Klarinet Archive - Posting 000194.txt from 1998/01

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: swabbing really does wear it out (retransmitted)
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 08:17:59 -0500

At 11:33 AM 1/4/98 -0600, Roger Garrett wrote:
>
>On Sat, 3 Jan 1998, Bill Hausmann wrote:
>> "The motion of the reed during the cycle is of interest. Consider the
>> chink is just on the point of closing. With the aperature closed, the reed
>> appears motionless to the eye for about half of the time of the complete
>> cycle. It then leaves the mouthpiece with relatively high velocity and
>> reaches its position of maximum displacement in a series of short spurts.
>> The time spent motionless at maximum displacement is roughly a quarter of
>> the fundamental period. The tip of the reed now returns to the mouthpiece
>> in a series of short spurts, and the fundamental cycle is complete. Thus,
>> the actual motion of the reed occupies only about a quarter of the period."
>
>This experiement is dependent upon a person who closes the reed off
>against the mouthpiece. When I tongue (and when many tongue for that
>matter), the reed is closed off at the top....

Roger, you misunderstand the point of the experiment. It has nothing to do
with the toungue at all. The study shows what happens to a freely
vibrating reed playing a steady tone. The reed does indeed slap against
the facing of the mouthpiece every cycle (that is, 440 times a second for
an "A"). If it did not, the clarinet would make no sound at all. The
constant, rapid on and off cycling of the air into the mouthpiece is what
excites the column of air inside the instrument into vibrating, and the
length of the column and the resulting back pressure determine at what
frequency the reed will vibrate.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.