Lecture 15

Percussion Instruments (Plates)

Keyboard Instruments (Piano)
The Human Voice
Instructor: David Kirkby (dkirkby@uci.edu)

Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 2
Miscellaneous
We agreed that Problem Set #7 is worth 75 points,
instead of the usual 50 points.

We agreed that the final exam will cover all the lectures
(#1-18), and not just those since the midterm (#9-18).

I will be traveling on Tuesday next week. Prof. David
Casper will give the first lecture on Music and
Technology, covering topics such as:
Loudspeakers, microphones
Amplifiers
Special effects (?)
The last two lectures will cover compression (eg, MP3) and
techniques for synthesizing music electronically.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 3
Review of Lecture 14
We covered those percussion instruments based on
vibrating bars/rods and membranes.

We saw that the common feature of percussion
instruments is their inharmonic timbre, and that is due to
the more complicated nature of two-dimensional
resonance.

Some percussion instruments (eg, xylophone) make
adaptations so that they sound more harmonic and can be
used melodically.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 4
Vibrations of Plates
A plate is a solid object whose thickness is small compared
with its other dimensions.

A plate has the same relationship to a membrane as a
rod/bar has to a string: tension force is replaced by
stiffness and other dimensions (e.g. thickness) influence
the sound.

The standing waves on a flat circular plate are similar to
those of a circular membrane, but tend to be higher in
frequency.

Plates are not necessarily flat in their resting position
(unlike membranes).
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 5
Cymbals, Gongs and Tamtams
Cymbals are circular plates, usually made of bronze, with
an almost flat saucer-like shape.
Gongs and tamtams are similar to cymbals, but with more
curvature at their edges.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 6
Steel Drums
Steel drums are a recent invention, developed by trial and
error using the 1000s of oil drums left on the beaches of
Trinidad & Tobago by the British Navy after World War
II.

The playing surface (pan) of a
steel drum is hammered into a
concave shape with individual
note areas.
Listen to an
example
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 7
Bells and Carillons
Bells are another form of vibrating plate: in this case the
plate is curved into a bell shape (!)

A carillon is a set of tuned bells controlled from a
keyboard. Listen to an example

Handbells were developed to allow church bell ringers to
practice without disturbing the whole neighborhood.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 8
Keyboard Instruments
Keyboard instruments consist of tuned strings coupled to
an air-filled cavity. Strings are struck or plucked by a
mechanical action which is controlled from a keyboard.

Pianos, clavichords and harpsichords are all examples of
keyboard instruments.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 9
Piano Construction
http://www.concertpitchpiano.com/GrandPianoConstruction.html
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 10
Piano Strings
Piano strings are made from high-strength
steel and usually stretched to about half of
their breaking strength on a metal frame.

The strings of a piano are almost ideal
one-dimensional strings, but have some
inharmonicity that gets worse at higher harmonics.

Pianos cover the frequency range from 27.5 Hz (A
0
) to
4186 Hz (C
8
) with 88 keys (a ratio of 152:1).

Rather than have the longest strings 152x longer than the
shortest ones, the tension and mass are varied in
different ranges.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 11
Piano Tuning
A piano sounds best in tune when its octaves are
stretched to match the inharmonicity of the string
overtones.

Most notes on the piano have three corresponding strings.
The piano sounds best when these strings are slightly out
of tune with each other: this deliberate mistuning allows
the vibrations of the string to last longer (otherwise, they
transfer their energy too efficiently to the soundboard).

When the strings are too far out of tune, the result is a
honky-tonk piano sound.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 12
Hammer-String Interactions
The mechanical action that translates a key press into the
hammer hitting the string is surprisingly complex:
http://www.concertpitchpiano.com/AnimatedGrandAction.html
This mechanism has 3 main purposes:
to provide a lever action so that the hammer travels
faster than the key,
to provide an escapement action so that the hammer
moves independently of the key,
to raise and lower a felt damper that allows the
string(s) to vibrate freely.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 13
Piano Pedals
A piano usually has 2 or 3 foot-operated pedals.

The right-most pedal raises the dampers on all strings so
that they continue to vibrate after a key is released, and
are also free to vibrate sympathetically when other notes
are played.

The left-most pedal makes the instrument quieter by
either shifting the hammers to miss one string, or else by
moving the hammers closer to the strings.

