Klarinet Archive - Posting 000796.txt from 1998/12

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Gas flow rate in clarinet
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 14:41:24 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: SDSCHWAEG@-----.com>
Date: Monday, December 21, 1998 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: [kl] Gas flow rate in clarinet

>In a message dated 12/21/98 7:36:56 AM Central Standard Time,
>roger.shilcock@-----.uk writes:
>
><< for one thing, an
> open-ended version of the clarinet would overblow the octave. >>
>
>I had just enough high school physics to understand the difference between
an
>open and a closed pipe - looks like you're saying that an open-ended
clarinet
>would behave like an open pipe instead of a closed one. Okay, but what I
want
>to know is why a clarinet behaves like a closed pipe when a soprano
saxophone
>doesn't? I mean, they look kind of the same, so why shouldn't they be
similar
>acoustically? Obviously, I'm not much of a scientist - try to explain in
not-
>too-technical terms, please!
>
>Susan

Well the saxophone is a conical pipe (as is the oboe) while the clarinet is
basically a cylindrical pipe. The conical pipe has a different behavior
pattern. Just to summarize:

Cylindrical pipe & open at both ends - Overblows the octave - Flutes
Cylindrical pipe & closed at one end - Overblows the twelfth - Clarinets
Conical pipe - overblows the octave - Saxophones and oboes

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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