User talk:ShaulaWong

Dear Shaula, below I have some points regarding your wiki article:

- Title: extremely minor but it would be clear to have a bolded Title beginning your page

- Introduction: I like how concise your introduction of the sarangi instrument is. The links are also helpful as I hadn't heard of the instrument before. I AM confused about the "distinctive meowing and human voice-like sound" claim as I YouTubed a couple videos and don't really understand the connection. Is there a similar between the sounds that can be described by physics? Something to do with formants or similarities in timbre of the sounds? Some clarification here would be very helpful. I also realized later your main focus of this article is on the use of sympathetic strings. Perhaps the title could be altered to something like "How The Use of Sympathetic Strings on the Sarangi contribute to its unique timbre"?

- Structure of the Sarangi: This is well-done. It was clear to me what the instrument looked like and, like on your note to yourself, a picture of the actual instrument would be very helpful to the reader.

    - the new terminology (tun, jawari, tarafs...) could be linked to sites (if they exist) for readers who are interested in researching further

- Physics of Resonance re: "Strings in specific, naturally vibrate at more than one resonant frequency." It might be tough to summarize fundamentals and harmonics but personally, I think some mention and further explanation on the resonant frequencies in strings would be interesting (or a link to such phenomenon in addition to the tuning fork experiment). Otherwise, your last sentence about sympathetic resonance is sufficient for understanding the rest of the article

- I love the section on Sympathetic Resonance Experiments Playing piano and violin myself, I was able to further understand because you compared the use of sympathetic resonance in more Western common instruments.

    - Piano: There is a section starting from "A plot of vibration..." that has a lot of numbers which may be confusing for a general non-physics audience. Is there a way this can be summarized in perhaps a figure/the plot itself? (You could keep all this text too and just add it as a caption to emphasize the parts you want the reader to pay attention to)
    - Violin: The first paragraph was a little hard to understand when I first read it. Is there a way to simplify this further? From my understanding from reading your paragraph, a study was done to compare sympathetic resonance between the violin and the sarangi. Both vibrate differently: violins' sympathetic resonance are due to a coupled string phenomenon (but how is this possible if all strings are tuned differently?) and the sarangi's sympathetic resonance is due to it's sympathetic strings which aren't bowed. Does this mean the coupled strings are both played? Also, what is the main string on the violin? Perhaps some additional links to this phenomenon would clear up the confusion.
    - The second paragraph was easier for me to understand. It is still a draft but I think this could possibly replace the paragraph above it as it aims to explain the same phenomenon on the violin.
    -Sarangi: Your note to self on what to write here fits well with the rest of the article.

-Tuning of a Sarangi, Vibrato,...: I'm not sure if the addition on the topic of vibrato is directly related with the sympathetic strings used or if it is to address the mimicking of the human voice (which previously mentioned I was not understanding the connection). However:

    - Human Voice: if you choose to write about vibrato in the human voice, it might be good to include the differences between a trained and untrained voice (referring to singing). Also, does "the range in frequencies varies from person to person" refer to the range in which a note vibrates up and down (the vibrato per pitch) or the person's vocal range? If it is the latter, I'm unsure if the vocal range of the person would be relevant to a section on Human Voice Vibrato.
    - Violin: While the production of sound on the violin is definitely due to the stick-slip mechanism in bowing, vibrato is not, and only produced with the rocking finger as you mentioned later in the section. 
    -Sarangi: The comparison between violin and sarangi in your second sentence here is confusing to me because the first part regarding the violin is talking about producing a single sustained note, and the second part of the sentence is explaining the ability of the sarangi to change pitch (for vibrato?). I think it might be more clear to write that both the violin and sarangi are bowed instruments where different placements of the finger will create different pitches, both can produce a vibrato sound by modulating the position of the finger, however, the sarangi uses the fingernail and the violin uses the tip/pad of the finger. 
    - The last sentence again I am not 100% convinced because I fail to see the connection between the sarangi and the mimicking of human voice. (How do these components make it sound more similar to the physical characteristics of the human voice?)

- Summary: I didn't see your new bulleted list items until the last edit but I think addressing these would definitely help clarify my confusion seeing the connection of the sarangi and the human voice. However, I am still concerned if this can be done with what is listed. The first bulleted list item addressing timbre (not so much pitch) was perhaps what I was looking for. However, the last bulleted list item is not convincing enough that the sarangi is "no surprise" more human sounding merely because it is like a cello or violin.

Overall, I think this is an extremely intriguing instrument and phenomenon (sympathetic strings). The introduction of the instrument was well done and comparing it to other more commonly Western-known instruments was insightful for me. My largest concern is perhaps the physics behind the claim of how the instrument mimics the human voice.

(Sorry about the odd formatting, I'm still learning how to use the wiki commands/functions.) If you have any questions about any of my comments, please feel free to message me back! Well done and good luck!

Shaula: your reference is a dusty, ancient piece on the physics of sound absorption. To get to live music from here is an enormous stretch.

CEW