Build A Band project
This past project was called the "Build a Band" project. Our goal was to make 3 different types of instruments, and eventually, play a song with our instruments. Prior to building, we learned about concepts like wavelengths, frequency, wave speed, etc. The three types of instruments that we were required to build were a wind instrument, a chime instrument, and a string instrument. An example of a wind instrument would be a trumpet, or a flute. An example of a chime instrument would be a xylophone. An example of a string instrument would be a guitar or a ukulele.
Chimes: We decided to go with an instrument that seemed relatively easy to play: pipe xylophone. Xylophones were invented in ancient Asia and consists of eight to twelve pipes of increasing length. For our instrument we decided to use eight. For normal chime instruments the length of the starting pipe is what matters, the rest of the pipes’ lengths are based off of the longest pipe. For the next octave, the next pipe has to be 1.41 (root two) times shorter. The xylophone is played by striking directly on the pipe with a mallet. This makes the metal pipe vibrate at a certain frequency, which creates compression and rarefaction in the air. When the metal vibrates out it compresses the air and when it vibrates in it rarefies the air. This makes a longitudinal wave, which we perceive as sound. Making blissful music. Wind: We decided to go with an instrument that seemed relatively easy to play: the panflute. Panflutes were invented in ancient Greece and consist of five to ten pipes of increasing length. For our instrument we decided to use eight. This allows us to play a full octatonic scale. (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A) The pan flute is played by blowing horizontally across the open end against the inner edge of the pipes. This creates rarefaction at the top due to the bernoulli principle, and compression at the bottom due to the increase of air in the pipe. This difference of pressure creates a longitudinal sound wave. This wave completes half of a cycle inside the pipe, and thus has a wavelength of twice the length of the pipe. The longitudinal wave then exits the pipe and hits your eardrums, making blissful music. String: Our string design is very simple, yet effective. It’s made from 3 different materials: wood, screws, and fishing wire. There is one long strip of wood that makes up the base. On one end of it, there is a smaller piece of wood, with eight screws side by side. On the other side, there are eight screws screwed directly into the base. What makes the sound on a string instrument is the vibration of the strings. The pitch (frequency) depends on how fast the strings are vibrating. If the string is bigger, it will vibrate much slower than it would if it were smaller. That is how most string instruments work. They are made with strings of different thicknesses, to give the instrument a good range of pitch. In our case, since we only had one size fishing wire, we did it based off of tension. If the strings are tighter, they can’t move as far, so they will vibrate back and forth faster. On the side of our instrument with the extra piece of wood, we just tied the fishing wire to the screws. On the side with the screws directly drilled into the base, we wrapped the other side of the wire in the threads of the screws. This way, we were able to change the tension that each piece of fishing wire had, giving it a range of frequency. Making blissful music. All in all, I would say that our group did very well together. We were very good at keeping on track and staying focused throughout the entire project. There were not many things that we disagreed on, making it much more of an easier and smoother ride. One thing that we as a group could have improved on is communicating. There were some instances where somebody was working on something that nobody knew about. Improving upon this will keep everybody a lot more comfortable about the project. One thing that I could have improved on was planning. On some things that I was working on, I just kind of went with the flow, and when I made a mistake, it set me back really far. Had I planned, I would have gotten things done in a much more efficient manner. |