Having fun with wind instruments
Vibrating air makes music.
Vibrating air
In a wind instrument, you blow to make the air inside vibrate. The bamboo flute (bashi), recorder and trumpet are wind instruments. The vibrating air inside the tube is called the air column.
A recorder, a shehnai at a wedding and a conch shell blown at a ceremony are all wind instruments.
Long and short tubes
A long air column vibrates slowly and makes a low note. A short air column vibrates fast and makes a high note. Big instruments like the tuba make deep sounds.
Organs in big halls have pipes taller than a house for very low notes and pipes as small as a pencil for very high notes.
Covering holes
Covering and uncovering the holes changes the length of the air column. More holes covered = longer column = lower note. This is how a flute player plays a tune.
Trumpet players change notes by pressing valves, which send the air through longer or shorter loops of tube.
Blowing across bottles
Blow across the top of an empty bottle. It hums! Add water and the air column gets shorter, so the note gets higher.
This is the opposite of tapping the bottles. When you blow, it is the air that vibrates, not the glass.
What I learnt
- I know that wind instruments make sound with a vibrating column of air.
- I know that shorter air columns make higher notes.