Table of Contents

the Physics of Music and Musical Instruments

• Table of Contents 2
• Introduction 3
• Chapter 1: Waves and Sound 7
• • Types of Waves 9
  • Wave Vocabulary 9
  • Sound Waves 10
  • • Characterizing Sound 11
    • • Speed of Sound 11
      • Pitch of Sound 12
      • Loudness of Sound 12
      • • Details about Decibels 13
        • Frequency Response of the Ear 14
        • ACTIVITY - Orchestral Sound 17
  • Wave Interference 20
  • ACTIVITY - Wave Interference 21
• Chapter 2: Resonance, Standing Waves, andMusical Instruments 22
• • Standing Waves 22
  • Introduction to Musical Instruments 27
  • Musical Instruments and Wave Impedance 28
• Chapter 3: Modes, Overtones, and Harmonics 29
• • Modes vs. Harmonics 29
  • Timbre, the Quality of Sound 30
  • Production of Overtones 31
  • ACTIVITY - Interpreting Musical Instrument Power Spectra 36
  • Thinking about Musical Scales 39
  • Beats 40
  • • Beats Movie 41
    • Critical Bands and Dissonance 41
• Chapter 4: Musical Scales 42
• • Consonance and Small Integer Frequency Ratios 43
  • • ACTIVITY - Consonance 46
  • A Survey of Historic Musical Scales 47
  • • The Pythagorean Scale 47
    • The Just Intonation Scale 49
    • Problems with Transposing Music in the Pythagorean and Just Scales 51
    • The Equal Temperament Scale 52
    • A Critical Comparison of Scales 54
    • Meantone Tuning 55
  • ACTIVITY - Create a Musical Scale 57
  • ACTIVITY - Evaluating Important Musical Scales 59
• Chapter 5: Chordophones (Stringed Instruments) 63
• • The First Mode of Vibration 64
  • Wave Speeds on Strings 64
  • Stringed Instrument Movie 66
  • Sound Production in Stringed Instruments 67
  • INVESTIGATION - The Guitar 68
  • PROJECT - Building a Three Stringed Guitar 72
• Chapter 6: Aerophones (Wind Instruments 74
• • The Mechanical Reed 75
  • Lip and Air Reeds 76
  • Open Pipe Wind Instruments 77
  • Closed Pipe Wind Instruments 78
  • The End Effect 80
  • Changing the Pitch of Wind Instruments 81
  • More about Brass Instruments 81
  • More about Woodwind Instruments 83
  • INVESTIGATION: - The Nose Flute 85
  • INVESTIGATION: - The Sound Pipe 88
  • INVESTIGATION: - The Toy Flute 91
  • INVESTIGATION - The Trumpet 93
  • PROJECT - Building a PVC Panpipe 98
• Chapter 7: Idiophones (Percussion Instruments) 99
• • Bars or Pipes with Both Ends Free 99
  • Bars or Pipes with One End Free 101
  • Toward a "Harmonic" Idiophone 102
  • Javanese Gamelan Movie 103
  • INVESTIGATION - The Harmonica 104
  • INVESTIGATION - The Music Box Action 109
  • PROJECT - Building a Copper Pipe Xylophone 112
• Textbook References 113
• Internet References 115
• Physics of Music Resource Vendors 117