1.
section
TITLE OVER:
Script for IPS*3000 Video Project
Tip: to incorporate the shakiness, record the
GIFs/animations using a camera and upload them
like that
SCENE 1 (2 MINUTES)
*Intro music - Milestones by the Charlie
Parker*
*Opening credits and title of video, in the
1940-1950 style of film*
Have you ever wondered what makes the velvety
voice of a smooth crooner like Frank Sinatra
so different from the powerful, resonant voice
of someone like Ella Fitzgerald?
This idea, that different musical instruments
sound unique, even when playing the exact same
notes in unison, is called timbre.
No doubt, when many musical instruments, say,
in an orchestra all come together to play the
same things, you can usually distinguish all
of them from each other.
If you're any fan of jazz like me, we can
demonstrate your ear's ability to discern
musical timbre by comparing two instruments
playing the same song: the piano and
saxophone on a song you'll surely know: Satin
Doll.
Play Satin Doll first on the piano, then on
the saxophone.
No doubt, your brain can easily distinguish
with great ease which instrument is which.
SCENE 2 (1.5 MINUTES)
*Old-timey up-beat orchestra music playing*
Now, before we can talk about timbre, we've
got to talk about physics. Specifically,
we've got to talk about how physics describes
timbre.
2.
SCENE 3 (1.5 MINUTES)
(voiceover) The simplest sort of sound wave
you can possibly get is a singular, perfect
sine wave.
Drawing a sine wave on a blackboard and
looking back.
However, more complex sounds are really
just combinations of these singular, perfect
sine waves, all at varying frequencies and
amplitudes.
Drawing a graph containing many harmonics on
the blackboard in different colors and looking
back.
We find that in reality, one seldom finds
simple sine wave sounds in nature. It turns
out that most sounds are considerably complex
ones.
3.
SCENE 4 (1 MINUTE)
(voiceover) Among all of these individual
waves contained in a complex sound, the one
with the lowest frequency has what we call the
fundamental frequency, which we denote as f.
Going back to the blackboard and labelling the
lowest wave as f.
All of the component waves with frequencies
higher than the fundamental are referred to
as the sound's overtones. You see, if one
of these overtones has a frequency that is an
integer multiple of the fundamental frequency,
that overtone is referred to as a harmonic.
Going back to blackboard and labelling each
harmonic overtone on the previous diagram with
the corresponding integer multiple of f.
Collectively, the harmonic overtones
constitute what is known as the harmonics of a
sound.
Fade transition from the blackboard diagram to
a screen visual showing all of the harmonics
of the previous diagram, except with separate
graphs and the harmonics being stacked
vertically according to the next biggest
integer multiple of the fundamental frequency.
4.
SCENE 5 (2.5 MINUTES)
Now that we've covered the basics, let's
compare the timbre of a piano versus a
guitar.
First, let's look at their harmonics. Here's
the piano.
Show piano harmonics diagram as a screen
visual, similar to the one above that was
drawn on the blackboard.
And here's the guitar.
Show guitar harmonics diagram as a screen
visual.
You'll notice that they're almost the same.
The reason for this is because while the
guitar's overtone frequencies are harmonic,
the overtones inherent in sound produced by a
piano are slightly inharmonic. So slightly,
in fact, that it's practically unnoticeable.
We'll now look at both of their waveform
graphs. A waveform graph is, in effect, the
graph that results from adding all of the
overtones, harmonic and inharmonic, together
mathematically. We'll look at their waveforms
up to the 50th harmonic. Here's the piano.
Show piano waveform up to the 50th harmonic.
And here's the guitar.
Show guitar waveform up to the 50th harmonic.
Unlike before, the difference is quite
noticeable. In particular, you'll find that
the piano has a more scattered waveform, while
the guitar's waveform has a sawtooth shape.
5.
SCENE 6 (0.5 MINUTES) ENDING
To recap, we learned that sound is a wave
phenomenon. We also learned that real sounds
are complex due to their compound nature.
Lastly, we learned why different instruments
produce unique sounds: it's because of
their harmonics! So the next time you hear
music, consider that there may be some serious
physics behind it.
