Homemade Instruments - Diddley Bow AP
The second unit of the class Light, Sound, and Time is all about sound. We have been learning about sound waves and their applications in science and math. As part of our learning, we visited the Chicago Hearing Society to learn about people with hearing loss, Darnton & Hersh fine violins to learn about stringed instruments, and Guarneri Hall to learn about acoustics.
The second action project for this class is creating a diddley bow. This is a one-stringed instrument that consists of a fretboard, resonator, string, and nut. My instrument is made of materials found at home. The resonator is a tin can that vibrates to amplify the sound. The fretboard is a piece of scrap board with frets marked at the needed intervals. The nut is also made from scrapwood and helps create tension. The string is just a guitar string made of steel.
To produce sound with my instrument I can pluck the string which produces vibrations. The vibrations travel along the string to the resonator, which amplifies the sound. To create different pitches you can press one of the frets. The shorter the length between the fret and the resonator, the shorter the length of the standing wave, producing a higher pitch. My instrument has frets at ¼, ⅓, ½, ⅔, and ¾.
From this unit, we learned about sound waves, frequencies, wavelengths, and more. All of these scientific principles are demonstrated in this AP. The diddley bow produces sound waves which have frequencies and wavelengths that can be measured and altered to create harmonics. All the parts of a wave are demonstrated in the sound produced by the instrument.
Measurements:
String thickness: 0.016 in
Length of wood under string: 31 in
Height of string at can: 1.5 in
Height of string at wood: 1 in
Overall I am proud of how this project turned out. I ended up needing help from a classmate but my final project is pretty good and below is a clip of my diddley bow being played.
The second action project for this class is creating a diddley bow. This is a one-stringed instrument that consists of a fretboard, resonator, string, and nut. My instrument is made of materials found at home. The resonator is a tin can that vibrates to amplify the sound. The fretboard is a piece of scrap board with frets marked at the needed intervals. The nut is also made from scrapwood and helps create tension. The string is just a guitar string made of steel.
Diddley Bow Drawing - PC - 2023
Diddley Bow Picture - PC - 2023
To produce sound with my instrument I can pluck the string which produces vibrations. The vibrations travel along the string to the resonator, which amplifies the sound. To create different pitches you can press one of the frets. The shorter the length between the fret and the resonator, the shorter the length of the standing wave, producing a higher pitch. My instrument has frets at ¼, ⅓, ½, ⅔, and ¾.
From this unit, we learned about sound waves, frequencies, wavelengths, and more. All of these scientific principles are demonstrated in this AP. The diddley bow produces sound waves which have frequencies and wavelengths that can be measured and altered to create harmonics. All the parts of a wave are demonstrated in the sound produced by the instrument.
Measurements:
String thickness: 0.016 in
Length of wood under string: 31 in
Height of string at can: 1.5 in
Height of string at wood: 1 in
Can radius: 1.4375 height: 4in
Diddley Bow Calculations - PC - 2023
Diddley Bow Harmonics - PC - 2023
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