Diddley Darn Stick of mine

My second unit of my class - Light, Sound, and Time - has been focusing on how sound works. Sound can be measured with frequency, such as particles hitting upon each other, that are absorbed within the air and processed by our brains. Music, however, is organized sound that we use to create  art to our own liking. If we study this scientifically, we could create our own structures of sound that make certain frequencies.

I enjoy how this class executes the subject and brings real life situations for lessons rather than facts you could easily forget. So far, the class (in this unit) had learned about the how sound travels through air through frequencies and wavelengths, how we interpret and absorb sound, and what frequencies/wavelengths we cannot hear. We had also gone to Chicago Music Exchange to learn about the different instruments that produce very specific sounds with the warping of frequency.

For a major assignment, students had to create a diddley bow and measure what sound it was producing, how it was producing sound, and how to warp the sound through the use of wavelength and frequency. This isn't a project of passion, but the information of the project was interesting to learn about. Not to mention this was an idea that could have been taken further if desired.

JN "Diddley Bow" no website, 2019

How my instrument creates sound is vibrations following along through the first medium, that being string or metal. It then goes into an open and flat space (the can) where the vibrations bounces within said space and then into the open air as the vibrations spread out.

JN "Calculation of Love" no website, 2019

How sound, and by extension, sound waves work is through the vibration of molecules. Mainly, if a force hits an object or even air, it creates a chain reaction where the molecules bounce onto each other in a certain direction. This then creates what is known as a longitudinal wave, in which a part of a wave moves in a condensed area while the two sides between the condensed part are open and flat. Anyway, sound then travels into the ear through the pinna, the vibrations are absorbed by the ear drum, and transferred by ear bones called the hammer, anvil and stirrup. Finally, it enters through the cochlea, where the vibrations turn into a liquid and are transmitted into the hair cells. This then goes to the brain’s process of understanding the sound.

JN "Frequency Calculations" no website, 2019

Here are calculations for the size, area, volume and frequency of my project. Frequency itself is the amount of Hertz listed which is cycles in a second. With knowing the frequency of plucking the string, we change the length of the vibrating string for a high pitch.

JN "Song Caculations" no website, 2019

We also have a recording of myself playing the diddley bow to see how well it would do in a song.

In conclusion, the project was interesting. However, I feel if I had dug deeper, this would have felt more solid to myself and to my instructor. There is a lot of information within the class that reflects through this project, and I am proud to study it within my school as it will be useful later on.