Technical Presentation

ENG 2003 Technical Report Presentation Osama Ali - Mohamed Mahgoub - Ahmed Mahdi - Sahil Pall

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A guitar chord gives out a harmonious or a consonant sound where the frequencies of the notes produced should be proportional to each other. A chord is a set of three or more notes that, when played together, gives out a harmonious sound. Typically the sound from a chord is perceived as if it is one note, and sound produced is thought to be harmonious and consonant. There are multiple ways of constructing a chord, with each emerging from a different theory, hence under this investigation I will examine closely the major third (triad) chords and investigate the underlying relations between the notes in a major third chord. This study would be accomplished through measuring the frequency of each individual note and establishing a common ground among them.

BUT WHAT’S A CHORD?

WHAT IS A CHORD? • A chord is a combination of three or more different notes sounded together. • Always remember, chords consist of 3 different notes. Two notes sounded together is called an interval rather than a chord. In turn, a chord is further defined as a group of specific intervals. So if you hit an E chord and a B chord at the same time, that’s technically not a chord. • Three of the same is not a chord either. If you hit three notes but they're all F#, that’s not really a chord either. The three notes must be three different notes at specific intervals. • Basic three-note chords are called triads. The notes https://www.guitarlessons.com/guitarin these chords are usually related to each other in lessons/guitar-lessons-for-beginners/8prescribed ways having to do with scales. guitar-chords-you-must-know

MUSIC THEORY • • • • • • • • • • • •

C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B

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ABOUT THE GUITAR • The headstock is where the strings are attached and the tuning pegs are used to tighten or loosen the strings to tune them. • The string is played by plucking it over the sound hole. The fret board is what the strings are pressed against to produce different notes. • When the string is played it produces a standing wave. The waves produced go through the sound hole and get amplified to produce the sound that we hear. • The frequency of the sound heard is equal to the frequency of vibration of the standing wave (Henderson)

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C-MAJOR CHORD In a guitar, to play a chord, all strings of the guitar should play one of the three notes making Major Third. [6] For example, table 1 shows the notes produced by each guitar string when playing the C-major chord.

String Number

String

Note Played

1

E

E1

2

B

C2

3

G

G

4

D

E4

5

A

C5

6

E

NOT PLAYED

Table 1

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER • In this report the frequencies of each and every note in the C chord will be measured and comparisons will be made to see what they all have in common.

• The results would then be plotted into a linear graph with the guitar notes on the xhttps://www.blast-recording.com/ axis (independent variables axis) and the respectful frequencies on the y-axis (dependent variables axis). • To obtain as accurate results as possible, the same guitar and strings would be used to measure the frequencies. https://www.ck12.org/book/CK-12-Physical-ScienceConcepts-For-Middle-School/section/9.5/

MAIN TOPICS Agenda: • Method of Experimentation • Data Collection • Data Processing

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METHOD Elimination of variables:

• Investigation carried out in quiet environment. • Guitar tuned as accurately as possible. Experimentation: • To measure the frequency of the notes in one chord, each note on each sting was played separately and its frequency recorded. • An FFT graphing software was used to investigate the relationship between note harmonics. The peaks of the graph were then labelled.

RAW DATA Note

• Table 2 shows the frequency measured for each note in the C chord

• According to the hypothesis, these frequencies should be mathematically related

Frequency (Hz) ± 0.5Hz E1

322.29

G

193.70

C2

258.39

E4

166.32

C5

129.19

Table 2

RAW DATA

Figure 1 • Figure 1 is the FFT graph obtained for the C-Major Chord as a whole.

Figure 2 • Figure 2 is the FFT graph obtained for CMajor Chord along with each individual component notes.

DATA PROCESSING • The data is rearranged so that the frequencies are organized from smallest to largest, and given reference numbers from 1-5. • A graph of the reference number against frequency is plotted, and the graph obtained is shown below figure 3:

• There are two linear trends. • The first one, represents the relationship between the notes in one octave (C5, E4, and G). The second linear trend, shows the relationship between the notes in the higher octave (C2 and E1).

Figure 3

DATA PROCESSING • Figure 4 is the coordinates of the graph peaks for the C note, E note and G note, collected and plotted into a single graph. • The graph shows that some frequencies of the note peaks overlap each other. Figure 4

DISCUSSION The application used to measure the frequencies

The guitar

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The built-in microphone on the Apple® iPhone® http://www.guitar-on-the-spot.com/parts-of-theacoustic-guitar.html

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DISCUSSION Repeat the investigations a few times using different guitars.

Use a high-quality, accurate and precise sound detection device.

Ways to improve the results

Analyze the sound using a more accurate FFT graph-plotting software.

Perform the investigations for more than one chord.

CONCLUSION

My research question was:

What relationship links the individual notes in a major third chord?

CONCLUSION

Findings

CONCLUSION • I found that the frequencies of the notes in the C-major Chord showed a linear trend in notes within an octave • The relationship, on the other hand, between the octaves, obvious as it is, is that they are basically the same notes played but with higher pitches • The difference in frequencies between the different notes increases as the octave increases

• With only five notes (and hence five data points) the results obtained are not sufficient to reachany reasonable conclusion. Further investigation involving other chords is needed in order to reach a solid conclusion

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3.

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Learn Notes on the Fretboard. 2010. 7 July 2014 .

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Malm, William P. "Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East, and Asia." Third Edition. Michigan: Prentice Hall, 1996, 1967. 15.

7.

Miller, Micheal. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory ." Miller, Micheal. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory . Alpha; 2nd edition , 2005. 113.

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n.a. Introduction to Chords. musictheory.net, LLC. 12 January 2015 .

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Need To Know The Parts of the Acoustic Guitar? . 2005. On the Spot Publishing. 21 July 2014 .

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Purtell, Teague. Guitar Chords and Diatonic Chord Construction . 1999-2014. Teague Purtell Music Learning. 12 January 2015 .

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Schejtman, Rod. "Music Fundamentals ." Schejtman, Rod. Music Funcamentals. Buenos Aires: The Piano Encyclopedia, 2009. 20-43.

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Wright, David. "Mathematics and Music (Mathematical World)." Wright, David. American Mathematical Society , 2009. 140-141.