Enrichment of Student Understanding of Acoustics through the Modernization of a Physics of Music Laboratory

音乐物理是一门专门为音乐、音乐教育和音乐戏剧专业的学生设计的课程，是他们科学通识教育的一部分。该项目调整了目前的声音实验，纳入了来自其他机构的音乐课程的物理元素，通过使用现代乐器来实现这些想法。学生使用计算机对声音进行可视化和分析，强调对音乐声音的质量或音色进行定量测量。通过这些实验，学生们可以学到“是什么让不同的乐器发出不同的声音”。理解这一点的关键是促进学生对泛音和谐和频谱的理解。通过研究和测量各种乐器的和声频谱，开发了新的实验，以促进学生的批判性思维、解决问题的能力和创造力。这些实验使用计算机作为频谱分析仪，实时分析各种乐器和人声的声音。此外，还研究了乐器在演奏过程中的共鸣和响度的空间分布。使用该设备，我们开发了一个独立的声音物理模块，作为我们新的综合理科课程的一部分，供其他专业的学生学习，特别是文科专业和教师。这些实验的细节可在课程实验室手册中找到，在专业会议上分发，并可在网络上查阅。通过该项目建立了音乐物理课程和实验室信息交流网站。

Physics of Music is a course especially designed for music, music education, and music theater majors, as part of their general education in science. This project adapts current sound experiments to include elements of physics of music courses from other institutions, implementing these ideas through the use of modern instrumentation. Students use computers in the visualization and analysis of sounds emphasizing quantitative measurement of the quality or timbre of musical sounds. These experiments enable students to learn "what makes different musical instruments sound differently". The key to understanding this is to advance student understanding of overtones and harmonic spectra. New experiments are developed to promote the students' critical thinking, problem-solving abilities and creativity by studying and measuring harmonic spectra of musical sounds from a variety of musical instruments. The experiments use computers as spectrum analyzers for real-time analysis of sounds from various musical instruments and the human voice. In addition, resonance and the spatial distribution of loudness around musical instruments is studied while they are being played. Using this equipment, a stand-alone Physics of Sound module is developed as part of our new integrated science course of student learning for other majors especially liberal arts majors and teachers. Details of these experiments are available in a course laboratory manual, disseminated at professional meetings, and accessible on the web. A clearing-house website on Physics of Music courses and laboratories is made available through this project.