Klarinet Archive - Posting 000346.txt from 1998/01

From: SDM@-----. Morrow)
Subj: Re: re:reed vibrations (poking fun)
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 13:11:46 -0500

>Yes, the reed really does vibrate at the frequency of the pitch! Just
>reverse the mouthpiece so that you have the cork end in your mouth, reed up
>and suck in the air........and count. ;)
>
>David Blumberg
>
>
David,
I tried this. The problem was that after I reached "5", I had to
switch hands to get to the rest of my fingers and I lost my place! Then I
figured that there had to be a high-tech way to do this, so I decided to
time how long it took to count to five, divide that into a minute, and
multiply by five to get the answer. Unfortunately, while I was trying to
stop the chronograph on my watch, I accidentally poked myself in the eye
with the mouthpiece. I spent three hours in the emergency room (three
stitches; the reed is fine!), and by the time I remembered to stop the
timer, seven hours and twenty-three minutes had passed (plus 46.23 seconds,
but I decided they were insignificant at this point). Completing my
calculation, I came up with an answer of 0.01128668172 oscillations/minute.
As you will note, this is much too slow to produce a detectable pitch.
Therefore, I must disagree with the statement that the reed vibrates at a
rate of 440 oscilltions /minute, and venture the following theory in its
place: Put that clarinet down: it could put someone's eye out!

-Scott

Scott D. Morrow
Department of Biochemistry
School of Hygiene and Public Health
Johns Hopkins University
(410) 955-3631

SDM@-----.edu