Sound Waves and Timbre

Carla Piper, Ed. D.

Music Lesson Activities

Vibrations

A sound wave is a vibrating object which creates a disturbance in a medium

The particles of the medium through which the sound moves is vibrating in a back and forth motion at a given frequency.

Frequencies

The frequency of a wave refers to how often the particles of the medium vibrate when a wave passes through the medium.  vocal chords of a person the vibrating string and sound board of a guitar or violin the vibrating tines of a tuning fork the vibrating diaphragm of a radio speaker

The harmonic overtone series – natural mathematical relationships in frequencies

Timbre The quality or timbre of the sound

produced by a vibrating object is dependent upon the natural frequencies of the sound waves produced by the objects.

Pure tones – Single frequency (flute)

Complex tones - Tuba set of frequencies in mathematical

relationships the harmonic overtone series

Noise – number of frequencies

Recording Sound WavesComputer sound recorders allow you to

record and edit sound.You get a visual image of the sound

wave.

Airplane

Click on image to play!

Telephone

Click on image to play!

Clock

Click on image to play!

Bell

Click on image to play!