Build a Band

Content

At the beginning of this project, we started by learning about how wave lengths work and the different types, longitudinal and transverse waves. We discussed the relationship between wave speed, wave length and frequency and then later on made a hypothesis about whether that relationship is proportional or inversely proportional. Another experiment we did involved a toy slinky. Mr. Williams and a volunteer student stood far away from each other with the slinky stretched out between them. Next Mr. Williams would move the slinky in a way the represented a wavelength.

When we started talking about the instruments we were going to build, we learned that vibrations are the source of sound, and sound requires a medium for it to travel. Sounds are different when traveling through different mediums, and sound moves faster in more elastic materials. Another part of our instrument we talked about was amplification and how to make our instrument louder. The string instrument I made amplifies its sound through the table (a different material) when it is placed on top of the desk.

Designing the string instrument, I used a table showing all the string lengths for each note. To get the length of string you needed, you would take the length it gave you and split it in half to get the length needed for your specific note. Within our instruments we needed eight different notes. The notes included in my instrument were C4 through C5. I also needed to figure out how thick or thin I wanted my strings to be. The thicker the string, the lower the notes and the thinner the string, the higher higher notes. The string is hot glued to a screw and when I want to tune my instrument I either tighten or loosen the string to the right amount. Tightening the screw tightens the tension on the string, which also affects the sound.

Evidence of Work

Reflection

I had a lot of fun with this project and I picked the string instrument because I have tried to play guitar before and a few family members are learning at the moment. Now I can tell them how the guitar works and why it sounds a certain way. I never knew about why the guitar strings were a certain length and why they are a certain thickness. Now I know that the strings have to be a certain length for each note it is intended to play and the string thickness and tension play a part on how high or low the note is. I had a few problems with my instrument at first because I picked notes and did the calculations for them and when I actually looked at how long the string would have to be, I changed the notes because I could not find a piece of wood that would fit the size of string. When making the the string length and finding the spots on the board you have to be very conscientious or you will not get the right note. I had to redo my string placement a few times until I got it just right and same thing when tuning the instrument, you have to get it just right.

Nearing the end of this project we had a problem. School was shutting down because of the global pandemic COVID- 19 and most of us were not able to finish our projects before it was shut down. I believe our group collaborated well even through this bump in the road. I had one of our group members numbers because we are really close friends but we did not have our third groups member's number. We found and communicated with him about the song part of this project. I really enjoyed this project and how it went even though we had some complications we still got our work done.