User talk:XRiaRiax

Maria Ribera 103008 Science P.5

The Xylophone

For my homemade instrument project I have decided to build a xylophone. I chose to build it because I wanted to see if there are different ways I could build it, by not necessarily using the normal standards. But will this work? My xylophone is a smaller version of the regular xylophone. This percussion instrumented started in about the 14th century, from Southeast Asia. It started of as two bars that were held in between the player’s legs, and then it evolved into having a metal from for it. Its name originated from the Greek word ‘xylo’ meaning “wood” and the word ‘phone’ meaning “sound”. The xylophone can be played is usually played with the mallet gently tapping one of the metal bars, thus making sound. Sound is produced when the bars penetrate which is caused when the mallet hits the metal bars. The xylophone I constructed started off with a 1/8 inch PVC pipe. With the help of home depot workers I was able to cut the bars into exactly the measurements I wanted. Note ‘B’ is 10 inches long, note ‘A’ is 11 inches long, and note ‘G’ is 12 inches long. Note ‘E’ is 9 inches long, however I will not be using this not in my song. I decided that the notes should be supported by a mini shoe box, I wanted to see if it would still produce sound even though it is not supported by metal frames. I aligned the bars in the order and then taped them in the exact place I needed them to be in. I didn’t want to align them so closely together because when I would be playing the song, I might accidentally hit the wrong note. Each bar is about ½ inch away from each other. Overall I think my xylophone plays quite well. If I was to make and changes to it I might have changed the diameter of the bars. Maybe they would’ve made a louder sound. Or I might have actually supported the bars by metal frames. My experience with this project was honestly very frustrating, I could not decide what might support the bars, but I didn’t want to use metal frames. It was challenge at the beginning deciding how long to make each bar but I had a great time with this project. I learned that there are several different versions of the xylophone, I don’t just have to stick with the usual.