Final Tweaks nearly finished, and READY TO ROCK!!!!

Well, that took quite a while! About a week and a half, and now I think I have this site finally redone, reposted, gave it a complete makeover, and now that it has nearly two month's worth of posts, I'll get set to start drawing some traffic to it and give it some life!!

Next posts should really focus on more percussions and creating stringed instruments, but I'll need to go over a couple more aspects of woodwinds, first.

Also to be expected in the near future, within a small few weeks here, are some video posts to explain some projects - such as; Native American flute, Japanese shakuhachi, Chinese D'tsu, and some preliminary percussion projects, and then some serious stringery.

Okay, that's it for this post.... I need to put the finishing touches on the feeds.... have a wonderful day, people!

- Falls-Down-Laughing ^_^

Changes....

Today's post is short - just writing to say that I'll be making changes to this website's layout (doing it now), so soon things will look a lot different, and there'll be more resources to draw from here.

Hope y'all like it!

- Falls-Down-Laughing ^_^

Chromatic Drums....

- drums -

Howdy! ^_^

Not to worry, homework isn't due yet! Today we'll talk about chromatic drums....

We'll be using PVC for these as well, but let's make them 2" inside diameter ones for this project.

Using the math as before, taking the SSI (Speed of Sound in Inches) and dividing it by the desired note's frequency, we can get an idea of the general length of each tube. Stretch some leather - or rubber from a large, cut up piece of bicycle tire inner tube - or thick, flexible plastic sheeting - over one end of the PVC pipe, holding it in place with one of those pipe/hose fasteners.... those metal rings that tighten or loosen with the turn of a screw.

Now, with a tube of much larger bore diameter than before, we should take that into account.... after all, we don't want it to be too short, or there won't be sufficient space for the vibrations in the air to make any tonal sound.

After doing your math to find the approximate length, double it.

Now, instead of having a roughly 15" length tube for an A, for example, we now have one that is around 30" long.

For a chromatic set, take a piece of 1/2" plywood, about 4"x 36", and make 2&1/2" holes - 12 of them - arranged along it's length.

On the drum tubes, measure down from the tops about 2", and mark all around - on this line, place 3 or 4 small screws - now when you place the tubes into the holes in the plywood, they will sit in this rack you have made while you play them. Be creative with how this should stand.... make legs for the plywood, tie it between two trees, etc.

Again, the 12 notes for the chromatic scale, are;

A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G & G#.

Now, you don't have to start with A and end with G# - you can start and end anywhere you please. Now you have a set of chromatic drums that you can play beats with, but also in many notes! Percussion with pitch! hehe ^_^

That's it for today - until next time, have a nice night! ^_^

-drums -

PVC reed instruments....

- reeds -

Greetings and salutations! ^_^

Today, let's go over a very interesting bit of instrumental creation - the PVC reed instrument.

Now, there are PVC saxophones, clarinets, or what have you - they are all basically and intrinsically the same in principle, except that they may differ in fingerhole placements, fingerhole size, and overall bore diameter/length.

Now, for today's little bit of experimental daring-do, you are already well equipped with the proper mathematical formula for finding hole placements according to note frequencies and such - if you are a newcomer to this website, please refer to the post what mentions this.

The part of this instrument that takes a bit of doing, is the creation of the reed.

First, before you decide to cut this to it's desired fundamental length (let's start out with a 3/4" diameter piece for this first one), cut it to about 4-6 inches longer. Now, you'll be wanting to cut one end at a sharp 23 degree angle.

Cleaning out all burrs, and sanding the edge all smooth (keep the edges sharp), go to the lower edge of this cut-off (the part furthest from the end point, but closest towards the opposite end), and bevel this juuuuuuust slightly more, keeping it flat. Do this in such a way that, if you placed a credit card in the flat of this bevel, then the card will almost lay flat across the ovoid opening of this end of the tube, but comes away from doing so by about a couple of millimeters.

Next, take a credit card - not a real one of course, but either an old, inactive one, or one of those "fake card" types you get in the mail as promotional example cards.

Cut it to shape, a shape matching that of the ovoid, slant-cut opening of the tube. You'll want it to match the outside diameter of this.

At the tube's slant cut end, that last part you slightly beveled, drill a tiny hole(s) that's just the right size for a tiny screw or two - the kind used for attaching the arms to eyeglasses and shades. You can find these most anywhere, even in those little "glasses repair kits" that you find in drugstores or dollar stores.

Make a similar hole(s) in the appropriate place in the section of plastic card you have cut out.

Attach the plastic card reed to the tube, with the screw(s) in the obvious manner.

Now, play a note with this tube, blowing on the reed as you would do with a saxophone, or a clarinet. For those of you who have never done so, blow on this by lightly pressing the reed and tube end together with your lips, until you get a sound.

Once you get a sound, now you can use the tuning methods, described in an earlier post, to find your fundamental note, and then, to find the fingerhole placements. Try making six holes for this first one, for a good, chromatically tuned piece.

That's all for today's post - see you all next time! ^_^

- reeds -

Some Tips on Fret placements....

- stringed instruments -

Howdy, all! ^_^

When building a guitar, or even in repairing or improving one, be absolutely certain that you place each and every fret exactly parallel to eachother, and to the nut and bridge. To do any less creates and invariably out-of-tune situation.

For example, one day, I found a rather inexpensive, tiny acoustic guitar. Seeing the price, quickly eyeing it over, and strumming it once for sound, I snatch it right up and took it home.

Once I arrived home, I realized that I didn't bother to check it for tuning, so I tried it out.... it was a disaster. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the frets were slightly slanted in relation to the rest of the guitar, resulting in it being way out of tune.

Now, the frets were parallel to eachother, and perfectly so.... but they were not parallel to the nut and bridge. So, what was the answer? It was all a matter of realigning the nut and bridge to match the frets.

