3D40.40 • Monochord

Location: Cabinet 5

Picture shows demonstration used at the University of Texas at Austin

Faculty Instructions:

• Play both strings to demonstrate identical pitch.
• Introduce one fret at the middle and play one half of the string to raise the pitch by an octave.
• Move the fret to the 200mm mark and play the longer string with the unfitted string in unison. This is a perfect fifth.
• Move the fret to the 150mm mark and play the longer string with the unfitted string in unison. This is a perfect fourth.
• For another application of this demo, faculty may add a nylon string with different weights to show how tension changes the pitch of the string.

Concepts Conveyed:

• There is tape on the side of the demo which is 600mm long, with each colored section being 50mm.
• Demonstration conveys the correlation between musical pitch and length of vibrating strings.

Demo Staff Notes:

• Carefully tune both strings to the same note (recommended note is C4, though simply tuning both strings to the same note is fine). This may take some time.
• You may use the keyboard in the demo lab fourth floor for reference to tune the monochord.

Last updated on April 27, 2026