The physics of a guitar

On a piano, you've got the 12 chromatic notes in a scale. On a guitar, you can bend the strings to get the notes in between.

When you pluck a guitar string you create a vibration, or the standing wave. Some points on the string called notesdon't move at all, while other points, anti-nodesmoveback and forth. The vibrationstranslate into the neck and bridge to the guitar's backwhere the thin and flexible wood vibrates, jostling the surrounding molecules together and depart. These sequential compressionscreatesound waves and once inside the guitar mostly escape from the hole. They eventually propagateto your ear which translates them into electrical impulses that your brain interpretsas sound.

The pitch of that sound depends on the frequency of the compressions. Aquickly vibrating string will cause a lot of compressions posed together, making a high pitch sound. And a slow vibration produces a low pitch sound. Four things affect the frequency of vibrating string: the link, the tension, the density and the thickness. Typical guitar strings are all the same link, and have similar tension, but vary in thickness and density. Thicker strings vibrate more slowly, producing lower notes. So you had to accurately bend the strings to different extents and measure the frequency produced.Each time you pluck a string, you actually creates several standing waves. There is the first fundamental wave which determinethe pitch of the notes. But there are also waves called overtones, whose frequencies are multiple of the first one. all these standing waves combine to form a complex wave with a rich sound. Changing the way you pluck the string affects which overtones you get. If you pluck in the middle you get mainly the fundamental and the odd multiple overtones,which have anti-nodes in the middle of the string. If you pluck it near the bridge, you get mainly even multiple overtones and twang.