Fluid Behaviors of Sound Waves
Sound is capable of being produced only if a medium is present. By this, I mean that, for there to be sound, there must be air. For a sound wave to be emitted by an instrument and be received by a listener, the instrument must excite the air around it and propagate its energy through the air, in the form of compression/longitudinal waves. When received by the listener, the waves pulse the eardrums with the same varying frequencies as they were emitted.
An instrument shakes to produce its tone
In instruments, air is excited and set into oscillation by vibrations. Instruments use such mechanisms as strings (violin and guitar), bars or rods (marimba and chimes and reeds), membranes (drum heads), plates or shells (cymbals or gongs), air in tubes (woodwinds and brass), or volumes of air enclosed in vessels (drum and string bodies) to produce vibrations.
Sound oscillations are created as the oscillating instrument vibrates a column of air and “bumps” the air that is within immediate proximity. This bump sends out a compression, also called longitudinal, waves in all directions.
The tone of a brass instrument is produced as a player contracts their embouchure and expels a jet of air in order to vibrate their lips, and thereby vibrate the air in the tubing of their horn.
The tone of reed instruments (single or double) is produced by holding a reed rigid and forcing air over, or through. When this happens, the reed vibrates, creating an oscillation.
The tone of flute instruments is produced when air blown over the mouthpiece hole excites surrounding particles. When the vibrations of these surrounding particles match the natural frequency of the instrument, the column of air inside the ins...
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...requency higher and into a higher row of harmonics.
How Does Any of this Relate to Music?
Okay, so I just spent the last several pages expressing fluid, energy, and math properties of how sound is put through air. But this essay is dedicated to the physics of music! Simply, none of the attributes of sound, as I have described them in the other pages in terms of physics, are not in any way musical. Music and physics really only have one point of connection, that music is made by manipulating the mechanics of air oscillations--how the signals are emitted by the instruments and received by the listeners. Music itself, however, is made by how the listener interprets or experiences those signals.
As stated in Levarie and Levy's, Tone, A study in Musical Acoustics, "Music is not 'something that happens in the air.' It is something that happens in the soul."
The Western concert flute was developed over the centuries from a simple end-blown flute to the current transverse flute. Transverse flutes are flutes that are held parallel to the floor. To play a transverse, the flutist directs the airstream across the mouth or blow hole and not directly into the instrument. The flute constitutes one of the most important instruments of the orchestra because of its high range, ability to blend in with other instruments and play the melody.
Woodwinds (clarinet, oboe, bassoon, etc.) are different from piano in that they require wind (created by the player) to create a tone (using a reed or reeds to create the vibrations needed for sound). In addition to using different techniques to make the reeds vibrate in different ways, the player also changes the tone (creates the notes) by pressing and releasing (using their fingers) keys that are attached along the length of the instrument, or by covering up, then opening, various holes on the instrument.
Most people are familiar with the word "music", however they barely consider the definition of it. After carefully think, everyone has their own opinions on this term and it is hard to have an uniform criterion of music sounds. According to the text book, Michael B. Bakan states five propositions to define the music. The first one is about the tone and the second one talks about the music is organized in some way. The next two are claims that music is human organized and a product of human intention and perception. The last proposition argues music cannot separate from Western culture. Among these propositions, I think the music is a product of human intention and perception is most interesting and worth to discuss. So I assert that the most
Wolfe, Joe. "How Do Woodwind Instruments Work?." Music Acoustics. 1994. 2014. Web. April 13, 2014. .
The mechanical motions of the ossicles directly vibrate a small membrane that connects to the fluid filled inner ear. From this point, vibration of the connective membrane (oval window) transforms mechanical motion into a pressure wave in fluid. This pressure wave enters and hence passes vibrations into the fluid filled structure called the cochlea. The cochlea contains two membranes and between these two membranes, are specialized neurons or receptors called Hair cells. Once vibrations enter the cochlea, they cause the lower membrane (basilar membrane) to move in respect to the upper membrane (i.e. --the tectorial membrane in which the hair cells are embedded). This movement bends the hair cells to cause receptor potentials in these cells which in turn cause the release of transmitter onto the neurons of the auditory nerve. In this case, the hair cell receptors are very pressure sensitive. The greater the force of the vibrations on the membrane, the more the hair cells bend and hence the greater the receptor potential generated by these hair cells.
