Sound Waves Essay

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When a person places ear buds into their ears and presses play on their phone or mp3, they suddenly get a rush of electrical signals generated by their device. With the signals flowing through the copper wires that connect the device to the ear buds, the vibrations emerge from the ear buds into the ear canal. The vibrations are then transported through the auditory system to the brain to be transposed into what people call music. These signals and vibrations are called sound waves. But what really is music? What is sound? How do these random vibrations make these occurrences? What is music? Music is defined as an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, …show more content…

This is why a piano is the most common accompanying instrument in a band or choir. Reverberations are also a contributing factor in making music, and such, louder. An audience in a large stadium could be whispering to one another and could still be heard because the sound waves are bouncing off of objects and reverberating as well as resonating because every person in the audience is whispering at the same time. For the most common things in everyday life, sound is made. Sound waves are produced from the smallest vibrations that are created. Music is made from these vibrations without anyone really understanding what is going on or how that one instrument can make that sound. People are so interested in how music works, how wind makes a sound, or even how sound effects are created. Yet, people do not put enough time or effort in to figure out how these phenomena work. Where does music come from? Vibrations in a syncopated rhythm to make melodic or harmonic sound. So where does sound come from? Everything that …show more content…

Signal processing methods for music transcription. Springer. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-387-30667-4.
The Doppler Effect and Shock Waves. (n.d.). The Doppler Effect and Shock Waves. Retrieved February 28, 2014, from http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/sound/Lesson-3/The-Doppler-Effect-and-Shock-Waves
Hewitt, Paul G.. “Part 4: Sound.” Conceptual Physics. 8th ed. Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley, 1998. 323-370. Print.
Music. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved February 13, 2014, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/music
Sound. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved February 18, 2014, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sound?s=t
Sound Waves. (n.d.). Sound Waves. Retrieved February 2, 2014, from http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow2/apr99/soundvib.html
Tuning Forks. (n.d.). Tuning Forks. Retrieved February 26, 2014, from http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~scdiroff/lds/OscillationsWaves/TuningForks/TuningForks.html What are the Seven Modes of Music?. (n.d.). wiseGEEK. Retrieved February 24, 2014, from http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-the-seven-modes-of-music.htm

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