Sunday, December 16, 2012

Battle of the Bands Evaluation


BATTLE OF THE BANDS
EVALUATION FORM #5

Band Name: Unknown Band





Band Members Name
Instruments Made
Individual Blog URL
# of blog entries
# of prototypes made each
Charize Divina

Trumpet, Xylophone
physicsbattleofthebands.blogspot.com
7
One trumpet, one xylophone
Christian Encarnacion

Ukulele
physicsbattleofthebands.blogspot.com
5
one
Pete Dominguez
Bass Guitar
physicsbattleofthebands.blogspot.com
2
one
Jeremiah Catapia
Flute
physicsbattleofthebands.blogspot.com
1
two


Instrument Evaluations:

Charize Divina:
            My xylophone might look simple but it creates a pretty decent and accurate sound compared to the real xylophone. During the competition, it might have overpowered the other instruments but overall, I can honestly say that I did pretty well on my instrument. It had a higher level of difficulty than just taking glass bottles and putting different amounts of liquid in it.

My instrument is a percussion instrument. I made a single-octave xylophone out of wood. it produces sound simply by hitting it with a spoon; vibrations are produced in the keys and transferred into the air, and translated into the sound that we hear. In order to get a sound, the screws had to be a bit loose and the keys have to have certain lengths (the longer the key, the lower the pitch and the shorter the key, the higher the pitch). Since the xylophone only has one octave, you can add more keys and make it into a multiple-octave xylophone. Also, by taking of bits of wood from the keys using sandpaper, you can tune the keys according to your preference.

Christian Encarnacion:
            I think my ukulele is very decent. Even though it wasn't really loud, it played better than some of the guitars which were played by others. As a beginner, I think I did pretty well by learning to play my instrument rather than simply strumming it while singing along.

My instrument is a ukulele. It produces sound simply by plucking or strumming the strings. When they are plucked or strummed, they vibrate and affect the air molecules, which bounce off the hollow and echo the sound. To get different pitches, you simply place your fingers on different frets. A limitation on my ukulele was it created sound that can barely be heard. A solution would be to make sure the tension in the strings are just right and that strings are properly elevated so it doesn't touch the fret board or any other part of the guitar's body.

Pete Dominguez:
            My bass guitar looks complicated, but it is pretty simple. Although sometimes it makes random noises at random times, it still sounds good when it isn’t interfered by radio signals. During the performance, I had to lower down the sound of my instrument due to radio signals interfering with my instrument.

My bass guitar’s quality of sound was very close to an actual bass guitar. It made sound by string vibration in between LED emitters and LED detectors, which turns light waves into sound. Change the pitch by pressing on the frets; if you play closer to the top the pitch is lower and near the bottom the pitch is higher. The defect of the bass guitar was catching radio station signals which I believe made it make random noises at random times.



Jeremiah Catapia:
            I made a flute for the Battle of the Bands project. I made a total of two flutes, that were made out of pvc pipes. To drill into the flute, I used drill bits that were ⅜, 11/32, 7/16 and 5/16. The holes were drilled accurately. My flute did produce the right sound, so i can't evaluate the sound of my instrument. Same goes for the playing the flute, it did not produce any sound. However, I can say that I did pretty well; I had challenges but I didn't give up and left my team hanging.

The instrument I made was a flute. A flute produces sound by the player blowing into the flute and the air streams split into columns. When the air streams split into columns, they vibrate and the vibration produces sound. A limitation that my flute had was that it didn't sound well. A solution is to put a cork at the end of the flute.

(Our band got together five times; some days were used as a research day, some were used to actually rehearse the songs. I can honestly say those days were a lot of help when we were trying to put everything together. If we had simply practiced individually, we would have been all over the place on the day of the performance).

Question:
We believe that this project was meant for us learn how to manage our time wisely and use those ten weeks to actually do something productive. First of all, it gave us time to choose and create our individual instruments and it also gave us more than enough time to come together and make music as a band. This all reflects on the day of the performance because the audience is able to see whether or not we took the project seriously. Those ten weeks given to us were meant for us to experiment with different things and mess up and start all over again. This makes us learn more and gives us a chance to find ways to improve our instruments. Also, by playing together, our teamwork skills can improve by helping each other out with whatever we need help on. In a team, when one struggles, everyone else does; it can't just be one person who gets all the glory. We were able to pull it off, and we believe that those ten weeks were meant for improvement and to build up our success.

Extra Credit Songs:
Along with Walking in a Winter Wonderland, we played Jingle Bells for extra credit. They weren't original compositions. We simply just played the melody in unison as a band.

Above and Beyond:
            We can't say we were the best band that performed on Thursday/Friday but there are definitely some things that make us unique among all the other bands. Not only did we have a banner that represented who we are but we also had matching outfits and Santa hats to go along with the Christmas songs we played. Also, we tried out best to create unique instruments that took more than just effort. We overcame challenges and worked together as a group until the day of the competition. We took advantage of the opportunity given to us to show what we are capable of. Lastly, we knew how important this project was so we didn't give up and kept trying to the best of our abilities. In spite of difficult times, we had fun doing this project.

What grade did each band member earn?
As a group, we came to the conclusion that all of us, except Jeremiah, deserve at least a B. We all finished the task and did all the requirements for the project to be considered 'finished.' However, this doesn't mean Jeremiah deserves to fail. Even though his flute wasn't very successful, he still stood up in front of the class on the day of the performance; in the end, he didn't let his band down, as other people would do.



What grade did you earn as a band?
            As a group, we concluded that we deserve at least a B. We deserve it because we practiced several times, went above and beyond, and although some challenges had occurred we were able to get past them and perform.

1st, 2nd, 3rd Bands:
 As a group we decided that:
1st – Journey – instruments resonated well.
2nd – Unknown – played good, but had some minor difficulties.
3rd – Per second, per second – very entertaining.

1st, 2nd, 3rd Instruments:
As a group, we decide that Pete has the 1st Place instrument. His bass guitar had a higher difficulty level in creating, given the fact that he not only had to learn the concepts of an electric guitar but he also had to figure out how to do the wiring for it, which is pretty complicated. Second place belongs to Christian; Even though it wasn't very good when it came to sound, it took a lot of time and work in creating. He had to go through sawing wood, figuring out measurements for the fret board, putting the strings on and so forth. Third place is Charize Divina. Even though my xylophone actually sounded good, I believe it isn't worthy of being compared to the first two instruments that were just described.



Sunday, December 9, 2012

Practice 12/08/12



We all got together and tried to figure out how to play the songs. Even though there were some difficulties, we were able to get some progress. We need to do a little fixing individually; we're probably going to meet up again to polish off our music and fix whatever needs fixing.

how to make a single-octave xylophone

http://m.wikihow.com/Make-a-Xylophone

materials:

  • saw
  • wood
  • drill
  • screws and screw driver
  • tape measure/ ruler

steps:
1)measure and cut wood into desired lengths; cut two 16-inch wood for the frame
2)start assembling the keys and position them over the frame
3) drill holes on the keys 2/9 of the way down and screw them on to the frame
4) loosen/ tighten screws as you go to "tune" the keys
5) optional: to prevent the frame from "wiggling" add extra pieces of wood on the back for support
6) tune and play.
7) have fun! (:

Friday, December 7, 2012

Instrument Change

Last week, i tried to play the trumpet i made. Even though it actually worked, i ha difficulty playing it; i was only able to play the same low note even when using the holes for the "valves." i figured it would be less time consuming if i made another instrument instead of learning gow to improve my trumpet playing skills. So i decided to make a xylophone instead ... And i'm done... I just have to post it up on here (: