Klarinet Archive - Posting 000131.txt from 1994/05

From: Stephen Cranefield <stephen@-----.NZ>
Subj: Keys and The Stuff Clarinets are Made Of
Date: Thu, 5 May 1994 19:16:20 -0400

SCOTT MCCHESNEY writes:
> > Although clarinets & saxes share single-reeds and a superficial
> > resemblence (both have bells), is it fair to say that the sax
> > and flute are more nearly akin acoustically? They both do octaves
> > instead of 12s.
>
> Depends on how you mean "acoustically". Flutes and Saxophones are
> conical-bore instruments, and overblow at the octave

Either there's something I don't know about flutes or what I've been
told about their acoustics is wrong! Flutes overblow at the octave
not because they are surreptitiously conical, but instead because they
are a cylindrical tube that is open at *both* ends (unlike the
clarinet where the vibrating reed effectively closes one end of the
tube).

- Stephen