SCIE 155 Science of Musical Instruments

Students study the scientific principles by which sound is generated in common acoustic musical instruments and discover the mathematical foundation of musical scales. This course explores mechanical oscillation, frequency, wavelength, and the harmonic series. Students investigate the complex timbre of musical instruments through hands-on laboratory experiments using wave and spectrum analysis, and develop scales using sound-generation software. For a final project, students construct a functional instrument and perform an original musical composition.

Repeatable: N
Formerly 56-1881
SL
Prerequisites MATH 110 College Mathematics or MATH 115 Liberal Arts Mathematics or MATH 120 Quantitative Reasoning or ACCU-T-50 EXAM-ACCUPLACER MATH MINIMUM SCORE = 50 or ACT-M-20 EXAM-ACT MATH MINIMUM SCORE = 20 or SAT-M-490 EXAM-SAT MATH MINIMUM SCORE = 490 or CMPS-M-50 EXAM-CMPS MATH MINIMUM SCORE = 50
Minimum Credits 4 Maximum Credits 4