different than the other wind instruments, but I ended up getting some interesting data. Because I drilled 10 holes, I can’t cover all of the holes with my fingers. So it would seem like the end part would be completely useless, but when I tested the instrument with and without it, there was a clear difference in volume. The end part with the funnel actually increased the amount of sound that came out.
Note
Distance from mouthpiece (¼ of wavelength)
B3
34.93 cm
C4
32.97 cm
C#4
31.12 cm
D4
29.37 cm
Eb4
27.72 cm
E4
26.17 cm
F4
24.7 cm
F#4
23.31 cm
G4
22 cm
A4
19.603 cm
E♭ Alto Horn:
The E♭ Alto Horn was constructed using PVC pipe. This instrument has 131.87 cm of tubing, so it theoretically would play a C4 when blown into In a brass instrument, the sound is produced by buzzing one’s lips to make a sound. I used an old trumpet mouthpiece that I had for this to make it easier and to make sure I was playing in the correct range. Brass instruments also have something called partials or harmonics. This means that a brass player can play multiple notes just by changing the way they buzz into the mouthpiece. These jumps in pitch often follow a sequence known as the harmonics series. This starts at a base note, and then moves to half the frequency (an octave), one third the original frequency, one fourth, one fifth, one sixth, and so on. Most brass instrument play in the octave between their one half partial and their one fourth partial, although some are different. On the instrument that I made, this partial is very unstable and I can play the notes of C3 to F3 on it (C3 because its wavelength is a multiple of the length of the tubing of my instrument). I found that the E♭3 was the easiest to play if I just relaxed, so I pitched the instrument in E♭. This makes it the alto voice of our ensemble. Of course I can’t only use my lips to play my instrument because I won’t be able to play the notes of a melody or scale. Because of this I made three tone holes on the instrument. Their lengths of tubing from the mouthpiece correspond with the wavelengths of the notes I wanted to produce. The nearest hole to the bottom is at 117 cm from the mouthpiece, the second hole is at 104 cm, and the third hole is at 98 cm. This makes me be able to play the notes of a major scale between a fifth. I can also raise the volume of the notes with my lips.
Note Frequency Wavelength Tube length
E♭3 155.56 221.77 131.87
F3 174.61 197.58 117.48
G3 196 176.02 104.66
A♭3 207.65 166.14 98.79
B♭3 233,08 148.02 88.01
C4 261.63 131.87 78.41
D4 293.66 117.48 69.85
E♭4 311.14 110.89 65.93
Chimes:
We also made a set of chimes. The chimes are considered a percussion instrument . Metal pipes are strung between two pieces of wood, so when you set them on a table they lay flat and you can play them like a Xylophone. The structure is four 2x4s screwed together to make a rectangle. Then I drilled holes 4 cm apart to give the metal pipes enough room to vibrate. I used 13 different pipes to make notes from C6 to C7. I used a note chart to see how long they needed to be to make different notes. An example is the note of C6 needs to be 32.97 cm long. When you hit the different pipes it vibrates them and depending on their length it makes different pitches. Longer pipes can give of lower notes and shorter pipes give off higher notes. I used all metal pipes because of the natural frequency. It could be the same, but I could change one variable which would be the length. To find which notes I needed I used a chart to find the notes and there different lengths.
C6
1046.50
32.97
C#6/Db6
1108.73
31.12
D6
1174.66
29.37
D#6/Eb6
1244.51
27.72
E6
1318.51
26.17
F6
1396.91
24.70
F#6/Gb6
1479.98
23.31
G6
1567.98
22.00
G#6/Ab6
1661.22
20.77
A6
1760.00
19.60
A#6/Bb6
1864.66
18.50
B6
1975.53
17.46
C7
2093.00
16.48
Violin-Guitar:
The Violin produces a sound using a disturbance of the strings. This disturbance could be caused by the bow, or by plucking, (also called pizzicato). The main factors that influence the pitch or frequency (f) of a violin can be attributed to length, thickness (gauge)/density, tension. The length of a string is λ/2, where λ (Lambda), is the wavelength. The reason why this is, is because the string is a standing wave. A standing wave would be a transverse wave with a crest going to the top of the violin, and a trough bouncing back. When fingering, we change the string length, which changes the wavelength. Like density, the thicker the strings the lower the frequency, this is because of inertia. Strings with more thickness, or density, move slower as it takes more work to change the state of the object from rest to vibration. Tension affects the string frequency as increasing the tension, using the peg, increases the “distance”. So the wave-speed (v) compensates for the increase in distance, by moving faster, creating more waves per second, or a higher frequency. Also increased tension away from the string’s center decreases the density, as the same amount of mass is expanded in an increased volume. Since lowered density means less work to change an object's state, the string will vibrate faster, causing a higher frequency. For the instrument, tension was used as the frequency variant, for both tuning and producing notes by using fingers. For amplification and resonance, thin wood pieces were used. Thin pieces will allow a constant surface area, with more vibrational energy traveling through producing a louder sound. The sound box, also allows the vibrations to bounce back into the box and be delivered out, bettering amplitude. Also sympathetic vibrations of notes will be played, because of harmonic similarities, resonance will also be present.
