Sound Site: Resource Books and Links

Books

Ardley, Neil. Eyewitness Books--Music. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.
Text and pictures introduce musical instruments from early times to the present-- from pipes and flutes to electronic synthesizers.

Fiarotta, Noel and Phyllis. Music Crafts for Kids. NY: Sterling Co., 1993.
Instruction on how to read music and make simple musical instruments.

Kaner, Etta. Sound Science. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley, 1991.
Explores the nature of sound through experiments, riddles, interesting facts, puzzles and games.
Munday, Simon. The Unborne Story of Music. London: Usborne, 1980.
A study of music and musical instruments around the world and through the ages.

Stwertka, Eva and Albert. Tuning In--The Sound of the Radio. NY: Julian Messnera, 1992.
Explores how a radio works, what the numbers on the dial mean and what goes on in a radio station.

Tytla, Milan. See Hear--Playing with Light and Sound. Toronto: Annick Press LTD, 1994.
Contains background material, interesting facts about sound and many experiments to explore the concepts of sound. The subject of light is also explored.
Walther, Tom. Make Mine Music. Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1981.
Discusses a variety of musical instruments and presents directions for making and playing them.

Links

Sites Exploring Sound and Music

Music Notes: An Interactive Online Musical Experience
 Designed to teach about many aspects of music. There are five main sections: music theory, history, styles, instruments, and professions. In addition to these main pages there are several supplements to the page. They include a comprehensive glossary, search engine, message board, guestbook and interactive games.

Music Magic
An interactive, information-deluged web site focusing on the piano. Includes a reference section, where users can submit new data, information, thoughts and opinions. Take online lessons which uses an actual virtual keyboard to teach the piano over the web or play in the virtual concert hall while others can listen to you play.

The Soundry
The Soundry is an exciting, interactive, and educational web site about sound. Covering everything from the most basic concepts of what sound actually is to the specifics of how humans perceive it, The Soundry aims to promote enthusiasm and knowledge of sound.

 

Physics of Sound

Acoustics, an Unofficial Introduction
Let Yuan, a Canadian physics expert, take you on a guided tutorial on acoustics.
Sound FAQ
An incredibly in depth collection of questions and answers about almost every imaginable aspect of sound.
How Hearing Happens
Howard Hughes Medical Institute lectures on the human ear.
What Is Sound?
Very well done Danish site explaining sound and hearing with illustrations and diagrams.
Physics at the Mining Co
Once you get here, do a search on sound.
The Wave Theory of Sound
Excerpts from Chapter 1 of Acoustics: An Introduction to Its Physical Principles and Applications by Allan D. Pierce, published by the Acoustical Society of America.
Trigonometry and Music
A one page exploration of the mathematics of a sound wave from the Computer Science Department of the Arkansas State University.

VRML

Music of the Spheres
Click on each sphere ... Click on the wall ... Click on the top cylinder ... Click on the bottom cylinder ...watch and listen.

Wav File Archives

Sound America
An archive of 25,800 sounds, including sound effects, a sound FAQ and sound utilities for the computer.
Yahooligans Sound Archive
The Yahoo site Yahooligans has lots of sounds and a way to search for a specific sound.
activities-- discussions --performance -- soundcards
map -- home

Sound Site ©1999 Science Museum of Minnesota