As an undergraduate physics student at Loyola I wanted to study things I didn't understand. I was confused about waves - and I was the only one in my family without a musical talent - so I decided to study stringed instruments. I studied more typical instruments like the guitar and violin, and I also studied instruments which were not studied in great detail before like the dulcimer and strummer. I found how their frequencies correspond to differnet body resonance through Chladni paterns on their bodies.
I gathered string resonance data using Vernier Sounds Interface and Fourier Series Analyzer, body resonance data using Chladni patterns, and high-speed video of the strings for thirteen stringed instruments. Through a cross-correlation of all the instruments we found the relationship between instruments and their body shapes and sizes; this helped us understand their role in musicology. We were also the first to publish data on rare mountain instruments such as the dulcimer and strummer. This work has been supported through Mulcahy and Provost Scholarships and results have been presented at national meetings of the Acoustical Society of America and American Association of Physics Teachers and published in conference proceedings.
Here are some publications on this:
Ramsey, Gordon P., Pomian, Katarzyna. (2014). Correlating Properties of Stringed Instruments. J. Acoustical. Soc. Am., 135 2184; POMA.
Ramsey, Gordon P., Pomian, Katarzyna. (2013). Physics of Stringed Instruments. Acoustical Society of America - 167th Lay Language Papers 2013.
My dear mentor, Dr. Gordon Ramsey also just published a book with some of this work featured. Check it out here:
Gordon, P. R. (2024). PHYSICS OF MUSIC: Integrating the Technical and Artistic Aspects of Creating Music. SPRINGER.