Sympathetic Vibration
Standing Wave
The frequency of a note can be calculated using f(x) = 440(21/12)x , where x is the distance of half-steps from A 440. The factor is 21/12 because the multiplier of an octave is 2, and there are 12 tones, thus the multiplier from one note to the next is 21/12.
Note
Frequency (Hertz)
G2
98.00
G#2/Ab2
103.83
A2
110.00
A#2/Bb2
116.54
B2
123.47
C3
130.81
C#3/Db3
138.59
D3
146.83
D#3/Eb3
155.56
E3
164.81
F3
174.61
F#3/Gb3
185.00
G3
196.00
G#3/Ab3
207.65
A3
220.00
A#3/Bb3
233.08
B3
246.94
C4
261.63
C#4/Db4
277.18
D4
293.66
D#4/Eb4
311.13
E4
329.63
The instruments we have are a saxophone (woodwind), a violin (string), chimes (percussion), and an E♭ Alto Horn (brass).
Saxophone:
The saxophone is a woodwind instrument and it uses a reed to make sound. The user makes the reed vibrate by blowing onto it, resulting in a sound that flows through the instrument. The sound escapes through open holes, which would make a note with a higher pitch. So the closer the hole is to the mouthpiece, the higher the note is if it is left open. Also, the holes should be placed according to the wavelength. If you want to play a note, take ¼ of the wavelength (cm), and use that distance to place the hole. For example, the wavelength of a C4 is 131.87 cm, and ¼ of that is about 32.97 cm. So, you should place the hole 32.97 cm from the beginning of the mouthpiece. To play a louder note, blow more air into the mouthpiece, and the note will be louder. To play a quiet note, just blow less air into the mouthpiece. I placed holes in my instrument to play notes from B3 to A4, resulting in a total of ten holes (excluding G#4 because there wasn’t enough space). Also, it looks like a saxophone but it sounds like a clarinet. I made it look like a saxophone mostly because I wanted it to look different than the other wind instruments, but I ended up getting some interesting data. Because I drilled 10 holes, I can’t cover all of the holes with my fingers. So it would seem like the end part would be completely useless, but when I tested the instrument with and without it, there was a clear difference in volume. The end part with the funnel actually increased the amount of sound that came out.
Note
Distance from mouthpiece (¼ of wavelength)
B3
34.93 cm
C4
32.97 cm
C#4
31.12 cm
D4
29.37 cm
Eb4
27.72 cm
E4
26.17 cm
F4
24.7 cm
F#4
23.31 cm
G4
22 cm
A4
19.603 cm
E♭ Alto Horn:
The E♭ Alto Horn was constructed using PVC pipe. This instrument has 131.87 cm of tubing, so it theoretically would play a C4 when blown into In a brass instrument, the sound is produced by buzzing one’s lips to make a sound. I used an old trumpet mouthpiece that I had for this to make it easier and to make sure I was playing in the correct range. Brass instruments also have something called partials or harmonics. This means that a brass player can play multiple notes just by changing the way they buzz into the mouthpiece. These jumps in pitch often follow a sequence known as the harmonics series. This starts at a base note, and then moves to half the frequency (an octave), one third the original frequency, one fourth, one fifth, one sixth, and so on. Most brass instrument play in the octave between their one half partial and their one fourth partial, although some are different. On the instrument that I made, this partial is very unstable and I can play the notes of C3 to F3 on it (C3 because its wavelength is a multiple of the length of the tubing of my instrument). I found that the E♭3 was the easiest to play if I just relaxed, so I pitched the instrument in E♭. This makes it the alto voice of our ensemble. Of course I can’t only use my lips to play my instrument because I won’t be able to play the notes of a melody or scale. Because of this I made three tone holes on the instrument. Their lengths of tubing from the mouthpiece correspond with the wavelengths of the notes I wanted to produce. The nearest hole to the bottom is at 117 cm from the mouthpiece, the second hole is at 104 cm, and the third hole is at 98 cm. This makes me be able to play the notes of a major scale between a fifth. I can also raise the volume of the notes with my lips.
