Okay, so here is the thing: Although I am a mechanical engineering major, I am not taking any MechE classes (yet). Instead, I am taking an introductory Audio and Music Engineering course. Audio and music engineering is a new major offered by the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Its curriculum includes elements of music and acoustics, as well as some engineering sciences and signal processing, preparing the students for the field of audio and sonic engineering. The class I am taking is AME 140, "Introduction to Audio and Music Engineering." I originally did not have many expectations about this class (well it's my first engineering class so I did not know what to expect), but it turns out to be a really, really cool and fun class. And here is something that I have learned and done:
1. Oscillation of strings
I learned from my high school physics class that strings produce sound because they oscillate, and this class has allowed me to learn about the oscillation mechanism in a more in-depth way. I learned about the modes of oscillations of strings, frequencies etc. I even learned about guitar fret placement (i.e., to calculate at which position should each guitar fret be placed)!
2. Tuning systems and acoustic resonance
As a clarinet player, tuner is my best friend. It helps me to make sure my clarinet is in tune and the music I play blends in with others. In this class, I learned about different tuning systems and what exactly the markings on a tuner mean. I have always taken the tuner just as it is and not thought deeply about the mechanism behind, so it is fun to learn about the scientific concepts behind it. I also learned about acoustic resonance, about how acoustic waves travel in different ways in instruments such as clarinet and flute.
3. Guitar amplifiers
I have a love-hate relationship with this part. It took me some long time before I finally understood how an operational amplifier works (reading the same PowerPoint slides for more than three times and looking it up on the Internet), it was quite an agonizing and frustrating process. But there is the fun part to it too: I got to build my own guitar amplifier! So, I got to actually do some cool engineering-y thing and get my hands dirty. Here is a picture of the circuit board. I soldered everything myself!
Not bad, eh? I really enjoyed this class, and I look forward to taking even more interesting and fun classes next semester! Learn more about audio and music engineering.
-Florence