Week 16 : The 'Iolani Stage Bands

Unlike many of my AP Physics B peers, I do not play a musical instrument. Sadface!

But I'm not musically challenged or anything. Like everyone else who went to public elementary school, I played the recorder. I can kinda read music (Thank you, Ms. Komatsu!), I have a good sense of rhythm (I do love to dance) and I know the basics of playing the ukulele (But not like Scott Tan or Dardo--I merely DABBLE, but those two are uke beasts!).

So instead of playing music, I listen to music. I love my iPod and playlist-making is one of my hobbies (yes, I consider it a hobby).

The 'Iolani Stage Bands performed their Winter Concert at Aloha Tower Marketplace on Friday night. I went with my dad, primarily to watch my brother (he's a tenor sax man in Stage Band 1), but also to watch and support some friends, listen to music and, of course, discover the connections between the sweet sounds of the 'Iolani Stage Bands and the concepts that we're learning in Physics.

Sound is a longitudinal wave, which means that the motions of the particles are parallel to the direction of the wave. It originates from vibrations that come from the instruments and then travel through the air.

The Stage Bands performed songs that varied in speed, pitch and volume. In terms of waves, these are actually changes in speed, frequency of the sound wave, and the amplitude, respectively.

For changes in pitch, the frequency of the sound wave increases. At the same time, period (or the time it takes to complete one cycle) and wavelength (the distance between two corresponding parts of two waves) decrease.

For changes in amplitude, frequency stays the same (and so do period and wavelength) and the only thing that changes is the amplitude of the sound wave (or half the distance between the crest and the time axis, if graphed).

Here's a short video (which is mostly of my brother) of some of Stage Band 1's songs....

[Either my computer was just acting up, or Blogger Video Uploader is down--I can't upload straight through here, so I'm just gonna upload it on YouTube, then embed it here...]



And, voila, the Physics of the 'Iolani Stage Bands.

P.S. Great job to the AP Physics B'ers in Stage Band (I'm sure they couldn't stop thinking about Physics during the concert): Darwin, Scott M., and Max! :)