Note Frequency Wavelength Tube length
E♭3 155.56 221.77 131.87
F3 174.61 197.58 117.48
G3 196 176.02 104.66
A♭3 207.65 166.14 98.79
B♭3 233,08 148.02 88.01
C4 261.63 131.87 78.41
D4 293.66 117.48 69.85
E♭4 311.14 110.89 65.93
Chimes:
We also made a set of chimes. The chimes are considered a percussion instrument . Metal pipes are strung between two pieces of wood, so when you set them on a table they lay flat and you can play them like a Xylophone. The structure is four 2x4s screwed together to make a rectangle. Then I drilled holes 4 cm apart to give the metal pipes enough room to vibrate. I used 13 different pipes to make notes from C6 to C7. I used a note chart to see how long they needed to be to make different notes. An example is the note of C6 needs to be 32.97 cm long. When you hit the different pipes it vibrates them and depending on their length it makes different pitches. Longer pipes can give of lower notes and shorter pipes give off higher notes. I used all metal pipes because of the natural frequency. It could be the same, but I could change one variable which would be the length. To find which notes I needed I used a chart to find the notes and there different lengths.
C6
1046.50
32.97
C#6/Db6
1108.73
31.12
D6
1174.66
29.37
D#6/Eb6
1244.51
27.72
E6
1318.51
26.17
F6
1396.91
24.70
F#6/Gb6
1479.98
23.31
G6
1567.98
22.00
G#6/Ab6
1661.22
20.77
A6
1760.00
19.60
A#6/Bb6
1864.66
18.50
B6
1975.53
17.46
C7
2093.00
16.48
Violin-Guitar:
The Violin produces a sound using a disturbance of the strings. This disturbance could be caused by the bow, or by plucking, (also called pizzicato). The main factors that influence the pitch or frequency (f) of a violin can be attributed to length, thickness (gauge)/density, tension. The length of a string is λ/2, where λ (Lambda), is the wavelength. The reason why this is, is because the string is a standing wave. A standing wave would be a transverse wave with a crest going to the top of the violin, and a trough bouncing back. When fingering, we change the string length, which changes the wavelength. Like density, the thicker the strings the lower the frequency, this is because of inertia. Strings with more thickness, or density, move slower as it takes more work to change the state of the object from rest to vibration. Tension affects the string frequency as increasing the tension, using the peg, increases the “distance”. So the wave-speed (v) compensates for the increase in distance, by moving faster, creating more waves per second, or a higher frequency. Also increased tension away from the string’s center decreases the density, as the same amount of mass is expanded in an increased volume. Since lowered density means less work to change an object's state, the string will vibrate faster, causing a higher frequency. For the instrument, tension was used as the frequency variant, for both tuning and producing notes by using fingers. For amplification and resonance, thin wood pieces were used. Thin pieces will allow a constant surface area, with more vibrational energy traveling through producing a louder sound. The sound box, also allows the vibrations to bounce back into the box and be delivered out, bettering amplitude. Also sympathetic vibrations of notes will be played, because of harmonic similarities, resonance will also be present.
Sympathetic Vibration
Standing Wave
The frequency of a note can be calculated using f(x) = 440(21/12)x , where x is the distance of half-steps from A 440. The factor is 21/12 because the multiplier of an octave is 2, and there are 12 tones, thus the multiplier from one note to the next is 21/12.
Note
Frequency (Hertz)
G2
98.00
G#2/Ab2
103.83
A2
110.00
A#2/Bb2
116.54
B2
123.47
C3
130.81
C#3/Db3
138.59
D3
146.83
D#3/Eb3
155.56
E3
164.81
F3
174.61
F#3/Gb3
185.00
G3
196.00
G#3/Ab3
207.65
A3
220.00
A#3/Bb3
233.08
B3
246.94
C4
261.63
C#4/Db4
277.18
D4
293.66
D#4/Eb4
311.13
E4
329.63
Chimes
Personally I made the chimes.
Reflection
This project was fun! We used a lot of creativity on this project. For my self I think I could to better at work ethic. I could have used more of the time given to us on making my project better. I focused on a lot of design and not so much building. Next time I will focus on my physical project. For my group I think we could have worked on communication. Even though this was a group project I feel we treated it as if it were individual. If I had to do it over again I would make sure that we all treated it as if we built all the instruments.
As far as things I did well I feel I was very good about listening to my fellow group members. During the project we all asked each other questions that helped us build a better instrument! I enjoyed this project and I feel like I learned a lot.
As far as things I did well I feel I was very good about listening to my fellow group members. During the project we all asked each other questions that helped us build a better instrument! I enjoyed this project and I feel like I learned a lot.