Physics of an Acoustic Guitar
I have been watching my husband play the guitar in a band for five years and he has made it look so easy to make such beautiful music. Most guitar players have progressed with the technology of electric guitars, but when my husband picks up an acoustic guitar and starts to play a song for just me, I hear his love for me in the sounds that he produces. Imagine my surprise when a physics class conveyed to me that there was much more to his playing than I had imagined.
The sound that a guitar makes is easily recognizable to many people because the physics of the acoustic guitar is mostly universal. The noticeable distinctions are the result of various wavelengths and the harmonics that are created by the sounds of the strings on the guitar. The different sizes, tension, and lengths of the strings control these wavelengths. Even by the various guitar body compositions affect the sounds that we hear.
An acoustic guitar has 6 strings that are attached to the top, called the head, and continue down the neck of the guitar to a plate on the body, called the bridge. One end of the string lays on a raised bar on the head of the guitar, called a nut, and the other end lays on a raised bar on the bridge of the guitar, called a saddle.1 Strumming a string on the guitar, either with a pick or with your fingers, causes it to vibrate. These vibrations are waves and they “travel in both directions along the string and reflect back and forth from the fixed ends.”2 As the waves pass through each other from end to end, they create the different harmonics or overtones that are unique to the sound of the guitar.
A node is present on a wave when the string is in its original position. Therefore, where the ...
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... Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, 2001, p. 366.
6 Marshall Brain, “How Acoustic Guitars Work,” Howstuffworks, March 18, 2003, <http://people.howtuffworks.com/guitar.html> (1998-2003).
7 Kelly Hensley, Manager and Lead Guitar Player for Ace High Band, Interview by author, April 4, 2003.
8 Sam Hokin, “The Guitar,” The Physics of Everyday Stuff, by Sam Hokin, March 18, 2003, <http://www.bsharp.org/physics/stuff/guitar.html> (February 6, 2002).
9 Kelly Hensley, Manager and Lead Guitar Player for Ace High Band, Interview by author, April 4, 2003.
10 Marshall Brain, “How Acoustic Guitars Work,” Howstuffworks, March 18, 2003, <http://people.howtuffworks.com/guitar.html> (1998-2003).
11 Joe Wolfe, “How does a guitar work?” Research in Guitar Acoustics, March 24, 2003, <http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/guitar/intro_engl.html> (1997-2002).
When I was first given this assignment earlier in the semester, I knew whom I wanted to right about immediately. One of the most recognizable rock stars from the 1980’s and even now, the bassist from Motley Crue, Nikki Sixx.
Paula Lieder is a high school English teacher, and in her classroom while teaching this novel, she leads the class in discussions about racism and slavery. Lieder says that when reading this book “the discussion of race and prejudice must occur.” Her class also discusses the controversy of the book and the use of the word “nigger” (Lieder). When reading this novel students may ask themselves questions about the use of the word “nigger” and how it affects the book like Holbrook did. It’s obvious that Mark Twain was a good writer, and he knew what he was writing. So why would he use the word “nigger” repeatedly? (“Huckleberry Finn”) Holbrook would say it’s because Twain wants the reader to feel disgusted and upset. In order for Twain to get his readers to understand the hurtful nature of this word, he hit them with it over and over (“Huckleberry Finn”). Huckleberry Finn also stirs students’ imaginations while presenting information about human nature. Leo Marx says in Sharon Rush’s article,
According to Peter E , his original program included transcriptions from Tárrega , as well as his own transcriptions of Bach and others. However, based on Clinton, George , many "serious" musicians believed that Segovia would be laughed off of the stage, because the guitar could not play classical music at that time. In order to refute their argument, Segovia astounded the audience with his perfect techniques and impressive performing skills. After that, Segovia shared the view he had of the guitar being a concert instrument. "First, no string instrument offers such complete harmonic potential; second, it is light and can be transported effortlessly from one place to another; and thirdly, its sound is naturally melancholic and beautiful." From that concert, he also found out the only problem with the concert guitar performance, which is that the guitar could not produce enough sound to fill the hall. So over the coming years, Segovia would supervise luthiers to experiment through thousands of new woods and designs for the body of the guitar, thereby increasing its natural amplification, and do more practice simultaneously, to make his performing technique go further. With the advent of nylon strings during the World War II, the guitar could produce more consistent tones, and also being able to project the sound much farther. The range of the sound transmission problem was solved gradually. In 1928, Andrés Segovia’s first concert in New York had been a huge success, which also led him to more offers for appearances in America and Europe, from then on, the great, meaningful journey of Andrés Segovia and his guitar was
Birkenes, Adele, and Akash Bagaria. "Pay to Play." Current Events Feb 06 2012: 7. ProQuest. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.
