Wind Instrument

Saxophone

This instrument creates a vibration to make its sound. Your lips create a vibration when
you blow into it. Those vibrations then create the sound. There are holes placed throughout the
saxophone to create different wavelengths as show in the table below. You can press the keys
to release the air so it will place a certain note. For a wind instrument the wavelength is divided
by four to find the wavelength for the saxophone. This happens because the air pressure is the
greatest at the top of the instrument and it reduces to a neutral pressure when it reaches the
open end of the instrument. We also used an amplification method to make the instrument
louder. This instrument originally didn’t have a curve and a funnel. We added a curve and a
funnel because it can amplify the sound. Wind instruments are directional so the curve at the
bottom and send the noise up instead of down into the ground. The funnel can help direct the
noise towards the listener so it will amplify the noise. This instrument can play from C​4​ to C​ 5​ with
sharps and flats.​It uses a balloon like a reed so when you blow into the instrument the balloon
vibrates creating a saxophone sound.

Note Wavelength (cm) Frequency (Hz) Wavelength for

Saxophone (cm)

C​4 131.87 261.63 33

C​#​4 124.47 277.18 31

D​4 117.48 293.66 29.25

E​b​4 110.89 311.13 27.75

E​4 104.66 329.63 26.25

F​4 98.79 349.23 24.75

F​#​4 93.24 369.99 23.25

G​4 88.01 392.00 22

A​b​4 83.07 415.30 20.75

A​4 78.41 440.00 19.5

B​b​4 74.01 466.16 18.5

B​4 69.85 493.88 17.5

C​5 65.93 523.25 16.5

 String Instrument

Guitar

String instruments create sound by using the vibration of a string. The string is plucked
by the player causing it to make a sound. The sound becomes higher in pitch as the string
becomes shorter and the sound becomes lower pitch as the string becomes longer.A bottler is
used to amplify the sound. The sound vibrates the bottle as well which causes the sound to
become louder. Our instrument can play C​4​,D​4​,E​4​,F​4​,G​4​,A​4​,B​4​, and C​5​. We found the lengths of
string to play these notes by taking the notes wavelength and halving it, because the wave goes
through the string then bounces back doubling the length. We then put marks on the instrument
so we could know where to stop the string so that it would play a different note. The table below
displays the original wavelength of each note and how it was changed to make the string length.

Note Original Wavelength String length(½ of

wavelength)

C​4 131 cm 65.5 cm

D​4 117 cm 58.5 cm

E​4 104 cm 52 cm

F​4 98 cm 49 cm

G​4 88 cm 44 cm

A​4 78 cm 39 cm

B​4 70 cm 35 cm

C​5 66 cm 33 cm
 Chime Instrument

Rudimentary Harpsichord/Piano

Chime instruments create sound by using the natural frequency of the material being
used. When a material is hit, it creates vibrations, and depending on the natural frequency of the
material, different sounds will be made. Every material has its own natural frequency, and its
affected by everything about that material, length, thickness, width, etc. Our chime instrument
made the sounds using vibrations, but also added in the extra step of rotating pieces around an
axis when a key was pressed, making a very rudimentary “piano”, more like a harpsichord. This
instrument hit flat chimes, that were on foam pieces, quickly with a small ball bearing attached
to a piece of wood. The foam and a quick hit lets the chime vibrate and bring out its natural
frequency. Because the difference between all chimes vary by such a large margin, including
the width, length, and thickness of the chime, the equation to find how long the chimes should
be cut to isn’t traditional, you have to cut a reference piece first, find the note that it is, then use
a multiplier to find the intervals to the next note. My instrument made notes covering from C​6​ to
C​7​, the table below covers how large the chime pieces were, the original wavelength, and the
frequency of the note.

Above: Photos of piano with closed lid, and open lid+aerial view

(note: the actual chime length is slightly different from the theoretical chime length because of
various reasons such having no great way to get chime lengths as notes)
(side note: drastically different is more accurate)

Note Wavelength of Frequency Multiplier Chime Length

Note

C​6 32.97 cm 1046.50 Hz 3/2 (*8 cm) 9.7 cm

D​6 29.37 cm 1174.66 Hz 4/3 (*8 cm) 9.2 cm

E​6 26.17 cm 1318.51 Hz 5/4 (*8 cm) 8.7 cm

 F​6 24.70 cm 1396.91 Hz 9/8 (*8 cm) 8.4 cm

G​6 22.00 cm 1567.98 Hz 1 (*8 cm) 8.0 cm (reference)

A​6 19.60 cm 1760.00 Hz 8/9 (*8 cm) 7.5 cm

B​6 17.46 cm 1975.53 Hz 4/5 (*8 cm) 7.1 cm

C​7 16.48 cm 2093.00 Hz 3/4 (*8 cm) 6.8 cm

https://www.scribd.com/doc/224242383/Let-It-Go-C-major

https://www.scribd.com/documentt/271​707735/Let-It-Go-Alto-Sa

Wind Instrument #2

Recorder

The recorder is an instrument that makes the air vibrate by splitting it. The way the
instrument splits the air is by blowing air on to a wedge which then makes the air go into the
instrument and half the air to slide on top of the instrument. To produce different notes, the
instrument has a pipe connected to the mouthpiece. When the sound wave goes through the
pipe and out of the pipe there is different areas of air pressure which changes the sound. To
create multiple notes with one pipe the instrument has holes on the pipe which lets the air out
early which then acts as if the pipe was shorter. To find where to put the holes on the
instrument, you must divide the wavelength of that note by four. This is length of how long the
pipe will be for that note. An example of this is that note C6 has a wavelength of 32.97cm. When
you use do 32.97cm/4 you get 8.24cm.

Note Wavelength(cm) Pipe length(cm)

F6 24.7 6.18

E​b​6 27.72 6.93

D6 29.37 7.34

D​b​6 31.12 7.78

C6 32.97 8.24

B5 34.93 8.73
 A5 39.20 9.8

G5 44.01 11

Music
The sound plays light on the instrument tonight
Not a wavelength to be seen
A kingdom of instrumentation
And it looks like I’m the queen

The waves are moving in longitudinal waves

Couldn't keep them up, heaven knows I've tried
Just let them play, just let them hear
Be the good wave you always strive to be
Vibrate, make sound, just let them hear
Well, now they hear

Let ‘em play, let ‘em play

Don’t stop the music anymore
Let ‘em play, let ‘em play
Have the waves play us a song
Let the sounds, go to your ear
Just hear them now
The sound never bothered me anyway