I've been mulling this over in the quiet moments before I fall asleep.
It occurred to me that a harp doesn't have a sound board or sound box, yet it still makes beautiful music. So, what exactly are the functions of a sound board and sound box? Do they focus the sound, add certain qualities to it, amplify it, or something else?
That being asked, I'm led to a bigger question: what exactly is sound? I assume it's vibrations that are at a frequency the human ear detects and converts to certain signals to the brain. But is it just vibrations of the air? or of something else (the ether? disturbances in the space/time continuum? what?) I know sound travels through other mediums besides air, so what exactly has to vibrate to create sound? I'm being a bit silly here but I would like a concise definition of sound from someone who understands this better than I do.
For now, however, I am going on the assumption that my definition of sound is more or less correct which leads me back to my original question: how does the mandolin shape, size, construction, composition produce the particular sounds we associate with the instrument? Can they be produced another way?
Papers due at 12:00. No cheating.
Bill
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