Experiments in sound....

- experiments -

Greetings! ^_^

Today, as I'd like to add another post to benefit any home schoolers/teachers, self-learners or experimenters out there, I think I should add this to go along with the previous post.

To learn a bit more about bowed instruments (or even plucked strings), let's use a stick about 2 or 3 feet long (perhaps even a yard stick), an *E* electric guitar string - this is the thinnest string, the highest note string, on electric guitars, which can be gotten individually from most any music shop, for about 75 cents to little more than a dollar - and, a small balloon.

Yeah, that's right, a balloon.

Okay - wrap the free end (the end without the tiny metal ring tied in) of the guitar string around one end of the stick, tightly. Next, cut a notch, or slot, into the other end of the stick for the other end of the string to go into. The tiny metal ring tied into that end of the string should hold that into place.

Don't have this string be very tight, because you'll now want to inflate the small balloon, and place it between the stick and the string, wedging it into place - once the balloon is thusly wedged, and preferably more towards one end of the stick than the other, there should be some tension in the string.

Now take the bow we made from the previous post, and bow the string.

Not a bad quality of sound, eh?

See, this balloon is acting as a soundboard/resonating box - the vibrations from the string are being transferred into the balloon, which is merely an enclosed hollow, surrounded by a spherical diaphragm. In this case, the balloon is almost like a drum (even acting like an "eardrum", though somewhat in reverse, in it's transmuting vibrational data into sound), which is 100% drum head.

For another experiment, you can even get excellent results from closed-cell styrofoam - now, a block of this stuff can have the "stick" of the instrument pass through it.... now, place a "bridge" on the face of the block - that is, perhaps a thin square of wood, on edge, for the string to rest across, which will transfer the string's vibration into the block of styrofoam.

This will produce a good, amplified sound.

Alrighty, that's it for today's post - until next time, have a nice night!

- Falls-Down-Laughing ^_^

- experiments -