Science

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=My Instrument= ===How do you create an instument? A **musical instrument** is a device created for the purpose of making musical sounds﻿ in a repeating pattern. I created an instument that is closely related to the string family; it has two pieces of plywood nailed together in a right angle with a peice of wood nailed in the middle of the right angle of wood. Then on top of the piece of wood in the middle, there is two pieces holding a metal can in place. The bottom of the right angle had six nails screwed into it and on the nails are nylon string that feed to the vertical piece of wood which has another six nails angled to make music notes. After building it I named my instument "Floorcantar" because to play it it has to sit on the floor, the "can" because it has a big metal can to raise the volume, and "tar" because it's in the guitar family. I put a can in the instument because it makes the volume of the pitch louder and the with the can it makes the tone quality of the pitch more persice. Then I had to make blueprints for a music hall we would preform in, and after a lot of thought I named it "The Escape" because I want our concert hall to be an escape of the boring and an exciting place for family and musicians. === ===For the materials in my instument I used two big pieces of wood to make a right angle, one medium piece of wood to support the can, two little pieces of wood to hold the can in place, nylon strings, and screws. I found most of these items in my dad's garage but for the nylon strings I had to go to Walmart. First I had to nail two long pieces of wood together to make a right angle. Then I had to take a small piece of wood and angle the edges so it would fit neatly into the right angle. Next I had to nail my can down into the base on the right angle and then nail two small pieces of wood to the wood holding the can so i could put my nylon strings over the can. After I got six strings with twelve screws, I nailed six screws into a line in the base of the right angle and then another six srews on the top of the instument but angle them to make different notes. Finally I got my six stings and tied them to the nails. === ===My mom helped me come up with ideas for my instument and my dad helped me with sawing the angles to the wood piece that goes in the middle of the right angle. The parts that I made was tieing the nylon strings onto the nails and nailing the pieces of wood together and in doing that I've slammed my fingers with the hammer on accident trying to aim for the nails.Some of the problems in the project were finding the right string to use on my guitar. The first string I used was fishing line but after I put them on there and tried them out they didn't put out a lot of sound, but I asked my grandmother who plays the guitar and many other instuments to help me find the right string to use. Now my instument is in great shape.=== ===To play my instument one has to have a hand holding the top of the stings tight and then pluck each stings lightly so it will put just enough sound so it doesn't sound off pitch. When you want to change pitch just change the string you pluck. If one wants to tune the instument just get a screw driver and tighten or loosen the nails and the strings. Since i have a hole in my guitar it will amplify my sound waves and harmonics while damping off-key noise as the sound waves bounce off the walls of the can before exiting the hole. Then my nylon stings make a deep sound with a lot of vibrations.=== ===To conclude this project made me appreciate the thought put into making an instument and for the architechs building music halls and any other buildings. I liked the challenge in making the instument because everything problem i faced i wanted to make it even better than it was before and I do have a competitive spirit so i wanted my instument to to be the best in the class. I learned about how sound waves travel through an instument like the hole of a guitar and if one has to make a concert hall everything from the carpet to the walls effects the audiences hearing. If I had time to change my instument I would make it more colorful because I waited a to long to change the appearance of it so it just has the plywood still showing. I would also like to have the nylon strings changed to regular guitar strings so the sound will be a little bit louder than it already is.===