Build a Band

Build A Band Description of Instrument

Song:

Our group originally opted to not make a song, simply because we felt like we didn't have enough time. However, we made a very last minute decision to include a song in our presentation because we realized a lot of people had managed to do it. We had the idea of playing the song "Hot Cross Buns," which we could all play successfully and in tune, but abandoned it after discovering another group was already playing the song. In our final presentation, we decided to show our abilities by all playing notes in a similar octave at the same time in hopes it would sound harmonious. Predictably, it didn't go as well as we'd hoped. We may have gotten a better grade if we stuck with playing "Hot Cross Buns," but I was still satisfied with our presentation despite this.

Overview Of Project

Our task when completing this project was to create 4 instruments that could play a range of 8 notes, or 1 octave. We then had the option to create a song using all the instruments together. We had to create a string instrument, woodwind instrument, or chimes instrument. My group settled on building a flute, harp, xylophone, and mandolin. We learned how the sounds were created and amplified, and we learned about the different materials that influenced the pitch. We first had to thoroughly plan each of our instruments in a blueprint, and then have them approved by the teachers. Additionally, we had to figure out the wavelengths of each note we wanted our instrument to play, and how it would translate onto our flute. The next step was to actually start the building process. My group went through many challenges, and we had to revise our designs a lot. After we finally got instruments that were functional, we then had to practice playing them together in a way that sounded good. This was a challenge because a lot of us either hadn't played music before or we didn't have fully functional instruments. We practiced several times before finally presenting each
of our instruments out in front of the class.

Content:

Wave Speed: The wave speed of a wave is essentially just how fast the wave travels, or its velocity. We learned that the wave speed of all sound waves travelling in air was all the same: around 760 miles per hour.
Natural Frequency: The concept of natural frequency means that each object or material already comes with a certain frequency. Each object vibrates differently when it is hit, which is why different materials in an instrument matter.
Refraction: Refraction is the bending of waves as they transition from one medium to another medium. There are many examples of this in everyday life. Light travels faster in air then it does in water, so it refracts between the two. This is why objects in water tend to appear shallower than they actually are. Sound also travels faster in warm air than it does in cold air, so sound can refract when the temperature changes.
Doppler Effect: The Doppler Effect is the concept that the frequency of a sound wave changes to an observer if the source is moving away from them. This can be shown with an ambulance or a classic race car noise. When the source of the sound is moving towards you, you can hear a higher pitched noise, and when it is moving away from you, you would hear a lower pitched noise.
Frequency: The frequency of a wave is the number of waves or vibration cycles that happen in one second. we used this in our Build A Band project because we realized that a higher frequency sound wave produced a higher pitched sound, and a lower frequency sound wave produced a lower pitched sound. The equation we used to find frequency was the wave speed divided by the wave length.
Amplitude: The amplitude of a wave is the distance between the midpoint of a wave to the maximum height it reaches. It is another word for the height of the wave. In sound waves, the amplitude of a wave determines how loud or soft the note was, so we had to figure out how to increase the amplitude to create a louder note.
Transverse wave: A transverse wave is a type of wave where the particles move perpendicular to the direction that energy is moving. Some common examples of this are ocean waves and light waves, both of which move up and down in a certain direction. There is no medium required for transverse waves, so they can travel through space. This is the reason why we can see the sun from so far away, because light can travel all the way through space to reach our atmosphere.
Longitudinal wave: This is the main type of wave that we used in our Build a Band project. It is a type of wave that moves similarly to a slinky, parallel to the energy travelling. Compressions are when the wave is compressed, and rarefactions are when the wave is more spread out. A longitudinal wave also requires a medium to travel, meaning it cannot travel through space. Sound waves are the most common type of longitudinal wave.
Electromagnetic Spectrum: The electromagnetic spectrum is the spectrum of all the different kinds of radiation in waves. A small portion of that is the visible light that we can see. The spectrum is organized by both frequency and wavelength. On one end are the waves that have a high frequency and low wavelength, and the other end has waves that have low frequencies and high wavelengths.

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These were some pictures of my blueprints of my instrument, and the process of building it.

Reflection

Two things I think I did well in this project were persistence and communication. My flute had a lot of issues that I needed to revise. I had to completely redo the flute at one point, and I spent a long time learning the appropriate finger placements to play notes, and troubleshooting when it didn't play as clear of a note as I'd hoped. I was good at persisting when something didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I used all my resources to understand the problem, what was causing it, and then figured out how to fix it. In this project, I was also very good at communicating with my group and making sure everyone's needs were met. There were multiple times where people in my group had somewhat conflicting opinions, and I was able to smooth things out and find compromises to keep the spirit of the group. I was able to come up with ideas that met the needs of everyone in the group.

Two things that I think I needed to improve on were advocating for my ideas more and doing more than my own part. In this project, I had a different goal in mind than the rest of the group in the sense that I wanted to try and complete all the extra credit opportunities we could. The rest of my group was content with simply trying their hardest to do what was asked, which I didn't see anything wrong with. Because of this I didn't push them to complete the extra credit, which I think would have definitely improved all of our grades. I think if I advocated for them more, as long as I did it in a respectful way, it definitely would have improved the outcome of this project. I also think that for this project specifically, I needed to improve on going the extra mile and helping my team members with their instruments more. I was gone a lot during this project because of robotics competitions, so I just didn't really have the chance to do more than my part of the project. Because of that, the responsibility helping the group with their instruments fell on one of my team members pretty significantly, and I should've done more to split the work more evenly. I tried to help with anyone's instruments whenever I could, but sometimes I did have to prioritize my own instrument when it wasn't functioning right.

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