Project Description
The project will involve studying music theory and the physics of music behind the notes and tones produced by a variety of musical instruments. This will also include the study of what makes combinations of notes and instruments sound good together. The group will then undertake the construction of a variety of musical instruments and use science equipment and musical training to analyze and compare the sounds produced by these instruments to theory and to professionally made instruments.
The group will aim to study and construct instruments from each major family of instruments including brass (bugle), string (ukulele), woodwind (flute), percussion (bells, djembe, xylophone, marimba, wind chime, tuning forks), and electric (guitar and computer software synthesizer). This variety of instruments will allow for the study of resonance, harmonics, effects of materials on tone, and differences in harmonic structure between instrument types.
The constructed instruments will be put on display for students to see and use in the physics of music units in high school and middle school physics. A musical composition will be written to incorporate and to highlight the musical instruments that have been created. There is also a hope that students would undertake the study of the physics and construction of their own instruments as an extension of this project initially with small band students to help them understand better how their instruments work. The VITAL grant should also lead to a cross-curricular course during the 2017-2018 spring semester where students will fully undertake all of the concepts from the grant.
To construct the instruments the group will need to learn a variety of techniques that will also be useful for other future projects including:
Casting brass, bronze, and pewter - will be used to create tuning forks, bells, and bars for a xylophone.
Project Results
This project resulted in a new Upper School elective class called Physics of Sound in which students design and create their own instruments.
