musical instruments/build a band
The title of the project says it all! Within our groups, we had to build three to four musical instruments of our own design or based on previously existing insruments. These instruments had to be either percussion (such as drums), stringed (such as a violin), wind (like a trumpet, saxophone, etc) or a chime instrument. As a group of five, we had to chose four to build; we ended up deciding on a guitar, a pan flute, hanging wooden chimes, and a set of simple drums. Each instrument we created also had to play a full octave of notes (see below for a definition of octave).
Each member of our group managed a different instrument:
Guitar: Rachel built the guitar myself from scratch. Rachel started by cutting the shape of the body (the top/soundboard and bottom) of the instrument out of thin sheets of wood. Next, she cut and shaped the sides of the guitar (with steam and lots of patience and a few cracks in the wood). She formed a hole in the top of the guitar and glued the sides to the body. Once the second member of our group had finished making the neck, she attached that as well, along with thin strips of wire as frets. She carved the head of the guitar out of another piece of wood and used large eyelet screws as tuning pegs, to which she attached various sizes of fine wire and fishing line as strings. Before finishing the instrument, she stained the wood and tied/glued the other end to the bridge of the guitar. Finally, she tuned the strings to the right notes (E, A, D, G, B, E respectively) and fixed a few minor problems.
High Points- The guitar was a fun instrument to build. The materials Rachel built it out of were lightweight and relatively thin, making it very easy to work with. In the end, the instrument looked very nice and played fairly well, alought it was not as loud as a regular guitar. We also didn't 'cheat' and use parts from an existing stringed instrument, which we were pretty proud of.
Low Points- There were a lot of low points with this one. The shape of the guitar was fairly hard to pull off because she chose a normal guitar form, unlike a simple box shape many other groups were doing. The glue she was working with also inexplicably melted- resulting in a bit of a disaster that required all the superglue she had. The instrument itself also broke many times (and currently is sitting forlorn on my project table, still not fixed. Oops. Sorry Mr. Williams.) The strings had trouble staying on the tuning pegs, and the tuning pegs had trouble staying in place when the guitar was actually tuned correctly. All in all, she lost a lot of motivation to finish the build when she realized the low points seemed to outweigh the high points.
Pan Flute- The second member of my group handled the build of the wind instrument. He's a little b(censored). His instrument consisted of various lengths of tubes (that each produced different notes), bound together. He cut copper pipes to various sizes using the method described in the document at the bottom of the page. These were then connected using strong apoxy. The bottom of each tube was blocked off so the air blown across the top of the pipe would produce sound. To finish it off, Rachel polished the metal and fixed a minor break.
High Points- When played correctly, the flute sounded beautiful and produced the notes we wanted it to (usually). It looked pleasing to the eye and functioned well. It was a fairly easy build and did not take a long time, unlike some of the other instruments.
Low Points- The glue holding the bottom of the tubes closed didn't seem to dry for a long.. long time. This wasn't necessarily a huge problem, but it sometimes changed the pitch of a particular tube or created questionable, sticky messes if it dripped out of the flute. Like the guitar, the flute also broke several times- once it snapped in half on accident, once it was somewhat intentionally broken (thanks group member two). In the end, two of the tubes also somehow played the same note as well, which was never fixed.
Wood Chimes- The third person of our team crafted the chimes. They consisted of blocks of wood suspended from a frame, and produced sound when struck by another object. She made these by first cutting the blocks of wood to the correct length and dimensions (see the below document). The frame was created by screwing together scrap pieces of wood. She then drilled holes through the top of each block and hung them from the frame. Lastly, a thin piece of string was wound around the blocks to keep them from hitting each other when struck.
High Points- Like many of the other instruments, it functioned very nicely. It produced an octave of notes clearly and precisely and was an interesting take on the concept of chimes, since many aren't wooden. The person who created them did a great job both wth painting them and making sure each block produced the correct note.
Low Points- There weren't many low points at all on this instrument. It wasn't terribly loud compared to the metal chimes, but it still functioned well.
Drums- The percussion was built by the fourth group member, assisted by the fifth group member. They started by using a 4 inch in diameter pvc pipe cut into eight different pieces. Then they stretched pieces of tarp over the tops to create the head of the drums. The skin was held down by string tied around the base of each drum; the tension of each drum could be adjusted by twisting said string on the bottom of each. Finally, by trial and error everybody helped to adjust the drums to the correct notes.
High Points- The drums worked fairly efficiently and almost as well as actual drums when tuned right. They were basic and simple enough to build all eight, one for every note in the octave.
Low Points- The drums were hard to tune and correct, and there was much trial and error involved in trying to get them accurate enough. They quickly fell out of tune, so they had to be heavly adjusted every time we played them. The skin also stretched a bit, making it difficult to fix and play.
Concepts:
Frequency- The number of sound waves per second. This can be, for example, how fast something vibrates- such as our chimes when they were struck.
Period- The time it takes for a sound wave to pass.
Wavelength- The total distance from the crest of one sound wave to the next. In equations this is represented by the symbol λ.
Octave- A set of eight notes, with the last note having twice the frequency of the first. An octave can include any of the following notes: c,
c#, d, e♭, e, f, f#, g, a♭, a, b♭, b, and c.
Percussion Instruments- a group of instruments played by striking parts of the instrument with another object. This can be a drum, cymbals, gongs, etc.
Chimes- Similar to percussion instruments, but having a wider range of notes.
Stringed Instruments: Any of a group of instruments that are played by plucking or strumming a group of strings to produce melodies.
Wind Instruments- Instruments that use the vibration of air to produce sound, often by the player blowing into said instrument.
