Vibrations In Music
By: Angie, Stephanie, and Kati
Different kinds of instruments make sounds in different ways. For example, when the membrane of a drum is hit, it vibrates and makes sound. Instruments such as chimes have a number of bars, and when the bars get struck, they each make their own specific noise, or sound.
The sounds on a cello, violin, harp, and piano are produced when a person makes at least one of the instruments strings vibrate. The vibrating strings cause parts of the instrument to vibrate, setting the surrounding air in motion. The strings of a cello, and a violin are usually stroked with a bow. A person plucks the strings of a harp. When the keys of the piano are struck, mini padded hammers hit the strings inside the piano making those strings vibrate.
Wind instruments like the clarinet, flute, and trumpet, produce vibrations from the columns of air inside the instruments. A clarinet has a flat, thin, wooden piece called a reed attached to the mouth piece, the reed vibrates when someone blows into it, and makes the air columns inside the clarinet vibrate. The columns of air vibrate in a flute when someone blows across the hole which is the mouth piece. In a trumpet, the vibrating lips of a person makes the air columns vibrate.