So, as long as all your frets are parallel to eachother, and to the nut and the bridge, your strings should be able to stay well in tune.

That's all for today's post - see you all tomorrow! ^_^

- stringed instruments -

Guitar Frets - the math behind them....

- stringed instruments -

Here is another interesting bit of math - and a much easier one, as well....

Keep track of this here post, as we will be using this information in future posts, when we start to build our first rudimentary guitars.

This is called the "18 Rule" - this is how we figure out exactly where the frets on a guitar's finger board, or fret board, are placed, to be able to play precise notes along the lengths of the strings.

Here is how it works;

The strings are all kept tense, and the ends of these strings' tension is kept between two points on which they rest - the "nut" (also known as the "zero fret") and the "bridge". The nut is that part at the headstock end of the guitar neck that the strings rest on, and the bridge is at the other end, on the body of the guitar. It is between these two points that we make our measurements.

We first measure the effective length of the string - that is, the distance between the nut and the bridge, and divide by 18 - or actually, 17.8167942 is the much more accurate number, calling this "18" in the rule's name, only.

We take the answer to this math problem, and measure this distance from the nut, and that is where we place the first fret.

Now, measuring from that first fret to the bridge, we then take that measurement and divide that by 17.8167942 again, and that answer we use to measure from the initial first fret, to find where the second fret goes. This is continued, repeating this all along the fret board's length, until all fret placements are calculated.

And that is what we call the "18 Rule"!

That's all for today's post, everyone! Until next time, have a nice night! ^_^

- stringed instruments -

HOMEWORK!!!! ^_^

- homework -

Yep, you heard me right, homework.

Today's assignment is to use what you have learned in the previous posts about finding the length of a flute according to the desired fundamental note, in making something new - to make this thing, you will need one more quick lesson - here goes;

Now, we know that for open-ended flutes, the flute's body's length is roughly equal to ONE-HALF the wavelength of the particular fundamental note you want.

We also know how to define the length of said wavelengths, by dividing the speed of sound in inches (again, at sea level, and at roughly 70 degrees F, this is 13,526.5 inches per second), by the number of Hertz (cycles per second) of the note in question.

One other thing to know here is, that closed-ended flutes (those that are like upright tubes, covered on the bottom, and blown across the tops like blowing across a beer bottle top.... like the Andes "pan" flute) have to have their airflows go into the flute, to the end, and out again - so that means that their body lengths should be roughly ONE-QUARTER of a wavelength long.

So, your assignment now is to make a set of South American Andes pan flutes - a set of 12 pipes, PVC with caps on the bottom (or corked), and chromatically tuned.

This means that you will have one for each note - A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F. F#, G, and G#. Using a couple of sticks, or pieces of PVC, or what have you, lash them all together.

For the blowing edges, bevel them for clearer sound - from the outer wall surface, towards the inner.

There will be some things to go over, and perhaps more learned, once you have completed this project.

Okay, have fun with this assignment! Until tomorrow, have a nice night! ^_^

- homework -

Homework....

homework -

Yep, you heard me right, homework.

Today's assignment is to use what you have learned in the previous posts about finding the length of a flute according to the desired fundamental note, in making something new - to make this thing, you will need one more quick lesson - here goes;

Now, we know that for open-ended flutes, the flute's body's length is roughly equal to ONE-HALF the wavelength of the particular fundamental note you want.

We also know how to define the length of said wavelengths, by dividing the speed of sound in inches (again, at sea level, and at roughly 70 degrees F, this is 13,526.5 inches per second), by the number of Hertz (cycles per second) of the note in question.

One other thing to know here is, that closed-ended flutes (those that are like upright tubes, covered on the bottom, and blown across the tops like blowing across a beer bottle top.... like the Andes "pan" flute) have to have their airflows go into the flute, to the end, and out again - so that means that their body lengths should be roughly ONE-QUARTER of a wavelength long.

So, your assignment now is to make a set of South American Andes pan flutes - a set of 12 pipes, PVC with caps on the bottom (or corked), and chromatically tuned.

This means that you will have one for each note - A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F. F#, G, and G#. Using a couple of sticks, or pieces of PVC, or what have you, lash them all together.

For the blowing edges, bevel them for clearer sound - from the outer wall surface, towards the inner.

There will be some things to go over, and perhaps more learned, once you have completed this project.

Okay, have fun with this assignment! Until tomorrow, have a nice night! ^_^

- homework -

Some Simple Instruments....

- homemade instruments -

As a break from the math and precision, let's today make some musical toys for children.

Here are some ideas for simple accompanying instruments, that you can make with/for your children, that will provide them with many hours of enjoyment....

Hand-held maracas - take film cases and fill them 1/4 of the way with glass beads.

Shoe box zither - take a shoe box, or an empty tissue box, and stretch rubber bands around the length of said box. Strum the bands for sound.

Coke bottle xylophone - arrange a number of bottles with varying amounts of water in them. Take a small stick, and wrap a number of rubber bands around one end, making a striker head to play the bottles with. Striking the bottles of varying water volume will make many notes sound from them.

Tom-toms - empty plastic butter or margarine bowls of different sizes with the plastic covers on them are excellent for striking beats.

Bell chimes - varying sizes of stainless steel bowls, suspended by strings, make wonderful chimes.

Rattles - bottle caps, whether metal or plastic (make two of these, trying each variety), with holes made into their centers, then strung up, tying each end of the string to the ends of a stick, make great rattles.

Kazoo - wrapping wax paper over a comb, and lightly pressing to your lips, making an 'ooooooo' zound with your voice, produces a kazoo-like sound. This can tickle a lot, however, making children laugh.

That's all for today's post - see you all tomorrow! ^_^

- homemade instruments -