Throughout the entire novel there are numerous examples of slavery and racism of African Americans in this time period. The use of what some may see as racial slurs in the novel is the vernacular of the average person in the South. While traveling down the river with Jim, Huck conveys, “I see is wasnt no use wasting words you can’t learn a nigger to argue. So I quit” (80). This is a strong example of how Huck uses the word nigger in a non-derogatory way. Huck uses it as many uses the word man. Many students and parents view this type of the word in a demeaning and racist way. Many people are led astray because of the word and do not understand what the word really means. Although today the English language has morphed and changed to suit society’s needs, the word nigger has become a slanderous word used to speak downley on an African American. In the times of Huckleberry Finn slaves like Jim did not take offense to the word because that is what they titled black slaves. Many believe Jim is portrayed...
...nal Public Radio: News and Analysis, World, US, Music and Arts. 31 March 2010. Web. 31 January 2011.
1 Gass, Bryan "A History of Rock Music: The Rock and Roll Era" World Book. Ed. 6. 1994.
The Alto Saxophone is a single-reed musical instrument that was invented in 1846 by Antoine-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax. Adolphe Sax was born on November 6, 1814 in Dinant, Belgium. During his childhood, he studied the clarinet and flute at Brussel’s Conservatory. His father was a renowned maker of musical instruments during that time. Since Adolphe grew up with his father making instruments and studying the clarinet and the flute, it was obvious that he would end up following in his father’s footsteps. The first instrument that Adolphe decided to look at was the bass clarinet; he wanted to improve the tone of the instrument. He came up with a single-reed instrument constructed from metal that had a conical bore and overblew at the octave, which translates to the saxophone.
A lot of people want to know about the writing of Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s writings are widely known around the world. ” English teachers are always saying that Mark Twain is the greatest author in American literature.” Stated Dr. Engel in his lecture called “The Genius of Mark Twain.” Mark Twain has been criticized a lot by people about his writings. Especially his novel called The Adventures of huckleberry Finn. The only reason he received as much criticism as he did for that novel was because one specific word. That word is powerful too. This word can be used by one person in the wrong way and shut down a community, a family, and maybe even a life. That word is the word “nigger.” We are not even going to get into that subject right now because that is not what we are here to talk about. People always
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an incredible novel. It is hard to believe that people would protest against it, but they do. Mark Twain set his story twenty years before the Civil War, during the slave era. It is written just as everyone spoke at that time, using the word “nigger.” This book uses the word a lot, which has upset many African-Americans. I believe that the word can be obscene, but in this book it is not. It only shows the reality of that time.
Everything in the universe involves some type of physics. Even the universe itself does, but have you ever wondered about the physics of simpler items? Physics is vital for all musical instruments, if it wasn’t; they probably wouldn’t produce the beautiful sounds that they do. One of these instruments is acoustic guitar. By looking at the instrument, it doesn’t look very complicated, but if you delve deeper into its composition, you’ll find that it’s very complicated. Physics takes part in the making of acoustic guitars, all the way to how it produces its beautiful music.
Through out history, music has played a big role. It has let people communicate and others release their creative minds. Throughout the life of music, instruments have made it happen. The guitar has become one of the most popular of all instruments. In fact, almost every band heard on the radio has a lead guitar accompanying the vocals. Thanks to the greats like B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Andres Segovia, and Eric Clapton the guitar has been made the lead instrument in much of music. With contributions from each one of these legendary players, the guitar is used in a variety of styles; heavy metal to classical.
Religion is sometimes looked at from one aspect and is often challenging to describe when one is asked to. In Crossing and Dwelling by Thomas Tweed, he describes religion not only from one aspect but from multiple viewpoints. He also does so in terms of movement, relation, and position through which he uses gets across some of the main ideas of his novel. His definition of religions which are “confluences of organic-cultural flows that intensify joy and confront suffering by drawing on human and suprahuman forces to make homes and cross boundaries” was constituted from his encounter with the Cubans in Miami. Through his religious experience with the Cubans, Tweed is able to define religions and not religion from multiple aspects.
Many manufactures began making electric bass guitars in the 1960s due to the explosion of rock music. The Fender Jazz Bass, also known as the Deluxe Bass,...
When guitar was first invented, it looked nothing like the guitars that we know. The first guitars were lutes. Lutes evolved into vihuelas, and later became the guitar in the fifteenth century. The first guitar was called the four-coarse guitar. It was called the four-course guitar because it only had four strings. It also had a strange tuning rather than the usual D-G-B-E tuning it was tuned to C-F-A-D which is a tone lower. Later, in the sixteenth century the five course guitar. Although the five-course is basically a four-course with an extra string, that string (low E) becomes very important in today’s style of playing. Also it had frets, frets are the lines on the guitar that make the different notes. It was believed to be invented in Spain. Early music sheets were written in tablature, similar to today.