Physics of Music

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Physics and Music Notes
Michigan Technological University - Grad. Notes

Musical Acoustics - Some Introductory Pages

This web site features many different sections that provide information about several areas of musical acoustics. You can explore the General topic section to answer your broader questions regarding musical acoustics, such as, What is a decibel? Or What is acoustic impedance? You can also specifically research the string and wind instruments and how their acoustics relate to one another.
Topic: Music--Acoustics and physics Language: English http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au

Music Acoustics

This web site presents research that has been done in the field of music acoustics. There are many areas on this site to explore. You can read about the researchers and their projects. You can also learn specifically about flute, shakuhachi (an end-blown Japanese flute), violin, and guitar acoustics. Another interesting area to read about is the work done on speech acoustics.
Topic: Music--Acoustics and physics Language: English Lexile: 960 http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au

Sound Waves and Music

The whole idea behind sound waves and how they carry and are heard by different people is a very complex yet interesting area of physics. This site talks about sound waves and music, with the information arranged into different lessons. The first lesson is The Nature of a Sound Wave, followed by Lesson 2: Sound Properties and Their Perception. Lesson 3 is Behavior of Sound Waves and the final lesson is Resonance and Standing Waves.
Topic: Sound waves Language: English http://www.physicsclassroom.com

Fiddle Physics

The rich sounds of the violin make it a lead instrument in classical music. The fiddle is popular in folk music around the world. Explore the physics of the violin and what happens as the player moves the bow over the strings. Rosin on the bow makes it stick to the strings before the strings slip away. Investigate oscillations that occur hundreds or thousands of times in a second. The sound isn't produced by the strings but the vibrations in the violin's wooden body and bridge. Sawtooth waves are produced.
Topic: Violin Language: English Lexile: 1490 http://www.physicscentral.com

Harmonic Series

The harmonic series is the key to understanding not only harmonics, but also timbre and the basic functioning of many musical instruments, asserts Catherine Schmidt-Jones. Harmonics explains how a bugle plays many notes, although it has no valves, why clarinet and a piccolo sound different, even when they're playing the same note, what string musicians do when they play harmonics. Four sections follow the introduction to this illustrated article: Physics, Harmonics and Color; The Harmonics Series; Brass Instruments; and Harmonics on Strings.
Topic: Harmonics (Music), Music--Acoustics and physics Language: English http://cnx.rice.edu

Pipes and Harmonics

Harmonics are often described first by explaining the physics of the plucked string. The tone produced by the vibration of a violin string plucked in its center is called the fundamental tone of the string. The string vibrates as a whole when plucked at its center. Plucked elsewhere, the string can be made to vibrate in three or more separate parts. Unlike the harmonics of a guitar, for example, the harmonics of wind instruments, involves the vibration of air, not strings. This article explains the principles at work in the three simplest air columns: open cylinder, closed cylinder, and cone.
Topic: Harmonics (Music) Language: English Lexile: 1420 http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au