Question

A trombone is one of the musical instruments demonstrated in class. For this problem, treat a trombone as a pipe, open at one end, with a length of 2.7 m when the slide is all the way in. Assume the speed of sound in air is 343 m/s.

Part A: Music What class of musical instruments does the trombone belong to? What is the ultimate source of vibrations for a trombone? How does a musician change the pitch of a trombone when tuning it and when playing it?

Part B: Harmony Sketch the first 3 harmonics for the trombone. Indicate the nodes and antinodes.

Part C: Pitch What are the frequency and wavelength of each of the first 3 harmonics (assuming the slide is all the way in)?

Part D: Beats The trombonist plays a tone generator which produces A-220, a tone at 220 Hz. When the trombonist plays an A note on the trombone, they notice it’s not in tune, and they hear beats at 2 Hz. What frequency is the trombone actually playing? Please give all possible answers.

Answer 1

A) It belongs to Brass family. Source of vibration is the lips of player. The pitch is changed using tuning slide while tuning and while playing the main slide is used to change the length of pipe which creates sounds of different frequency.