Tune Ring Out

You've inherited an old instrument workshop in a little Italian hill town. Musicians knock on the door with requests, and you build each instrument note by note, with real physics. BUILD EVERY NOTE Pour water into wine glasses. Tighten strings on a lyre and choose how thick they are. Cut pipes for pan pipes and organs. Saw and carve wooden bars for a marimba. Every note follows the real laws of sound: halve a string and it plays an octave higher, double a bar's length and it drops two octaves. LISTEN CAREFULLY A strobe tuner spins until your note is spot on. Or tune by ear: play the tuning fork alongside, and listen to the wobble slow down as you get closer. Careful, though. Strings snap if you pull too hard, and a cut can't be undone. THE CONCERT When the instrument is ready, the musician plays their song on it in a candlelit church, a festival square or a lakeside jetty at sunset.…