Acoustic resonance is an important consideration for instrument builders as most acoustic instruments use resonators, such as the strings and body of a violin, the length of tube in a flute, and the shape of a drum membrane. A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... A resonator is device or part that vibrates with and amplify waves. ... The violin is a bowed stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart, the lowest being the G just below middle C. It is the smallest and highest-tuned member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello. ... The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. ...

Resonance of a string

Lute (harp, guitar, piano, violin etc.) strings have a fundamental resonant frequency directly related to the length and tension of the string. The wavelength that will create the first resonance on the string is equal to twice the length of the string. This frequency is related to the speed v of a wave traveling down the string by the equation The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ...

where L is the length of the string (for a string fixed at both ends). The speed of a wave through a string or wire is related to its tension T and the mass per unit length ρ:

So the frequency is related to the properties of the string by the equation

where T is the tension, ρ is the mass per unit length, and m is the total mass. Tension is a reaction force applied by a stretched string (rope or a similar object) on the objects which stretch it. ... Mass is a property of a physical object that quantifies the amount of matter it contains. ...

Higher tension and shorter lengths increase the resonant frequency, and vice versa. The string also has a resonance at integer multiples of the fundamental frequency f. It will then also resonate at 2f, 3f, 4f, and so on. When the string is excited with an impulsive function (a finger pluck or a strike by a hammer), the string vibrates at all the frequencies present in the impulse (an impulsive function theoretically contains 'all' frequencies). Those frequencies that are not one of the resonances are quickly filtered out—they are attenuated—and all that is left is the harmonic vibrations that we hear as a musical note.

Resonance of a tube of air

The resonance of a tube of air is related to the length of the tube and whether it has closed or open ends. When a wave reaches the end of the tube, part of it will be reflected back into the tube, and part will be transmitted to the outside air. A closed end will reflect a wave with no inversion; in other words, a compression wave will be reflected as a compression wave. An open end will invert the wave that is reflected; in other words, a compression wave will be reflected as a rarefaction wave. Examples of instruments that have both ends open are the flute, saxophone, oboe, and trombone. An example of an instrument that has one closed end and one open end is the clarinet. Vibrating air columns also have resonances at harmonics, like strings. Tubes with both ends open resonate at the frequency

This is similar to the string formula, except v now becomes the speed of sound in air (which is approximately 340 meters per second at 20 °C and at sea level). The speed of sound c (from Latin celeritas, velocity) varies depending on the medium through which the sound waves pass. ...

Note however that in practise the exact point at which a sound wave is reflecting at an open end is not perfectly at the end section of the tube. The wave in fact progresses over a small distance outside the tube and the reflection ratio is also not perfectly equal to one. This phenomena is caused by the fact that the open end does not behave like an infinite acoustical impedance. It has a finite value, called radiation impedance, which is dependent on the diameter of the tube, the wavelength and the type of reflection board possibly present around the opening of the tube. In electrical engineering, Impedance is a measure of opposition to a sinusoidal electric current. ...

A tube with one end closed will have a resonance of

This type of tube can only produce odd harmonics, f, 3f, 5f, and so on.

Composers have begun to make resonance the subject of compositions. Alvin Lucier has used acoustic instruments and sine wave generators to explore the resonance of objects large and small in many of his compositions. The complex inharmonic partials of a swell shaped crescendo and decrescendo on a tam tam or other percussion instrument interact with room resonances in James Tenney's Koan: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion. Pauline Oliveros and Stuart Dempster regularly perform in large reverberant spaces such as the two million gallon cistern at Fort Warden, WA, which has a reverb with a 45 second decay. Alvin Lucier Alvin Lucier (born May 14, 1931) is an American composer of music and sound installations exploring acoustic phenomena, especially resonance, as well as a former member of the Sonic Arts Union along with Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. ... In music, inharmonic refers to the degree to which the frequencies of the overtones of a fundamental differ from whole number multiples of the fundamentals frequency. ... An overtone is a sinusoidal component of a waveform, of greater frequency than its fundamental frequency. ... In musical notation, crescendo means that the notes are gradually getting louder. ... This article needs cleanup. ... James Tenney (August 10, 1934 in Silver City, NM) is an American composer and influential music theorist. ... Pauline Oliveros (born 1932 in Houston, Texas) is an accordionist and composer who currently resides in Kingston, New York. ... Stuart Dempster (born 1936 in Berkeley, California) is a trombonist, didjeridu player, composer, author of The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms (1979), and on the faculty of the University of Washington. ... When sound is produced in an enclosed space multiple reflections build up and blend together creating reverberation or reverb. ... When sound is produced in an enclosed space multiple reflections build up and blend together creating reverberation or reverb. ...