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| Pick This Project! |
Grade Level:
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| This unique science fair project is for all you electric guitar players. The goal of the project is to determine how the position, relative to the end of the string, of the pickup on an electric guitar affects the tone of the sound produced when the string is plucked. Before you investigate the physics of standing waves, you will need to be sure you understand the basic properties of waves. See how sound waves are produced by a musical instrument and then get the materials on the list. Follow the directions and try some of the variation ideas. |
| Topic: Guitar; Electric guitar; Physics--Experiments |
| URL: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Music_p006.shtml?fave=no&isb=c2lkOjEsaWE6TXVzaWMscDoxLHJpZDoxMTgxNjAwNw&from=TSW |
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| The Technology: Evolution of Country Guitar |
Grade Level:
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| Country music originated with the banjo and fiddle. People would sit out on their porch in the country and play music. Later, when the guitar became available, more and more musicians began to play. You can learn about the history of the guitar in country music when you read the interesting article on this Web site. The article contains information about guitar innovators, such as: Riley Puckett, Maybelle Carter, Charlie McCoy, Sam McGee, and others. With Real Audio you can listen to sound clips of an interview with Maybelle Carter. |
| Topic: Country music; Guitar |
| URL: http://www.honkytonks.org/showpages/countryguitar.htm |
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| Tuning Your Guitar |
Grade Level:
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| Whether you buy a guitar or build your own, you still need to know how to tune it. Turn the tuning knobs to tighten or loosen the strings. The pitch goes up when the string is tightened and down when it is loosened. The strings may snap if you overtighten them. The pitch is determined by the frequency of the sound wave, which can be seen on an oscilloscope. An electronic tuner detects if the note is flat or sharp, so you can adjust it. Many musicians tune their instrument by ear, by matching the notes to a tuned instrument. |
| Topic: Tuning; Guitar |
| URL: https://mitocw.ups.edu.ec/high-school/engineering/guitar-building/building-the-guitar/tuning-your-guitar/ |
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| How To Tune a Guitar |
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| An out-of-tune guitar is irritating to an experienced guitarist. Tuning your guitar is an important skill for beginning guitar players. Guitarists have several options for tuning their instrument. Discover clever acronyms to help you remember the standard tuning for a guitar. Tuning requires hearing whether two notes are the same or different. The guitar can be tuned to itself using fretted strings. The fifth fret on the lower string should sound the same as the unfretted higher string, except one string matches the fourth fret. Tuning forks, pitch pipes, piano notes, and electronic tuners are other tuning options. |
| Topic: Tuning; Guitar |
| URL: https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-players-room/how-to-tune-a-guitar |
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| How Are Acoustic Guitars Different from Electric Guitars? |
Grade Level:
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| The guitar is one of the most important and popular instruments because it is so versatile. The guitar is used in all kinds of music from rock and jazz, to country and blues, and much more. There are several types of guitars, but they primarily fall into two groups: acoustic and electric. Learn about the similarities and differences between the two types. The acoustic guitars were the first to be made back in the 1500s. In the 1920s, electricity was added, which called for a thinner, solid body rather than the hollow acoustic bodies. |
| Topic: Guitar; Electric guitar |
| URL: https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-are-acoustic-guitars-different-from-electric-guitars |
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| Classical Guitar Illustrated History |
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| "It is believed that the history of the guitar began in the ancient Near East (Babylonia). In Egypt and Rome, instruments had features that could be the predecessor of the guitar." This web page provides extensive information about the history of the guitar. Information is provided, via links, in several different categories: by century, by continent, by country and by famous artists. Textual links to color illustrations of examples are provided. References are provided in addition to additional links to other sites about guitars. |
| Topic: Guitar |
| URL: http://www.classicalguitarmidi.com/history/guitar_history.html |
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| The Most Important Skill That Most Guitar Players Don?t Have |
Grade Level:
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| Music theory, creativity, impeccable technique, the ability to play with other musicians?these skills are all important to any guitar player who wants to excel at his/her craft. But the most important skill that too many guitar players fail to mention (or develop) is ear training or aural skills. Tom Hess thought he had good aural skills until he began composing songs. He struggled to get the music from his head to his hands and out of his guitar. It wasn?t until he took aural skills classes that he realized his ear needed more training. He suggests several practice activities for ear training. |
| Topic: Ear training; Guitar |
| URL: https://tomhess.net/Articles/TheMostImportantSkillMostPlayersDontHave.aspx |
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| How is an Electric Guitar Different From an Acoustic Guitar? |
