How does the drum make sound waves?

Answer 1

When you strike a drum head, you are applying energy to it. Drum heads are flexible and they are taut (stretched tight within the limits of the material to withstand the stress of drumming). The energy imparted to the head starts the head moving. The movement is complex, and can be controlled with various skillful methods of attack. You can tell that this is happening, because there are different sounds that a skilled drummer can get out of her/his drums. The movement of the head is going to cause movement of the air masses above and below the head. These vibrations will move outward from the head in the form of sound waves, and these waves reach you ear. Your own eardrum will vibrate not on its own but in response to the waves that are approaching from the drum. Your eardrum vibrations are converted into electrical impulses that travel to the brain where they are interpreted as sound. The above covers the basic features of most acoustic (non-electronic) percussive instruments, including pianos, and there are even similarities with non-percussive instruments like the violin. The performer's energy goes from her/his body to the bow, the string, the bridge and to the body of the violin which in some ways is like the drum head described above. It is the vibrations coming from the violin's body that cause sound waves to move through the air mass.

Answer 2

The noise you hear and feel from a drum is caused by the drum heads vibrating the air. Also, the tighter the drum head, the faster it vibrates, and the higher the sound you hear. If the drum head is loosened, the vibrations will be slower, thus, the sound will be lower.

Answer 3

Its just like when you talk through a Tube, it makes your voice louder.. Drums have a circular base and when you hit it, it makes the sound louder and go around more. The Snare drum however has a snare at the bottom (which you can turn on and off) and when its on and you hit the drum it vibrates creating a very loud high sound. The Cymbals (crashes) are just like hitting metal.. the thinner the higher and louder the sound.

Answer 4

Cymbals are made from thin, usually round plates of solid bronze or sheet bronze so when the two cymbals clash together they create an clashing and vibrating sound :)

Answer 5

Hitting a drum pushes down the drum head, which acquires potential energy from the hit. The drum head then vibrates back and forth, until the energy has been dissipated. The vibration of the drum head creates pressure waves in the surrounding air, which is essentially what sound is. The pressure wave characteristics describe the sound that is heard, amplitude (the harder the hit, the more the drum head flexes) affects the volume sound, higher frequency (which depends on the tension of the drum head) affects the pitch of the drum (from the low frequency bass drum to the high frequency snare).

More thoughts:

• Like every instrument ever made, vibrations. When the stick hits the drum the head(skin on top of drum) vibrates. Now i bet your wondering about clarinets and saxaphones. Their reed vibrates.
• Drums produce sound by having a cylinder type membrane at one or both sides. Thereby, when something hits the drum, it produces vibrations within the shell. The vibrations then make invisible ripples if air and our brains perceive these movements of air, as sound .

• In drums a streched membance is struc to produce sound .The tension in the membrance can be varied .hence,the desired frequency can be obtained
• The vibrating drum causes the air molecules around it to vibrate at the same frequency. Those vibrations in the air molecules get transferred to your ear, which you hear as sound.

Answer 6

When you hit the drum head with a stick, the head takes the energy from the hit and transfers the type of energy to sound (look up the laws of energy conservation to learn more) this causes a viberation which viberates particles around it to create a sound. The pitch and tonality of the drum comes from 3 main things. The type of drum head you have, size of the drum, and how tight the lugs are (the knobs you use to tune the heads). All drum heads are made differently and to find the best type for you, read the boxes. Most remo and evans heads have ratings on the boxes telling you the tonality and stuff on the box. A smaller drum naturally gives you a higher pitch and the tighter the lugs, the higher the pitch will be also

Answer 7

Well, I am guessing when you strike the head of the drum, it creates intense fast vibrations, that make a sound :)