Klarinet Archive - Posting 000563.txt from 1997/11

From: njs5@-----.uk (Nick Shackleton)
Subj: RE: Clarinet Material Makes a difference - proof enclosed.
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 15:35:04 -0500

>>Now will someone please explain the change in resistance felt while doing
>>this experiment??
>
>I'm just going to take a stab at this, no idea if it is correct. It seems
>that when you push air through the instrament, you are working to vibrate
>the entier instrament-----air, wood, posts, keys----in a complex but stable
>mannor. When you added the playdough, this made it more difficult to
>set the instrament in motion. It is comparable to adding more stain to
>a violin. You add stain and it changes how the air inside the box vibrates
>oddly enough. Take the lacquer off the sax and it changes the playing
>characteristics. It seems that if the wood doesn't vibrate as easily, the
>air doesn't vibrate as easily, and if the air doesn't vibrate as eaily you are
>going to have to put more energy into the system to make it vibrate causeing
>more resistance.
>
>At least that is what I learned in my Physics of Sound and Music class here
>on campus when we discusses the reflection/refraction characteristics of a
>closed end cylindrical tube which is what the clarinet is.
>
>Sean Talbot
>University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
>
>
Nick Shackleton, University of Cambridge, Godwin Laboratory,
Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RS, UK
phone: (44) 1223 334876
fax: (44) 1223 334871
home phone 1223 311938
e-mail: NJS5@-----.uk