Kelly’s School

Luquillo P.R.

Science Fair: Harmony and Waves, on a String?

Amy A. Burgos Carrasquillo

9th Grade
Mrs.Huertas

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Table of Contents
Abstract: ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Hypothesis: .................................................................................................................................... 4
Research: ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Materials: ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Procedure: ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Results: ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Conclusion: .................................................................................................................................. 10
References:................................................................................................................................... 11

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Abstract:
In this project, the laws of physics shall be put to the test from the perspective of standing

waves on guitar strings. You’ll learn about the physics of vibrating strings and find out why the

tone of the guitar gets altered when you switch between different pickups.

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Hypothesis:
Posing the problem or question at hand, does the position of the guitar affect the sound

waves and tone when plucking the strings? If the position of the guitar affects the sound wave

and tones when plucking the strings, then the posture or hold you have on the guitar shall affect

the harmonies.

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Research:
The standing waves of on guitar strings have different modes when playing the notes to

any melody, in other words a pattern. Different patterns of vibrations can be produced by lightly

touching the string at just the right place while you pick the string. This technique is called

playing harmonics on the string. But what must truly you know is, what is sound? Sound is a

wave, an easy or hard pattern, depending on the sound of changing air pressure. Sound is

produced by vibrations of objects. The vibrations push and pull on air molecules. Since the air

molecules are already in constant motion, the compressions starting at the original source are

rapidly transmitted through the air of as an expanding wave. One way to describe a wave is by its

speed. In addition to speed, we will also find it useful to describe waves by their frequency,

period, and wavelength.

Now looking from the perspective of how sound waves are produced by a musical

instrument: in this case the guitar. The guitar has six tightly stretched steel strings which are

picked with fingers or a plastic pick to make them vibrate. The strings are anchored at the bridge

of the guitar by brass washers wound on to the ends of the strings. Each string passes over three

separate pickups. The pickups have strong magnets lined up with each string. Around the

magnets is a coil of wire with thousands of wraps.

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 When the steel strings vibrate, they cause fluctuations in the magnetic field of magnets.

The changing magnetic field causes electric current to flow in the surrounding coil. The signal is

in synch with the vibrations of the strings. It is this signal that is amplified to produce the sound

of an electric guitar. When a guitar string is picked, the vibration produces a standing wave on

the string. The string can vibrate at several different natural modes (harmonics). Each of these

vibrational modes has nodes at fixed ends of the string. The higher the harmonics have one or

more additional nodes along the length of the string. The wavelength of each mode is always

twice the distance between two adjacent nodes.

Sounds simple enough in theory, but in practice it can be anything but. How you hold the

guitar while sitting or standing can have an adverse effect on your fretting the strings well. Most

beginners have probably tipped the top of their guitar slightly upward so that the sound hole is

pointing equally (if not more) up than out. Believe it or not, that’s normal for beginners. Why?

Because you want to see what your hands are doing on the neck of your guitar! But tilting the

guitar in this manner makes it much, much harder for you to comfortably get your fingertips on

the strings. Instead of your fingers being nice and arched, you are likely to accidently contact

adjacent strings, creating a muted sounding chord.

The secret, which isn’t a secret at all, is to hold your guitar in the best way to get your

fingers in the best place. When sitting, you want to keep in mind what it was like to hold the

guitar when standing. This is one reason many players use a strap whether they are sitting or

standing. A strap can help you hold the guitar in a standing position while sitting, maintaining a

good height and angle for the neck so that your fretting hand (which should be about chest high,

by the way, whether sitting or standing) has free and easy access to the entire fretboard creating a

perfect harmony.

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Materials:
The materials utilized in this project were the following:

1. Electric Guitar

2. Amplifier

3. Guitar Pick

4. Amplifier Cable

5. Guitar Strap

6. Chair

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Procedure:
1) I sat down on a chair

2) Connected the guitar into the amplifier and grab my guitar pick.

3) I strung the guitar to see and how it felt by sitting on a chair, when I strung the guitar,

the guitar felt different and sounded different.

4) I stood up and got the guitar strap and put it on my guitar

5) When I put my guitar over my body, the guitar felt heavier and when I strung the strings,

the guitar sounded very different it, didn’t sound like when I was sitting on a chair.

6) I also tried different postures to hear how different the guitar sounded in each posture.

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Results:
As in the results, the guitar sounded different when I was sitting on the chair, but when I

was standing up with the guitar over my body, it made the guitar feel heavier than usual. When I

was sitting on the chair, the vibrations were different, they were a little bit faster but still slow

and the guitar sounded happy. When I stood up, the vibrations felt more slower, lower, very rock

style and very deep.

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Conclusion:
In conclusion, I determined that my hypothesis was actually true because I wanted to

know if the guitar would sound the same by sitting on a chair, by standing up and trying different

postures like crouching, putting the guitar straighter etc. Also, the strings changed the way they

moved, they were slower by standing up but faster when I was sitting down and doing the other

postures.

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References:
Hodge, D. (2020). Holding Your Guitar - Guitar Noise. [online] Guitar Noise. Available
at: https://www.guitarnoise.com/guide/holding-your-guitar/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].

Science Buddies. (2020). Pick This Project! | Science Project. [online] Available at:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Music_p006/music/guitar-
pick [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].

Actabio.pwr.wroc.pl. (2020). [online] Available at:

http://www.actabio.pwr.wroc.pl/Vol17No3/11.pdf [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].

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Observations and Results:

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Conclusion:

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