The tone quality also depends on the material of the object that is used to hit the chimes. Tone may also depend on the hanging method. If a tube is used, the wall thickness also affects the tone. The tone depends on factors such as the material, the exact alloy, heat treatment, and whether a solid cylinder or a tube is used. As aluminum is the common metal with the lowest internal damping, wind chimes are often made from aluminum to achieve the longest and loudest sounding chime. The sounds produced by properly sized wind chime tubes are tunable to notes. The sounds produced by recycling objects such as these are not tunable to specific notes and range from pleasant tinkling to dull thuds. The selected material can have a large effect on the sound a wind chime produces. More exotic items, such as silverware or cookie cutters, can also be recycled to create wind chimes. Other wind chimes materials include glass, bamboo, shell, stone, earthenware, stoneware, beads, keys and porcelain. Wind chimes can be made of materials other than metal or wood and in shapes other than tubes or rods. Wind chimes may be used to observe changes in wind direction, depending on where they are hung when they commence to sound.Ī close-up of metal rods on a wind chime. Sound can be produced when the tubes or rods come in contact with a suspended central clapper in the form of a ball or horizontal disk, or with each other. In a wind chime, the vibrations of the pipe itself radiate the sound after being struck, so the air column has little to do with the pitch being produced. The pipe material helps determine the " timbre" or "voice" of the pipe, but the air column determines the pitch. In instruments such as organ pipes, the pitch is determined primarily by the length of the air column, because it is the resonance of the air column that generates the sound. This is largely due to the fact that these scales inherently contain fewer dissonant intervals, and therefore sound more pleasant to the average listener when notes are struck at random. Most chimes employ pentatonic or tetratonic scales as the basis for the pitches of their individual chimes as opposed to the traditional western heptatonic scale. There are formulas that help predict the proper length to achieve a particular note, though a bit of fine tuning is often needed. Frequency is determined by the length, width, thickness, and material. This is common practice in high-quality wind chimes, which are also usually hung so the centre ball strikes the centre of the wind chime's length, also resulting in the loudest sounding fundamental. Problems playing this file? See media help.Ĭhimes produce inharmonic (as opposed to harmonic) spectra, although if they are hung at about 2/9 of their length (22.4% ), some of the higher partials are damped and the fundamental rings the loudest. Today, wind chimes are common in the East and used to maximize the flow of chi, or life's energy. Feng-lings were hung from shrines and pagodas to ward off evil spirits and attract benevolent ones. Afterwards, the Chinese created the feng-ling( 風鈴), which is similar to today's modern wind bell. A bell without a clapper, called a yong-zhong, was crafted by skilled metal artisans and primarily used in religious ceremonies. Wind chimes started to become modernized around 1100 C.E. Wind chimes are thought to be good luck in parts of Asia and are used in Feng Shui. Japanese glass wind bells known as fūrin ( 風鈴) have been produced since the Edo period, and those at Mizusawa Station are one of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan. Wind bells are also hung under the corners of temple, palace and home roofs they are not limited to pagodas. It is said that these bells were originally intended to frighten away not only birds but also any lurking evil spirits. In India during the second century CE, and later in China, extremely large pagodas became popular with small wind bells hung at each corner the slightest breeze caused the clapper to swing, made in bronze too, producing a melodious tinkling. Wind-powered bell or wind chime under temple eaves.
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