A center pedal, if present, usually sustains
only those notes being played.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 14
Piano Soundboard
The sound board plays a similar role to the front and back
plates of a string instrument, and is responsible for
producing most of the sound that you hear.
Vibrations of the strings are
transmitted to the sound
board via a bridge.

Although the metal frame
hold the strings does most of
the work, some of the string
tension is transmitted to the
sound board via the bridge.
This force totals ~300 lbs.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 15
The Human Voice
Your voice is primarily for communicating, but is also a
very versatile musical instrument. Some of the questions
we will address next are:

What is the instruments energy source?

What are the resonators in the voice instrument?

What is the difference between vowels and consonants?

What is the difference between spoken and sung words?

Is the voice more like a string, brass, or woodwind
instrument?
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 16
The Voice Instrument
The source of energy is the air in your lungs that you
force out, under pressure, through your vocal tract. The
main chambers of your vocal tract are your larynx, oral
cavity, and nasal cavity.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 17
Vocal Chords
The word chords suggests a string instrument, but in fact
the vocal chords are more like a trumpet players lips.
http://www.entusa.com/normal_larynx_cable.htm
For a movie of the vocal chords in action, see:
Your vocal chords are
located just behind your
Adams apple.
The chords are normally
open (so you can
breathe!) but can be
closed under muscle
control.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 18
There are 3 main ways that you use your vocal chords to
control the sounds you produce:
Leave the chords open (sss) or partially open (huh)
Suddenly opening the chords produces an explosive
cough-like sound (say Idiot! vehemently)
Rapidly open and close the chords to produce
repetitive pulses of air (compare zzz and
sss with your finger on your Adams apple).

The last technique is the most versatile, and is
similar to how a brass instrument is played.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 19
An important difference between a brass players lips and
the vocal chords is the absence of strong feedback from
the rest of the instrument.

This means the frequency at which your chords vibrate is
under your direct (muscle) control, and not determined by
the resonances of your vocal tract.

The normal range of chord-vibration frequencies used by
women is 140-400 Hz, and 70-200 Hz for men. The upper
end of these ranges is extended about an octave for
singing.

What sound do the vocal chords produce on their own?
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 20
The sound produced by the vocal chords alone depends on
how much force you use to try and close them against the
pressure of air from your lungs:
time
A
i
r

f
l
o
w

t
h
r
o
u
g
h

v
o
c
a
l

c
h
o
r
d
s

Whisper,
breathy
Normal
Strained
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 21
The Vocal Tract
The total length of the vocal tract is 17-18cm. It is closed
at the vocal folds and open at the mouth (and nose).

A half-open air column of the same length has resonant
frequencies at about 500, 1500, 2500 Hz.
The vocal tract has resonances at similar
frequencies, but unlike an ideal pipe,
these resonances are of low quality and
so spread over a wide range of
frequencies (mostly because the walls of
the vocal tract are soft).
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 22
Formants
The broad resonances of the vocal tract are called
formants. They are driven sympathetically by the
vibrations of the vocal chords. The result is that the vocal
tract shapes the timbre produced by the vocal chords:
frequency
Timbre of normal
chord vibrations
frequency
Formant
resonances
of vocal tract
frequency
Resulting
timbre
Chords vibrate at
this frequency
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 23
The Vocal Tract In Motion

Its 10 below outside.
Le boulanger
but onze bires.
Why did Ken set the soggy
net on top of his deck?
http://psyc.queensu.ca/faculty/munhall/x-ray/
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 24
What does all this motion of the vocal tract do to the
sound you produce?

You control the central frequencies of each formant by
making adjustments to the shape of your vocal tract. The
changes are mostly to the cross-sectional area and not to
the length.

The main articulators that can vary the shape of the vocal
tract are the:
Lips,
Tongue,
Soft palate (gateway between oral and nasal cavities),

Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 25
Speech Articulation
An articulator can partially (fricative) or completely (stop)
block the passage of air through the vocal tract.

A partial blockage (fricative) causes a noisy hissing sound.

Observe how changing the shape of your vocal tract
(articulation) determines the sound that you produce:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~danhall/phonetics/sammy.html
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 26
The building blocks of speech are called phonemes.

