Klarinet Archive - Posting 000424.txt from 2001/06

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] open tubed vs. closed tube?
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 09:48:12 -0400

Actually you are pretty close. The clarinet is classified as acting like a
cylindrical tube closed on one end. Thus it acts exactly like the organ pipe
closed on one end. That is exactly why it overblows the twelfth. The
"closed end" is the reed end.

By comparison, the flute acts like a cylindrical pipe open at both ends and
thus overblows the octave.

The oboe and saxophone are *conical* pipes closed on one end (the reed end).
Therefore, due to the conical shape, they overblow the octave.

These characteristics also define the typical wave forms. The wave forms
are not perfect but the flute approximates a sine wave, the clarinet
approximates a square wave, and the oboe approximates a sawtooth wave. I'm
not sure about the sax though.

Dee Hays
Michigan.

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Motz" <david.motz@-----.net>
Subject: [kl] open tubed vs. closed tube?

>
> I've been lurking on this list for a while now, after recently buying a
> bass clarinet and joining a couple of local community bands. I thought 18
> years was a long enough time to take off and that I'd better get playing
> again. One of the things that has been puzzling to me is the frequent
> references to the clarinet being a "closed tube" instrument as opposed to
> the other woodwinds which are called "open tube" instruments.
>
> I have tended to compare this to organ pipes which can be open or stopped,
> with the stopped pipes having the pitch of an open pipe twice as
> long. Somehow I'm wondering if this is perhaps not a good analogy since
> the clarinet does not appear to me to be stopped, or closed, in the way
> that an organ pipe is stopped.
>
> Presumably if the wave form goes from the full tube length to one third of
> the tube length that would account for the instrument overblowing a
> twelfth, but what causes it to do this?
>
> Thanks for any info you can provide.
>
> David

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