Music is the most diverse form of art in existence. In modern days, some may view music as merely a bass heavy atmospheric tool for a night of clubbing and mischief, but despite this minority perspective, music is by no means purely background noise. Music is not only a beat, a rhythm, melody, lyrics, and a voice; it can change lives.
Music is far more than the sum of its parts. It can be thought of in a highly mathematical sense, which leaves one in awe of the seemingly endless combinations of rhythm, tone and intervals that a good musician can produce. Admiring music in this way is a lot like admiring an intricate snowflake, or shapes in the clouds; it's beautiful, but at the same time very scientific, based on patterns. All of the aforementioned qualities of music have one thing in common: they can be defined with numeric, specific values. However, the greatest aspect of music lies elsewhere, and cannot be specifically defined with words. It is the reaction that each individual has when they are confronted with their favorite (or least favorite) kind of music.
There is a growing body of work in the philosophy of music and musical aesthetics that has considered the various ways that music can be meaningful: music as representational (that is, musical depictions of persons, places, processes, or events); musical as quasi-linguistic reference (as when a musical figure underscores the presence of a character in a film or opera), and most especially, music as emotionally expressive. Here I will focus on the last topic, for I believe it will be useful for researchers in music perception and cognition to avail themselves of the distinctions that aestheticians have worked out regarding the musical expression of emotion.
Sounds are produced by the vibrations of material objects, and travel as a result of
The guitar is a typical string instrument, whose physics are similar to many other string instruments. The main parts consist of the body, the neck, the bridge, the tuning pegs, the sound hole, and the strings. An electric guitar lacks the sound hole and instead relies on an amp for amplification. The physics of a guitar involves sound waves, how they are amplified, and how they travel.
Long ago, during the 14th century, instruments were used as a form of entertainment and was the primary source of money for most musicians. Instruments, like ours today, were classified into groups, depending on tone, pitch, and how they were played. There were string instruments, such as lutes, mandolins, and early forms of guitars, woodwinds, an instrument played by blowing across the top, which included flutes, pipes, and recorders. Among these instruments, percussion instruments such as drums and small bells. Although the mediums used to create such wonderful items have varied, the style and basic idea of them has barely changed. Today, different string instruments have been developed such as the violin, cello, and bass. Music: Then Woodwinds have been evolved immensely from wooden and brittle to solid and metal. Reeds, small samples of wood that musicians have to keep moist, were included in some mouthpieces, such as bassoons, oboes, and clarinets, after the medieval era. Percussion instruments have changed size and shape as time has passed. In the middle ages, most drums were made out of hollow tree trunks, and covered with the skins of water animals to create a drum head. Nowadays, shells of drums are created by bent wood and fastened with a polyester shell to form the head. Instead of strings holding the skin in place, like they did long ago, the polyester is secured with a metal ring and knobs used...
Edgard Varèse’s Density 21.5 for unaccompanied flute was composed in 1936 (revised in 1944) at the request of George Barrère for the première of his new platinum flute.Inspired by the flute’s capabilities, Varèse sought to showcase the platinum instrument’s full range of sound and explore its timbral capacity. Density is a monophonic work that is characterized by extreme dynamics, angular motives, timbral variety, and complex rhythms. During the span of sixty-one measures, Varèse exploits the flute’s full range of sound and color and almost every pitch on the instrument is realized.
Physics is all around us, and yet we always overlook it. We see, hear or feel something happen, but never stop to question why. Physics will tell us why. Music plays a part in everyone's lives. So much so that it is often overlooked and the technicalities of it are unappreciated.
Sound is essentially a wave produced by a vibrating source. This compression and rarefaction of matter will transfer to the surrounding particles, for instance air molecules. Rhythmic variations in air pressure are therefore created which are detected by the ear and perceived as sound. The frequency of a sound wave is the number of these oscillations that passes through a given point each second. It is the compression of the medium particles that actually constitute a sound wave, and which classifies it as longitudinal. As opposed to transverse waves (eg. light waves), in which case the particles move perpendicular to the direction of the wave movement, the medium particles are moving in the same or opposite direction as the wave (Russell, D. A., 1998).
...te. In old times, most flutes were made of bamboo, which allowed even common people to play it. By covering the holes and blowing through the side hole while moving the fingers flexibly between the six holes, a sound will be produced that is leisurely and mellifluous like sound from far away. This always reminds people of a pastoral picture of a farmer riding on a bull while playing a flute