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. Sure there are times when we listen carefully to the music behind the songs we hear, we may focus on the rhythm or the harmonies, but we never think of what it took to make the sounds that we are hearing. In this paper, I will explain the physics musical instruments. I will describe and define sound in psychics terms and then describe how different instruments create their unique sounds.
There are so many different kinds of music, and thanks to the variety of instruments the combinations of sounds that we can make are limitless. Before we look at musical instruments we have to look at music itself. We need to know what it is made of and learn some basic terms.
In physics, music is essentially a form of energy and is transferred by a wave. There are two basic kinds of waves. The first is a transverse wave where the medium vibrates at a right angle up and down causing the wave to move to the right. A compressional wave (or longitudinal wave) moves to the right and left because the medium vibrates in the same direction. Sound waves take the form of compressional waves and are caused by vibrations. Sound waves are distinguished by their speed, pitch, loudness and quality (timbre) (Lapp, 2003).
There are a few parts of sounds waves that we should be familiar with to better be able to understand the physics of music. The crest is the highest point of a wave, while the trough is the lowest. The wavelength of a wave is the distance between two adjacent ...
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...s of physics makes it so much more awe-striking.
References
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Henderson, T. (2011). Musical Instruments- Resonance. The Physics Classroom. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from www.physicsclassroom.com/class/sound/U11L5a.cfm
Hollis, B. (2011) How Brass Instruments Work. The Method Behind the Music. Retrieved November 25, 2011 from http://method-behind-the-music.com/mechanics/brass
Lapp, D. (2003). The Physics of Music and Musical Instruments. Physics. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from http://staff.tamhigh.org/lapp/book.pdf
Tillery, B. (2012). Wave Motions and Sound. Physical science (9th ed., pp. 115-134). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
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
The Helmholtz resonance of a guitar is due to the air at the sound hole oscillating, driven by the springiness of the air inside the body. This is analysed quantitatively in Helmholtz Resonance.
Wolfe, Joe. "How Do Woodwind Instruments Work?." Music Acoustics. 1994. 2014. Web. April 13, 2014. .
The inner workings of the turntable may seem complex at first but after reading this paper it should become clear that, like all things, the record player works on basic principals of physics. In fact, the turntable is remarkable in that the basic physical principles behind it are quite simple. Some of these will be explored here. Please enjoy your visit.
momentum transfer when air molecules collide. Our ‘subjective impression’ about the frequency of a sound is called pitch. High pitch has high vibration frequency, while low pitch has a low vibration frequency. A pure musical tone consists of a single pitch or frequency. However, most musical tones are “complex summations” of various pure frequencies - one characteristic frequency, called the fundamental, and a series of overtones or harmonics Younger people can usually hear pitches with frequencies from about 20 hertz (infrasonic) to 20,000 (ultrasonic) hertz. We can’t hear above 20,000 hertz or below 20 hertz (ultra and infrasonic waves).
The vibration of the strings of a guitar causes the sound wave, but is not actually what you are hearing. The amplification of the sound wave is what is actually heard. The differences in the tension of the stings and the mass of the strings affect the pitch of the sound produced. The ends of each string are nodes, or where the wave does not travel from its initial position. The note you hear from the string is actually the first harmonic of the wave; other harmonics created when plucking a string form the undertones and overtones of a note. The waves on a guitar string are transverse waves, meaning they travel perpendicular to the original position. The waves are also standing waves, because they remain in the same position.
Music has shaped the lives of people throughout history. Even in its earliest forms, music has included use of instruments. One of the oldest musical instruments known is a variation of the flute; the original flute is thought to date back nearly 67,000 years ago. Tonight we are going to move throughout the eras with a history of instrumental music. This concert will begin with the Renaissance Era and continue through time until we have reached modern instrumental music.
Wendkos, Zach. “The Evolution of the Electric Guitar”. 21 May 2010. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
It has been scientists' belief that music must have been present in the ancestral population prior to the dispersal of humans around the world. Therefore it is believed that music must have been in existence for at least 50,000 years, with the first music being invented in Africa and then evolving into becoming a fundamental constituent of human life. Any culture of music is influenced by the aspect of their culture, including their social and economic organization, climate, and access to technology. People express their emotions and ideas through their music. Music expresses the situations and how music is listened to and played. The attitude towards music players and composers varies between regions and periods of history. Music history" is the distinct subfield of musicology and history which studies music (particularly western art music) from a chronological perspective. ("History of Music")
According to dictionary.com, music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, and color.” Music is the product of sound waves coming from anything making a melodic tone. There are different genera’s of music, ranging from rock to pop to classical. Each person likes different genera’s of music.
Music is made with many different kinds of instruments and/or your voice. Some of those instruments are: guitars, violins, flutes, drums, and many new electrical instruments.
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).
Speaking of how the human ear receives music, sound is produced by vibrations that transmits energy into sound waves, a form of energy in which human ears can respond to and hear. Specifically, there are two different types of sound waves. The more common of the two are the transversal waves, which ...