Musical Sound Waves Project Blog

Summary:
Sound waves are what makes it so we are able to hear people talking,hear music, and anything along the lines of hearing. Sound waves are made up of vibrations and these vibrations are converted in your ear into electric/chemical signals so your brain is able to understand them. Now that you know a bit about how sound waves lets talk about how to make use of them. A classic example is an instrument. Instruments use vibrations to be able to turn notes into sound waves. When making an instrument the key thing to make sure happen is you can hold a vibration because sound can never be produced without vibrations.  Instruments use this vibration and by covering different holes channels those vibrations in different ways to make our different notes.

Backwards Looking: What problems did you encounter while you were working on this piece? How did you solve them?: 
When we were creating the instrument a main problem was that the mouth piece which is the component in making a vibration had nothing in it that was able to create such a vibration. It was completely flat originally meaning when we would try and breath into it it would just be blowing air into a wall. Then we looked at how a flute works which has a similar mouthpiece to our bass flute and saw that the side you blow into has an edge to it which makes it so when it breaks the air a vibration occurs. Once we shaved this edge into the mouthpiece it was then able to pick up sound.

Inward Looking: How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work?:
I felt quite confident about this piece of work. It holds a solid and in tune note as you play it. In particular with the PVC pipe bass flute I enjoy its sound. It has a deep and dark sound making it quite unlike any other instrument I have played before. Some thing I did dislike however is the amount of air to power this instrument can be quite demanding at times making it especially when more holes are covered harder to hold a tone for long.

Outward Looking:Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar?:
In comparison to other groups I believe the process of making the instrument was quite different. Many groups relied on class time to construct out instrument while our group had the plan that the construction of the instrument due to its materials size would be done outside of class. While some groups took days on end to be able to complete their instrument just using class time for us we busted it out in a single sitting. I believe the process of getting the different components done was quite similar. I had seen many groups also split off just as we had to be able to work on different components of the deliverable. I believe everyone grew to understand that the best way to complete this chunk of work was to well distribute it.

Forward Looking:What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again?.:
If I had the chance to do this piece over again I would of course have better knowledge on why originally our instrument wasn't working. This was due to it having no angled side so when you blew into it it would do nothing. Also I would like to practice more making solid notes and being able to change notes easier. I felt our song would have been much more solid if we had cleaner transistions between notes.

Creating an Instrument

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Summary: In building an instrument I can say there are three main components to make sure it works. One, Holding a Vibration. Sound is just a vibration of molecules and if you don't create a situation in which (in reference to wind instruments) that you don't produce a vibration when you blow into the mouth piece you won't make a sound when you try and play. Next we have creating a scale. When you make an instrument its all fine and dandy when you can make it produce a note but instruments are about being able to produce a range of notes of course to make the end goal of making a song. Then finally measurements. Measurements are what make or break an instrument. Making an instrument is about being extremely precise and if your measurements are off that you have just created a completely different thing then you were intending. Being accurate when you measure and holding true to those measurements insures that things work.

S&EP: Conducting Investigations:
Sadly since I am not yet a master instrument crafter you do have a level or variables when making an instrument. You have to really investigate while you craft and test to see if you can make those three main components I mentioned above. You also at times must conduct investigations by looking at things similar to yours. For example we looked at a flute mouth piece when we were in the process of making a bass flute because the way of producing a vibration is the same. Once you have conducted investigations and taken from them you go back to the creation process and use what you have learned.

XCC: Cause and Effect:
Now we have been talking about how precise this process can get and how any small chances can totally throw off the outcome. I'm going to say now this is not an understatement and an inch as we may think of it means a lot more in this fine crafting world. Another cause and effect process you will see a lot of is how an instrument is played. Let me give you the lowdown on how a bass flute works. First off you will blow across the hole in the mouth piece. The air from your breathing will go into the hole and vibrate the instrument. That vibration will keep on passing along. Then if you have your fingers down on the lower holes that change your notes you will get different notes and finally the sound is releases and we can hear the exact sound it produces.