Rating- 2/5. This project was fun for a little while, but it quickly turned into a bit of a fiaso. From arguments among our group members to instruments breaking constantly to everyone getting frustrated and scrolling through Tumblr instead of building, it was a bit of a mess. However it was interesting to study how musical instruments functioned and to have a chance at making our own.
Each member of our group managed a different instrument:
Guitar: Rachel built the guitar myself from scratch. Rachel started by cutting the shape of the body (the top/soundboard and bottom) of the instrument out of thin sheets of wood. Next, she cut and shaped the sides of the guitar (with steam and lots of patience and a few cracks in the wood). She formed a hole in the top of the guitar and glued the sides to the body. Once the second member of our group had finished making the neck, she attached that as well, along with thin strips of wire as frets. She carved the head of the guitar out of another piece of wood and used large eyelet screws as tuning pegs, to which she attached various sizes of fine wire and fishing line as strings. Before finishing the instrument, she stained the wood and tied/glued the other end to the bridge of the guitar. Finally, she tuned the strings to the right notes (E, A, D, G, B, E respectively) and fixed a few minor problems.
High Points- The guitar was a fun instrument to build. The materials Rachel built it out of were lightweight and relatively thin, making it very easy to work with. In the end, the instrument looked very nice and played fairly well, alought it was not as loud as a regular guitar. We also didn't 'cheat' and use parts from an existing stringed instrument, which we were pretty proud of.
Low Points- There were a lot of low points with this one. The shape of the guitar was fairly hard to pull off because she chose a normal guitar form, unlike a simple box shape many other groups were doing. The glue she was working with also inexplicably melted- resulting in a bit of a disaster that required all the superglue she had. The instrument itself also broke many times (and currently is sitting forlorn on my project table, still not fixed. Oops. Sorry Mr. Williams.) The strings had trouble staying on the tuning pegs, and the tuning pegs had trouble staying in place when the guitar was actually tuned correctly. All in all, she lost a lot of motivation to finish the build when she realized the low points seemed to outweigh the high points.
Pan Flute- The second member of my group handled the build of the wind instrument. He's a little b(censored). His instrument consisted of various lengths of tubes (that each produced different notes), bound together. He cut copper pipes to various sizes using the method described in the document at the bottom of the page. These were then connected using strong apoxy. The bottom of each tube was blocked off so the air blown across the top of the pipe would produce sound. To finish it off, Rachel polished the metal and fixed a minor break.
High Points- When played correctly, the flute sounded beautiful and produced the notes we wanted it to (usually). It looked pleasing to the eye and functioned well. It was a fairly easy build and did not take a long time, unlike some of the other instruments.
Low Points- The glue holding the bottom of the tubes closed didn't seem to dry for a long.. long time. This wasn't necessarily a huge problem, but it sometimes changed the pitch of a particular tube or created questionable, sticky messes if it dripped out of the flute. Like the guitar, the flute also broke several times- once it snapped in half on accident, once it was somewhat intentionally broken (thanks group member two). In the end, two of the tubes also somehow played the same note as well, which was never fixed.
Wood Chimes- The third person of our team crafted the chimes. They consisted of blocks of wood suspended from a frame, and produced sound when struck by another object. She made these by first cutting the blocks of wood to the correct length and dimensions (see the below document). The frame was created by screwing together scrap pieces of wood. She then drilled holes through the top of each block and hung them from the frame. Lastly, a thin piece of string was wound around the blocks to keep them from hitting each other when struck.
High Points- Like many of the other instruments, it functioned very nicely. It produced an octave of notes clearly and precisely and was an interesting take on the concept of chimes, since many aren't wooden. The person who created them did a great job both wth painting them and making sure each block produced the correct note.
Low Points- There weren't many low points at all on this instrument. It wasn't terribly loud compared to the metal chimes, but it still functioned well.
Drums- The percussion was built by the fourth group member, assisted by the fifth group member. They started by using a 4 inch in diameter pvc pipe cut into eight different pieces. Then they stretched pieces of tarp over the tops to create the head of the drums. The skin was held down by string tied around the base of each drum; the tension of each drum could be adjusted by twisting said string on the bottom of each. Finally, by trial and error everybody helped to adjust the drums to the correct notes.
High Points- The drums worked fairly efficiently and almost as well as actual drums when tuned right. They were basic and simple enough to build all eight, one for every note in the octave.
Low Points- The drums were hard to tune and correct, and there was much trial and error involved in trying to get them accurate enough. They quickly fell out of tune, so they had to be heavly adjusted every time we played them. The skin also stretched a bit, making it difficult to fix and play.
Concepts:
Frequency- The number of sound waves per second. This can be, for example, how fast something vibrates- such as our chimes when they were struck.
Period- The time it takes for a sound wave to pass.
Wavelength- The total distance from the crest of one sound wave to the next. In equations this is represented by the symbol λ.
Octave- A set of eight notes, with the last note having twice the frequency of the first. An octave can include any of the following notes: c,
c#, d, e♭, e, f, f#, g, a♭, a, b♭, b, and c.
Percussion Instruments- a group of instruments played by striking parts of the instrument with another object. This can be a drum, cymbals, gongs, etc.
Chimes- Similar to percussion instruments, but having a wider range of notes.
Stringed Instruments: Any of a group of instruments that are played by plucking or strumming a group of strings to produce melodies.
Wind Instruments- Instruments that use the vibration of air to produce sound, often by the player blowing into said instrument.
Rating- 2/5. This project was fun for a little while, but it quickly turned into a bit of a fiaso. From arguments among our group members to instruments breaking constantly to everyone getting frustrated and scrolling through Tumblr instead of building, it was a bit of a mess. However it was interesting to study how musical instruments functioned and to have a chance at making our own.