The premise of this project was to create a set of instruments with our group. It had to be able to play a musical scale and we had to be able to explain how it worked. I created a brass instrument out of PVC pipe (alto horn) that was pitched in E♭. The other members of my group made a PVC saxophone, a set of chimes, and a violin.
My E♭ Alto Horn was constructed using PVC pipe. This instrument has 131.87 cm of tubing, so it theoretically would play a C4 when blown into In a brass instrument, the sound is produced by buzzing one’s lips to make a sound. I used an old trumpet mouthpiece that I had for this to make it easier and to make sure I was playing in the correct range. Brass instruments also have something called partials or harmonics. This means that a brass player can play multiple notes just by changing the way they buzz into the mouthpiece. These jumps in pitch often follow a sequence known as the harmonics series. This starts at a base note, and then moves to half the frequency (an octave), one third the original frequency, one fourth, one fifth, one sixth, and so on. Most brass instrument play in the octave between their one half partial and their one fourth partial, although some are different. On the instrument that I made, this partial is very unstable and I can play the notes of C3 to F3 on it (C3 because its wavelength is a multiple of the length of the tubing of my instrument). I found that the E♭3 was the easiest to play if I just relaxed, so I pitched the instrument in E♭. This makes it the alto voice of our ensemble. Of course I can’t only use my lips to play my instrument because I won’t be able to play the notes of a melody or scale. Because of this I made three tone holes on the instrument. Their lengths of tubing from the mouthpiece correspond with the wavelengths of the notes I wanted to produce. The nearest hole to the bottom is at 117 cm from the mouthpiece, the second hole is at 104 cm, and the third hole is at 98 cm. This makes me be able to play the notes of a major scale between a fifth. I can also raise the volume of the notes with my lips.
Note Frequency Wavelength Tube length
E♭3 155.56 221.77 131.87
F3 174.61 197.58 117.48
G3 196 176.02 104.66
A♭3 207.65 166.14 98.79
B♭3 233,08 148.02 88.01
C4 261.63 131.87 78.41
D4 293.66 117.48 69.85
E♭4 311.14 110.89 65.93
My E♭ Alto Horn was constructed using PVC pipe. This instrument has 131.87 cm of tubing, so it theoretically would play a C4 when blown into In a brass instrument, the sound is produced by buzzing one’s lips to make a sound. I used an old trumpet mouthpiece that I had for this to make it easier and to make sure I was playing in the correct range. Brass instruments also have something called partials or harmonics. This means that a brass player can play multiple notes just by changing the way they buzz into the mouthpiece. These jumps in pitch often follow a sequence known as the harmonics series. This starts at a base note, and then moves to half the frequency (an octave), one third the original frequency, one fourth, one fifth, one sixth, and so on. Most brass instrument play in the octave between their one half partial and their one fourth partial, although some are different. On the instrument that I made, this partial is very unstable and I can play the notes of C3 to F3 on it (C3 because its wavelength is a multiple of the length of the tubing of my instrument). I found that the E♭3 was the easiest to play if I just relaxed, so I pitched the instrument in E♭. This makes it the alto voice of our ensemble. Of course I can’t only use my lips to play my instrument because I won’t be able to play the notes of a melody or scale. Because of this I made three tone holes on the instrument. Their lengths of tubing from the mouthpiece correspond with the wavelengths of the notes I wanted to produce. The nearest hole to the bottom is at 117 cm from the mouthpiece, the second hole is at 104 cm, and the third hole is at 98 cm. This makes me be able to play the notes of a major scale between a fifth. I can also raise the volume of the notes with my lips.
Note Frequency Wavelength Tube length
E♭3 155.56 221.77 131.87
F3 174.61 197.58 117.48
G3 196 176.02 104.66
A♭3 207.65 166.14 98.79
B♭3 233,08 148.02 88.01
C4 261.63 131.87 78.41
D4 293.66 117.48 69.85
E♭4 311.14 110.89 65.93
Concepts
In order to do this project, we needed to learn about sound waves (we also learned about light waves at the same time). This meant that we became familiar with a lot of new terminology.
Longitudinal wave - A longitudinal wave is a wave with displacement in the same direction that it moves. It requires a medium to propagate.
Transverse wave - A transverse wave is a wave with displacement perpendicular to the direction that it moves. It does not require a medium to propagate.
Wave speed - The wave speed is the rate at which a wave travels. It can be found with the formula wave speed=wavelength X frequency.
Wavelength - The distance on a wave from crest to crest. It can be found by the formula wavelength=wave speed/frequency. In light, wavelength is responsible for the color of light. In sound, the wavelength is responsible for the pitch of the sound.
Frequency - The rate at which a wave moves. It can be found with the formula frequency=wave speed/wavelength.
Period - The time in between wave crests. It is the inverse of frequency.
Amplitude - The height of a wave measured from the median of its displacement to its crest. In light, amplitude is responsible for how bright it is. In sound, amplitude is responsible for the volume of it.
Longitudinal wave - A longitudinal wave is a wave with displacement in the same direction that it moves. It requires a medium to propagate.
Transverse wave - A transverse wave is a wave with displacement perpendicular to the direction that it moves. It does not require a medium to propagate.
Wave speed - The wave speed is the rate at which a wave travels. It can be found with the formula wave speed=wavelength X frequency.
Wavelength - The distance on a wave from crest to crest. It can be found by the formula wavelength=wave speed/frequency. In light, wavelength is responsible for the color of light. In sound, the wavelength is responsible for the pitch of the sound.
Frequency - The rate at which a wave moves. It can be found with the formula frequency=wave speed/wavelength.
Period - The time in between wave crests. It is the inverse of frequency.
Amplitude - The height of a wave measured from the median of its displacement to its crest. In light, amplitude is responsible for how bright it is. In sound, amplitude is responsible for the volume of it.
Reflection
This project was very fun for me. I learned a lot about waves and how they work. One thing that I think I did very well was incorporate former knowledge into this project. I have played music since I was in 4th grade, so I already knew a lot about instruments. I was able to incorporate that knowledge by making my instrument as simple as it needed to be. I knew that brass instruments had partials, so I was able to make my instrument play a full scale with only three tone holes. I played one partial and then used the tone holes to play the first four notes of the scale, and then I switched partials and played the rest of the scale on the second partial. I think that this is a good way of incorporating previous knowledge into a project. Another thing that I did well was work with my group. We had to be able to coordinate what we were doing with all our own instruments so that we made a band that could play together and that it sounded good. There were also some things that I could improve on. One of these is doing more research before I start building. In this project, I didn't do enough research before putting together the instrument, so it ended up in a lot of trial and error and redesigning. In the next project, I want to make sure that all the research that I need to do is done. The second thing that I need to improve on is our presentation. Our current presentation was just showing how the instruments worked and then playing a little. in the future, I want to play a song with the band that we created.