Gabriella Vasquez 

Jada Nazarian 
Sophia Moreno 
6/7 STEM 
May 18, 2018 
Instrument Document 
The three instruments that we have are a flute (wind),  
ukulele (strings), and xylophone (chimes). 
Wind 
The instrument I created was a flute, which was made out of a PVC pipe connected to a flute 
mouthpiece. This instrument creates notes through the vibration made by blowing into the flute. A 
flute mouthpiece is a little different than others, because it requires one to blow air over the top, 
kind of splitting the air through two different pathways and creating the air inside the tube to 
vibrate. The different notes then depend on where the air leaves the pipe, based on where the 
holes are placed. The holes that were drilled into the PVC pipe were calculated beforehand based 
on the wavelength of each note. For my flute, I used the octave C#4 to C#5 and the different notes 
in between.  
 
Notes  Frequency  Wavelength  Distance to Hole 

C#4  261.63  124.47  31 

D4  293.66  117.48  29 

E4  329.63  104.66  26 

F#4  369.99  93.24  23 

G#4  415.30  83.07  21 

A4  440.00  78.41  19 

B4  493.88  69.85  17 

C#5  554.37  62.23  15 

The above notes are the notes I chose to create in my flute. To find the distance from the hole to 
the mouthpiece, I had to take ¼ of the wavelength and put that into cm. These different lengths 
then allow the air to escape causing the pitch to change because the vibrations cut off at different 
points. Covering up the holes with one´s fingers also changes the note being played.  
 
String 
The instrument I created was a ukulele, which was made up of mainly wood and I used 2 
pieces and put them on top of each other so there is a hollow space in between. I then 
connected another piece of wood to the “box” and attach screws to the top of it and the 
bottom of the box. I then strung the entire instrument and tuned it as well as I could to 
resemble the chords of a ukulele. 
 
Note  Frequency (Hz)  Wavelength (Cm)  String length 

C​4  261.63  131.87   

E​4  329.63  104.66   

G​4  392.00  88.01   

A​4  440.00  78.41   

 
 
 
This table represents the frequencies of an “equal-tempered” scale. These are the notes that I used 
to create the notes for my ukulele. It doesn’t sound perfect but I came close to using a G, C, E, and 
A. To create the note I accidently forgot to change the length of the string and the thickness so 
before they all sounded the same. I fixed it though, by wrapping it around the nails as many times 
as possible and used a screwdriver to adjust the note that was suitable for the chord. 
 
Chime 
The instrument I created was a xylophone, which was made out of a wooden base with two 
wooden strips on the side with nails attached to the two pieces of wood. I then tied strings around 
the nails, and the strings went through pieces of metal pipes and was tied to the opposite nail. Each 
metal pipe has a different length which makes a note when I hit it with a stick. 
 
 
 
 
Interval Multiply Longest
Chime Length by

Unison 1.0000

Major Second 0.9428

Major Third 0.8944

Fourth 0.8660

Fifth 0.8165

Major Sixth 0.7746

Major Seventh 0.7303

Octave 0.7071