I learned how to play the guitar about thirteen years ago, towards the end of high school, because I hypothesized that it would attract the ladies. Fortunately for me, it attracted one lady in particular, and I ended up marrying her. Although this case study was limited to one specimen, I think further investigation would lead to a strong correlation between guitars and ladies.
Over time, the guitar has become much more for me than a tool for garnering attention around a campfire. The six-stringed instrument has sat on my lap for countless hours, as I figure out songs that I enjoy, perform them live, or just sit alone strumming nothing in particular. It’s amazing what a wonderful diversion those twelve notes can provide.
I have written previously about how a pulse can travel along a string that is in tension. What distinguishes the behaviour of a stringed instrument is that both ends of the strings are fixed. The phenomenon that occurs when a taught string is plucked is known as a standing wave. The note that we hear, its frequency, is dependent on four parameters for the given string: its length (L), tension (T), mass per unit length (µ), and mode number (n). The frequency in Hz is given by the following equation:
f = [n/(2L)](T/µ)0.5
