Musical Instruments (Build a Band)
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βFor this project, I worked with Toni, Rachel, and Isabella. We had to make three musical instruments: one string instrument, one wind instrument, and one percussion instrument. We made an acoustic guitar, a PVC flute, and a drum made out of large PVC pipes.
Concepts
Sound waves: Sound waves are a type of longitudinal wave. Longitudinal waves compress and expand the particles of the medium they are traveling through. We had to use sound wavelengths to cut the instruments to the right length. The guitar used 1/2 wavelengths, the drum used full wavelengths, and the flute used 1/4 wavelengths.
Wavelength: The distance from one point on a wave to the same point on the next wave. We used this to determine where to cut our strings and pipes.
Frequency: How many waves pass in a given amount of time. We used this to tune the instruments and make the right notes.
Wave speed: The velocity of a wave. This affected ho quickly we heard the notes.
Amplitude: The distance from the equilibrium (middle) of the wave to the crest (top). This determined how loud the note was.
Reflection
There were several things that went well during this project. First, there was nothing that went wrong with our drum. The building was smooth with no problems, the justification for it was the one that needed the least amount of changes, and it was finished on time. Second, our group worked very well together. Two of us worked on the drum, two of us worked on the flute, and we all contributed to the guitar. This made sure everyone was focused on something at all times, and it as an efficient way to get things done.
There were also things that did not go as well. The main problem was that the one person in our group that knows anything about music was sick for most of the project. The two of us were supposed to be working together, so I had to finish the flute and build a lot of the guitar by myself. Thankfully, she came back when we had to tune the instruments and we needed someone who could tell notes apart. There was also a last-minute problem with the guitar strings. The screws holding them in all popped out, and we had to come in at lunch on the last day of building to fix them and re-tune the guitar. Because of this, we only had time to tune one string. However, the guitar ended up functional, as well as the rest of the instruments.
Below are pictures of our instruments and a copy of our justification document
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Concepts
Sound waves: Sound waves are a type of longitudinal wave. Longitudinal waves compress and expand the particles of the medium they are traveling through. We had to use sound wavelengths to cut the instruments to the right length. The guitar used 1/2 wavelengths, the drum used full wavelengths, and the flute used 1/4 wavelengths.
Wavelength: The distance from one point on a wave to the same point on the next wave. We used this to determine where to cut our strings and pipes.
Frequency: How many waves pass in a given amount of time. We used this to tune the instruments and make the right notes.
Wave speed: The velocity of a wave. This affected ho quickly we heard the notes.
Amplitude: The distance from the equilibrium (middle) of the wave to the crest (top). This determined how loud the note was.
Reflection
There were several things that went well during this project. First, there was nothing that went wrong with our drum. The building was smooth with no problems, the justification for it was the one that needed the least amount of changes, and it was finished on time. Second, our group worked very well together. Two of us worked on the drum, two of us worked on the flute, and we all contributed to the guitar. This made sure everyone was focused on something at all times, and it as an efficient way to get things done.
There were also things that did not go as well. The main problem was that the one person in our group that knows anything about music was sick for most of the project. The two of us were supposed to be working together, so I had to finish the flute and build a lot of the guitar by myself. Thankfully, she came back when we had to tune the instruments and we needed someone who could tell notes apart. There was also a last-minute problem with the guitar strings. The screws holding them in all popped out, and we had to come in at lunch on the last day of building to fix them and re-tune the guitar. Because of this, we only had time to tune one string. However, the guitar ended up functional, as well as the rest of the instruments.
Below are pictures of our instruments and a copy of our justification document
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