Bart Hopkin

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DESIGN:
Practical Information for Instrument Makers

This encyclopedic, extensively illustrated book provides the information necessary to explore the world of musical instrument design and construction. While newcomers will appreciate its practical, hands-on approach and friendly tone, those with an established interest in instrument making will find it equally valuable. No other single resource contains the theoretical and practical information found in this volume. Chapters on flute making and wind instrument design are worth the price of the entire book.

Chapters include:

1. Musical Sound Perception - Basics; Timbre & Overtones; Attack & Decay, Directional Effects.
2. Acoustic Principles - Oscillation, Resonance; Damping & Radiation; Modes of Vibration; Nodes & Antinodes; Phase Relationships; Impedance, Transmission & Radiation.
3. Tuning Systems & Pitch Layouts - Tuning Systems; Pitch Layouts, Gesture, Ergonomics.
4. Idiophones - Free Bar Instruments; Rods Fixed at One End; Tuning Forks; Bells, Cymbals & Gongs; Saws & Wobbleboards; Instruments with Irregular Vibration Patterns.
5. Beaters, Scrapers, Friction Makers - Mallets & Sticks; Friction Devices; Scrapers; Mounting Systems.
6. Aerophones - Exciting the Vibration; Air columns & Chambers; Materials for Wind Instrument Tubes and Vessels; Pitch Control for Wind Instruments; Plosive Aerophones; Sirens; Outer Air Instruments.
7. Membranophones - Drumheads; Drum Bodies; Attaching the Head; Drum Tuning; Drum Mounting and Positioning; Drum Types and Accessories.
8. Resonators & Radiators - Sound Boards & Sound Chambers; Particular Radiator and Resonator Types.
9. Chordophones - String Instrument Forms; Basics of String Vibration and Scaling; Sounding the String; Tensioning Mechanisms; Bridges; Pitch Control: Multiple Strings, Length & Tension; Tunings & String Layout; Unorthodoxies.
10. Special Effects - Chorusing & Beating Effects; Reverberation and Sympathetic Vibration; Shifting Resonance Effects; Rattles; Mirlitons; Dampers; Moving Sound Sources.

Also includes appendices on Tools & Materials, Frequency & Tuning Charts, Amplification, Woodwind Air Columns, Toneholes and Keying Mechanisms as well as an extensive bibliography.

181 pp. CM-16

Bart Hopkin was founder and editor of Experimental Musical Instruments, a quarterly journal dedicated to new and unusual musical instruments, since its inception in1985. (EMI is no longer in print.) Mr. Hopkin received a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1974, and later received a B.A. in music education from San Francisco State University. A professional guitarist, he has taught, written, composed, performed and recorded in many places, including Kingston, Jamaica, where for several years he researched and wrote on Jamaican children's songs and revival church music. 

 Other Craft Manuals by Bart Hopkin
Air Columns & Tone Holes
Musical Instrument Design
Making Musical Instruments with Kids
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