A simple classification of phonemes groups them into
vowels and consonants.

For acoustical study, a more useful classification is:
Plosives,
Fricatives,
Other consonants,
Pure vowels,
Dipthongs.
consonants
vowels
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 27
Plosives and Fricatives
Plosive sounds (think explosive) result from a sudden
release of air. Where the air is release determines the
resulting consonant sound.
p,b
t,d
k,g
Fricative sounds (think frying) result from turbulent air
flow through a narrow constriction. The location of the
constriction determines the resulting consonant sound.
f,v
th,th
s,z
sh,zh
h
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 28
Voiced Sounds
Plosives are transients (try sustaining a single p sound)
but fricatives can be sustained. Both have the
characteristic timbre of noise: a range of frequencies are
produced with none standing out in particular.

Plosives and fricatives come in unvoiced and voiced forms
(the first and second of each pair of examples). Unvoiced
sounds are produced with the vocal chords open. The
chords vibrate during voiced sounds. (Compare sss and
zzz).
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 29
Other Consonants
The other consonants include the:
Glides (or semivowels): w, y (look at the frequency
analyzer to see why they are called glides),
Liquids: l,r
Nasals: m,n,ng (voiced through
the nose only)
m
n
ng
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 30
Vowels
Vowels are sustained, voiced sounds with a definite pitch.
Their timbre is determined by the formants:
frequency
You produce different vowel sounds
by adjusting the shape of your vocal
tract to change the frequencies of
these formants.
The pitch of a vowel is determined by how fast you vibrate
your vocal chords, while the timbre is determined by the
formant frequencies.

This is the reason why the same vowel can be spoken or
sung at different pitches.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 31
Vowels and Formants
Here are some examples of the vocal tract shape and
corresponding timbre for some vowels:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/music/vowel.html
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 32
Vowel Identification
Look at the spectrum of different vowels with the
analyzer. Can you identify the formants? How do they
change for different vowels?
To a good approximation,
we can characterize each
vowel by the frequencies
of the lowest two (F1,F2)
formants.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 33
There is a universal set of vowel sounds that can be
produced (we all have the same vocal tract), although not
all languages use all possible vowels.

Compare American and British english vowels:
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 34
Dipthongs
Finally, the last category of sounds are dipthongs.

Dipthongs are sounds that morph from one vowel sound to
another vowel sound, due to the motion of the tongue.

Some examples are:
might (ah-ee)
mate (eh-ee)
moat (aw-oo)
mount (a-ou)
oil (aw-ee)
Look at some dipthongs on the spectrum analyzer.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 35
The Singing Voice
The main challenge for producing musical sound with the
voice is that the formant frequencies are not harmonically
related to the vibration frequency of the vocal chords.

When singing, you make several adaptations to adjust the
frequencies of your formants to be more harmonic:
Larynx is lowered,
Jaw is opened wider,
Tip of tongue and/or lips are pushed forward.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 36
Singers Formant
The lowering of the larynx helps to produce a new
singers formant at high frequency (2500-3000 Hz),
near the resonant frequency of the ear canal.

The origin of this formant is a narrowing of the larynx
between the vocal chords and the epiglottis.

Watch this demo to see how the narrowing of this cavity
alters the formants and the resulting sound:

Compare the frequency spectrum for spoken and sung
vowels.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 37
Projection
Singing instructors often use the metaphor of
projecting your sound, as if you could beam it in a
particular direction.

In fact, the sound you produce is too low in frequency to
be directional, and nothing you can do alters how it
spreads into a room.
Still, an opera singer can be heard
clearly over an orchestra. This is
largely because the singers
formant is at a frequency where
the orchestra is relatively quiet.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 38
Chest Resonance
Another metaphor for playing wind instruments and
singing is chest resonance.

This suggests that your lungs can act as resonators and
therefore influence the timbre of a sound.

In fact, the vocal chords are an effective barrier between
the vocal tract and the lungs, and the lining of the lungs is
far too soft to support any resonant build up of acoustic
energy.
Physics of Music, Lecture 15, D. Kirkby 39
Summary
This brings us to the end of our study of musical
instruments.

We covered:
Strings
Woodwinds
Brasses
Percussion
Keyboard
Voice

The final unit of this course will cover some topics at the
interface between physics, music, and technology.