Abstract
Musical acoustics is an interesting sub-field of physics which is usually able to engage students in a dual perspective, by combining science and art together. The physics principles involved in most musical instruments can be easily demonstrated with standard laboratory equipment and can become part of lecture or lab activities. In particular, we will show in this paper how to simulate a guitar using a conventional sonometer, in relation to the problem of the instrument intonation, i.e., how to obtain correctly tuned notes on a guitar or similar string instruments.
Highlights
Musical acoustics is an interesting sub-field of physics which is usually able to engage students in a dual perspective, by combining science and art together
The experimental procedures presented in this study can become a more structured laboratory activity to be used in general physics courses or acoustics classes
In this paper we describe a simplified procedure, similar to the one used by guitar manufacturers, which can be effectively used as a lab activity for students in a musical acoustics class
Summary
Musical acoustics is an interesting sub-field of physics which is usually able to engage students in a dual perspective, by combining science and art together. We will show in this paper how to simulate a guitar using a conventional sonometer, in relation to the problem of the instrument intonation, i.e., how to obtain correctly tuned notes on a guitar or similar string instruments. This problem is more complex than what might appear at first; it obviously begins with the correct tuning of the “open” strings of the instrument to the desired notes, which can be accomplished with the help of a digital tuner.
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