Klarinet Archive - Posting 000205.txt from 2004/07

From: Umar Goldeli <umar@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] a question for list members - biofeedback
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 23:43:02 -0400

Howdy,

While I am still a beginner and my comment maybe silly..

As a scientific experiment - this exercise seems a little odd. While the
reed and mouthpiece can be kept more or less constant - I would imagine
that embouchure would vary dramatically between players and even the same
player at different times.

Even if you have two identical setups - I would guess that there would be
a dramatic difference between produced tones accross players.

Adding to this the fact that tones can be lipped up significantly, this
is a *very* large variable.

The other issue is of feedback - while most players would know what a
throat G sounds like and can reproduce more or less the correct pitch on
repeated attempts - how often do players toot just their mouthpieces
and know what the "correct" note is?

After all - when a player can hear the note - he/she/it/etc will generally
subsconsciously or consciously adjust the note to the known "correct"
pitch right?

So not knowing the right sound/pitch means that there is no frame of
reference - so results from different attempts should vary (unless the
player sets one of his attempts as a reference point and aims for that
particular pitch on subsequent attempts).

Furthermore - considering that the physical properties of a clarinet's
internal acoustics is a disaster wherein often a clarinet is not even
completely in tune with itself (as I understand from reading) - this
requires the player to adjust each note individually on-the-fly anyway
right? And this is done through tonal frames of reference/feedback..

?

Or have I completely lost the plot?

//umar.

> I understand that Tom asked people to reply off-list in order not to
> clutter the list with replies, and I intended to comply, but I hit the
> wrong button. What's done can't be undone.
>
> But I have received an email off-list which says that the correct answer
> is significantly different from what I posted. (I won't prejudice
> anyone's experiments by saying which way or how far.)
>
> I'm really curious now. Would a few other hardy souls be willing to
> post onlist what their tuners say?

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