Equipment:

• Xylophone

Demo:

Our xylophone, built for educational purposes in Germany, consists of several pieces of metal cut to resonate at musical frequencies.

A musical scale consists of 8 frequencies, or notes, grouped to form an octave. Doubling the frequency of a note is referred to as “playing an octave higher.” A note is named the same as a note played an octave higher. For example, the notes of frequency 440 and 880 Hz are both named �A’ due to the second being an octave higher than the first (double the frequency). The notes are engraved into plates of the xylophone.

The musical progression within a scale is inscribed to the right of the xylophone as ratios. For example, a “9/8” progression results in the second note being 9/8 the frequency of the first, while a “16/15” results in a ratio of 16/15, and so on (the progression is non-linear). The frequency of the 12 notes is written on the base plate to the right of the xylophone.