Build a Band

Intro: This paper will explain how sound works, how it is transmitted, and how it is produced
from three different types of instruments. Sound is a wave that is known as a longitudinal wave.
These waves consist of expansions and rarefactions. The different pitches of the sounds you
hear is the different frequencies. The higher the frequency, the closer together the sound
compressions. This makes a higher pitched noise. The lower the frequency, the farther apart the
sound compressions. This produces a lower pitched noise. Sound is produced from vibrations.
In wind instruments, the vibrations come from the player blowing into a reed which vibrates and
makes noise. In a string instrument, the vibrations come from the player plucking the strings and
making them vibrate back and forth. The frequencies in string instrument are dependent on the
tension in the string. The tighter the string, the faster it vibrates back and forth, which produces
a higher frequency.

Wind: For our wind instrument, we built a PVC imitation of a clarinet. It was made by cutting a
piece of PVC pipe to the proper length for our notes, drilling holes in the side in a rough line
on one side, and bore the in interior diameter of the pipe on one side to a diameter of in.
We also brought a clarinet mouthpiece to start the vibration of our instrument using its reed. Our
group calculated the location of the holes by calculating of the wavelength for each note.
Then we had to adjust the location of the holes on our current version to more accurately match
notes due to human error and the PVC pipes natural frequency. Each hole for each wavelength
is the wavelength due way this wind instrument making sound by creating a high pressure
area in the instrument which is move to the normal pressure of the air. This makes it the
wavelength and the different notes caused by the air being relieved to normal pressure at

shorter and longer points

Strings: In this project we built an upright bass for our string instrument. We built it out of
plywood and 2x4s. The strings were heavy duty fishing line. The way that you change note is
by putting your finger on the strings, decreasing the length of the string and increasing the
frequency. Plucking the string will cause the string to vibrate back and forth, disrupting the air
around the string, allows for longitudinal waves to be produced, also known as sound waves.
The note produced will depend on the length and tension of the string. The length is equal to
half of the wavelength. This is because one pluck will cause the vibrate back and forth at half of
a wavelength, which is all that is needed to produce a wave
Note Frequency (Hz) Wavelength (cm) Estimated length of
string (cm)

B2 123.47 279.42 103.5

C3 130.81 263.74 99.3

D3 146.83 234.96 88.9

E3 164.81 209.33 79

F3 174.61 197.58 74.5

G3 196 176.02 66.1

A3 220 156.82 59.5

B3 246.63 139.87 52.2

C4 261.63 131.87 50

Percussion: We chose to build a xylophone for our percussion instrument in this project. We
built a series of PVC tubes at different lengths that produced different notes. Different notes
were produced from the length of the tubes because each tube is the exactly the length of the
wavelength. We made each tube of the wavelength because the wavelength is at its highest
displacement at this point. Our percussion instrument works similarly to a wind instruments by
making a high pressure zone and moving the air to a low pressure zone. Allowing a noise to be
made. Our percussion instrument has a scale of E5 to G3.
Note Frequency (Hz) Wavelength (cm) Estimated length of
tube (cm)

G3 196 176.02 44

A3 220 156.82 39.2

B3 246.94 139.71 34.92

C4 261.63 131.87 32.96

D4 293.66 117.48 29.37

E4 329.63 104.66 26.1

F4 349.23 98.79 24.69

G4 392 88.01 22

A4 440 78.41 19.6

B4 493.88 69.85 17.46

C5 523.25 65.93 16.48

D5 587.33 58.74 14.68

E5 659.25 52.33 13

Drums: Our drum set is made of a plywood table and plastic buckets. One of the plastic buckets
is covered in duct tape which vibrates less because it has less natural frequency than the
bucket itself. One of our drums is just the bucket. Our next drum is a bucket with a aluminum
sheet over it. We were hoping to replicate a snare drum with sheet metal and a half circle of
cardboard to absorb the metal sounding noise. Our last drum is a bass drum. It makes a deeper
noise because it has a fatter surface and the duct tape has a very low natural frequency and
that makes it have a bass sound. The next part of our drum is our cymbal. The thing that makes
it sound like a cymbal is the natural frequency of the metal. The metal has a high natural
frequency which means it vibrates more than the duct tape. The last part of our drum is the table

which is available at IKEA.