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| Electric guitars and acoustic guitars both usually have six strings, frets, tuning pegs, and a long neck. An acoustic guitar is hollow for the sound to resonate within the instrument. An electric guitar, on the other hand, is usually solid and requires magnetic pickups and an electronic signal through an amplifier speaker to be heard. The vibration of the string creates a vibrating current in the coil, which sends the signal through a circuit to the jack where the amplifier is plugged in. |
| Topic: Electric guitar; Guitar |
| URL: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question701.htm/printable |
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| Guitar Jingle: Discovering the Locations of Harmonics |
Grade Level:
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| Play around with a guitar as you do this music science fair project. You will learn to identify the locations of harmonics on an acoustic guitar and relate them to guitar string lengths. A photograph shows the parts of an acoustic guitar and there are definitions for terms that are important to know for this project. Learn how to play a harmonic and coax a bell sound from the guitar. Links are given for help with background research and the experimental procedure is outlined with directions and photographs. |
| Topic: Harmonics (Music); Guitar |
| URL: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Music_p030/music/guitar-locations-of-harmonics?fave=no&isb=c2lkOjEsaWE6TXVzaWMscDoxLHJpZDoxMTgxNjAwNw&from=TSW |
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| Guitar |
Grade Level:
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| Learn some things about the guitar that you may not have known in this encyclopedia article from Fact Monster. The guitar has an interesting history. The six string guitar that you know today began as an instrument that was similar to a lute. There are also many different types of guitars that have more or less strings or are made of different types of materials. You will learn when the first guitar appeared and the people who were best known for playing the guitar and playing it well. |
| Topic: Guitar |
| URL: https://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/arts/performing/music/guitar |
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| Online Guitar Tuner |
Grade Level:
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| Tune your guitar with this online tool. Click on the keys to play the notes that correspond to each string. This tool also provides the notes for alternate guitar tunings. You can set the tuner to loop so that it will continue to play the note periodically as you tune your instrument. Video tutorials provide directions for tuning an electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, and ukulele. Discover other methods for tuning a guitar. If you use a keyboard or pitch pipe for a reference note, you can tune the rest of the strings in relation to that note. |
| Topic: Tuning; Guitar; Ukulele |
| URL: https://www.fender.com/online-guitar-tuner |
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| Guitar |
Grade Level:
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| A guitar has a hollow body with a long neck. Strings are stretched down the neck to the lower part of the body. There is a round sound hole that augments the vibration from the strings as they are played. The strings are either plucked by fingers, or with a guitar pick, or "plectrum." Guitars can be used for almost any kind of music from Spanish flamenco to classical works. In this form, i.e. not connected to anything electric, is called an "acoustic guitar." |
| Topic: Guitar |
| URL: http://www.dkfindout.com/us/music-art-and-literature/musical-instruments/guitar/ |
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| The Physics of Playing Guitar - Oscar Fernando Perez |
Grade Level:
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| Legendary guitarists transform an instrument made of wood, plastic, and metal into a composition of melody and rhythm. A plucked sting vibrates, with the fixed nodes and oscillating anti-nodes of the wave bounce within the body of the guitar. The sound wave travels through the air, and your brains turns frequency into pitch. The length and tension of guitar strings are about the same, but denser and thicker strings produce lower notes. Learn about changing overtones for a twangy or distorted effect. |
| Topic: Guitar; Guitar music |
| URL: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-physics-of-playing-guitar-oscar-fernando-perez |
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| Lesson 46: Harmonics |
Grade Level:
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| Every time a guitarist plucks a note, harmonics are played, although most of the time, we don't hear them. We hear the first harmonic, or fundamental--the loudest sound produced--but several harmonics accompany that sound. In this article, Patrick MacFarlane explains that, for guitarists, "playing harmonics" is actually the elimination of the fundamental and other overtones. "It produces a nice effect that many guitarists like to use," he observes, noting that there are several methods of playing them: open string harmonics and the fretted harmonics--artificial and pinched. MacFarlane includes a description of the physics of harmonics. |
| Topic: Harmonics (Music); Music--Acoustics and physics; Guitar |
| URL: https://www.guitarlessonworld.com/lessons/harmonics/?content=lessons/lesson46 |
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| Analyze This: Do Exotic Woods Make Better Guitars? |
Grade Level:
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| Guitarists evaluate whether the wood used to make a guitar changes the sound. Guitars made from rare woods look pretty and cost a lot. Some think they produce a richer sound. A psychoacoustician designed an experiment with six nearly identical guitars. A luthier made the guitars with different types of back wood. Brazilian rosewood, Indian rosewood, mahogany, walnut, maple, and sapele were the woods used. Fifty-two musicians rates each guitar on overall sound and playability. Analyze each wood's wins and losses. Rank the six woods. |
| Topic: Guitar |
| URL: https://www.snexplores.org/article/analyze-do-exotic-woods-make-better-guitars |