Why do some musical instruments produce high-pitched tones and other low-pitched ones?

Question

Why do some musical instruments produce high-pitched tones and other low-pitched ones?

Answer 1

smaller openings make higher frequencies.

Answer 2

The pitch of a sound is influenced by many things.

The main thing on a musical instrument is how long or short the vibrating body is.  On a guitar, you make a higher note come from a string by pressing it down on a fret, thereby making it's vibrating length shorter.  On a wind instrument like a flute or sax, you open holes along the body which effectively shorten the length of the vibrating column of air in the instrument.  Look in a piano and you'll see that the strings that make the notes are of many different lengths.  A bigger drum usually sounds deeper than a smaller drum.

Another thing that affects pitch is width.  If you look at a guitar, the strings are all different guages--the fattest string sounds lowest, the thinnest sounds highest.  Those strings in the piano come in different thicknesses also.  The lower-pitched woodwinds are not only longer, they're also thicker.

Then tension comes into play.  On the guitar, if you make a string tighter, it sounds higher; make it looser, it's lower.  Same thing with drum heads; tighten them and they get higher, loosen and they get lower.

Finally, there's the thing that produces the tone in the first place.  If I put more or less pressure on my saxophone reed, I can bend the note higher or lower.  On brass instruments like trumpet or trombone, the player generates over half-a-dozen different initial tones in the mouthpiece, which are then further refined by either sliding out and in (trombone), or by using valves to add more tubing (trumpet).

So there are basically four things: initial tone, length, width or thickness, and sometimes tension if it's a string or membrane.

Answer 3

Some Are Made Different like

If you Buy a Flute From Walmart

Its going to sound different then the

one you bought down at the music store

that could possibly be a Yamaha for 800 bucks

insted of 100 at walmart

Answer 4

It all has to do with harmonic waves (take a physics course).

If the instrument is shorter and narrower, the waves are 'squeezed' in and there are more waves/per length of the instrument. This produces a higher frequency. Like in a flute