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!