Our band consists of 3 instruments and one main vocal. We have one percussion, one wind, and one string instrument. Below is a brief explanation of how each work and how they will play together in our band.
First we have our wind instrument, a PVC pan flute. My instrument was constructed by 8 different length pipes and 8 small pieces of cardboard, along with hot glue. First to calculate the needed lengths, I looked at a frequency chart that was relative to wavelength. I then did some extremely long math to divide each frequency by 4 to reach the final conclusion for each pipe length.The wavelengths were divided by 4 because the pressure is the greatest at the mouth end of the instrument and reduces back to neutral pressure that is equal to the room at the other end of the tube. However that's not how a pan flute works. The way the pan flute works is, the air that you blow atop the pipe gets split, which vibrates the air and produces sound. The way to control frequency is by having different capacities for the air to be split (length of the PVC pipe).The amount of air that is able to vibrate determines the pitch or frequency. The wavelength directly affect the frequency of sound that the flute cretes. Once the pipes were cut, I put them in order and glued them together. Next I attached small pieces of cardboard to the bottom end of the pipes to not let any air escape. This is what created the pocket for the air to get trapped in and help split the air. My calculation was incorrect however due to the air needing to travel to the end then be sent back because one end is blocked off. This meant I was playing two octaves higher than i thought I was. The way i found the wavelengths was with this chart that was provided to us. I tried to play an octave of 5s however I was realistically was playing 3s. I unfortunatley have no photo of my pan flute.
C5 523.25 65.93
C#5/Db5 554.37 62.23
D5 587.33 58.74
D#5/Eb5 622.25 55.44
E5 659.25 52.33
F5 698.46 49.39
F#5/Gb5 739.99 46.62
G5 783.99 44.01 G#5/Ab5
830.61 41.54
A5 880.00 39.20
A#5/Bb5 932.33 37.00
B5 987.77 34.93
Next is our string instrument which is a guitar. For this instrument there are 3 main parts (the body, neck, and head). The body of the guitar is a large wood box with a hole under the strings on the top of the box. This was used both to hold the bottom of the strings and to amplify the sound. It amplified the sound by allowing the sound created by the strings vibrating to pass through and resonate through the entire body. The neck is were all of the frets are located. The frets are just the locations were you press down on the string to change the note. When you press on the string is makes it shorter therefore making a higher note. Also there is the head of the guitar. The head is simply were the tuning knobs are located and hold the strings at high tension. The tuning knobs are what you use to adjust the note of the open strings. The correct tuning for the strings is E, A, D, G, B, e were the lower case “E” is the high “E”. The note for guitars is not only relied on length of string, but also string thickness and tension. Therefore I used the length of only one of the notes of the strings (by using the chart and dividing the wavelength by 2 because the string only is half of the wavelength when vibrating) and then just used the correct thicknesses (E.046 in, A.036 in, D .026 in, G .017 in, B .013 in, e .01 in) and tension to create the needed notes. Next Is the chime instrument, which consists of 8 PVC pipes cut to different lengths and a metal chime. All of these are supported by a wooden frame and hot glue. The lengths of the pipes are as follows in the proper order of a scale:
I noticed that I did not divide the wavelength by 4 so It is actually a C3 to C4. I also added a 20 cm Chime made of metal for a differentiation in sound. I made the paddles that are used to hit the pipes out of cardboard and duct-tape with wooden sticks as handles. The Instrument I created offers a broad range of notes and can be used to simulate the sound of many songs. You may relate these to the drums and they can even be considered to be wind instruments based on the fact that the paddles force air down the tubes. The picture shown below is only a depiction of my instrument and not the real thing.
To say this project was interesting would be an understatement. I attempted to make a recorder and it worked very poorly (not at all). I then turned to a pan flute. It was more simply and I understood how it worked more. I finished construction very fast and then left in my locker to help my group finish their instruments. When it came to Friday I went to retrieve my instrument and it was no where to be found. Constant checking and I found it in the garbage... I believe what happened was it was used by a physics student and then thrown away. I did my best to present the notes that I could play. This was a great lesson for me because it was a very unfortunate situation that all I could do was my best. I definitely worked on my empathy and patience and I hope that the person's grade was worth it.