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Through out my years as a trumpeter, I have fallen in love with my instrument. I really never gave much though as to why, or how, it plays the notes that it does. Now, with my knowledge of physics, it all makes perfect sense. The trumpet is a precise instrument; one dent, clog, or hole could ruin the beautiful sound that may come out of it. The trumpet is made up of multiple parts, each critical to its performance: When first learning to play the trumpet, the hardest part is learning how to buzz your lips in the correct way to get a clean sound, and then how to adjust the pitch as you play. This is sound waves at it's finest. By buzzing your lips (embouchure is the correct term), you cause the mouth piece to buzz, therefore sending a sound wave bouncing away through the air in the trumpet. The vibrations carry through the lead pipe until they reach the valves (refer back to the diagram). This is where something cool can happen; You can change the sound of the note by pushing down different valves. It's how you differentiate between a B, D, F, etc on the trumpet. This actually occurs because, with each valve pushed down, the path of the air is altered, becoming either longer or shorter to change the note. After that, the vibrations continue up until they reach the bell, and are diffracted off into the room to produce the music! There is also a way to change pitch without touching the valves, as well. By adjusting your embouchure- that is, your facial muscles or mouth- you can change the pitch to be higher or lower. This is what distinguishes the middle G, low C, middle C, and high E from one another, because all four of those notes are played opened valved (none being pressed). While it takes a while to get good enough to hit and slur up to high notes, like all else it just takes practice. The physics involved in the trumpet will make it happen if you can supply the vibration, pitch, and air flow. Putting all this together, you can do scales as simple as this: Or many other scales (sharps, minors, flats, etc). There is more I could rant about with the trumpet, but I have a dragging suspicion you are bored by now The trumpet is a beautiful example of Physics that, until this year, I really wasn't able to appreciate. I love my trumpet, yes, but it's awesome to be able to apply what I learned in order to TRULY understand why I can do what I can with my instrument. I'll just leave you with one more thing

Scientists have proven that sound does affect our health and healing on a cellular level. Music can reduce stress and stimulate cognitive processing and memory in measurable, substantive, and lasting ways. Advanced Brain Technology a brain health and educational company whose therapeutic programs harness the properties of sound to improve individuals listening, learning, and communication skills. Health care professionals said that listening to music appeared to increase patients tolerance for pain and sped up their surgical recovery times. Music seemed to enhance premature infants growth rates in pediatric ICU's. In special programs in schools for troubled youth, drumming circles have had a remarkable impact. College students who listened to Mozart's music did better on temporal/spatial tests taken shortly after the listening experience. Music can animate people with Parkinson's disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people whose memories are ravaged by Alzheimer's or amnesia. Music is an obsession at the human heart of nature, perhaps even more fundamental to our species than language. Every noise in our environment has the ability to change our mood, decrease our productivity, and even affect our health. We use music and silence throughout our day to not only change how we feel but alter how we physically function. The force of music improves lives. Composers exploit the way our brains make sense of the world. We are more musically equipped than we think because our brains are hardwired for music. Music can improve productivity, create collegial environment at the work place, improve social, physical, and academic functioning, reduce pre-operative stress, and speed up recovery time. "For a few moments music makes us larger than we really are, and the world more orderly than it really is. That is cause enough for ecstasy." -Robert Jourdain, author and composer Sound is a vibration. It has the power to affect us literally from the atoms up. Certain sounds, provided in the right context and combination can organize our neural activity, stimulate our bodies, retune our emotions, and thus allow us to be calmer and in a more productive emotional state. Sound has the power to organize grains of sand scattered randomly across a flat surface. http://www.healingatthespeedofsound.com/link2/ If sound has this effect on material world around you, imagine how it can affect your body and brain. This next video is a recording of the perfect dose of sonic caffeine, performed. http://www.healingatthespeedofsound.com/link3/ Performed by the Buena Vista Social Club. this is specifically for the sleepy student. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JEdf7XsV5g Research showed arts-involved students usually perform 16 to 18 percentage points better than their peers who are not involved in the arts. The same study also showed a correlation between involvement in music and proficiency in math. The perception of music in the human brain shows the cascade of activity, from the eardrum to cells deep inside the brain that regulate emotion, is set off when we hear music. Our musical preferences begin before we are born, and the musical experience is built as we age. We are all more musically equipped than we think because our brains are hardwired for music. Some leading experts have long held that music is a decoration living parasitically on the fringe of human nature. Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature. Listening to music as you work out is one way to see the amazing affects of sound. One can get better results from an aerobic routine by listening to upbeat music with strong rhythmic beat. The strong rhythmic beat creates a pulse like sensation in the body which is like the beating of a heart, an encore to stimulate us to keep going, and work harder. When you oxygenate body through working out or doing yoga--my favorite, your ears become more sensitive. Focus on the rhythm. If you continuously do this while you work out, with the same playlist of music, your ears will actually remember the pulse of each song and you won't have to turn up your music as loud your brain will be playing it. This is the power of habituation to use in protecting hearing. Using the same playlist to exercise in, you will internalize the music and may exercise in silence, with the music running through your head. Music you love releases pleasure-giving endorphin's, with other biological reactions caused by your increased heart rate and breathing, drive you to work harder and prolong your routine. Another important aspect of the music is a stimulating tempo. Upbeat music stimulates adrenaline flow and songs with lyrics distract the mind from the effort your muscles are doing while you work out. This will improve performance in exercise and physical activity.