 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Dana
Date: 2006-02-13 18:17
Hi,
My son is doing a science experiment to see if cold/heat effects the way a musical instrument plays. I know that he shouldn't take my wooden clarinet outside (30 degrees outside) and I have a plastic beginner for him to use. My question is: Are there any other instruments (other than wooden) that I need to be careful with extreme temp. changes? We were going to use a clarinet, flute, trumpet, saxophone, and a keyboard.
Thanks,
Dana
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-02-13 18:28
Any stringed instruments - violin, guitar, harp and some acoustic keyboard instruments - harpsichord or piano and even pipe organs.
I did a concert where the harpsichord wouldn't keep it's tuning due to the sudden change in temperature (it was hot during the daytime rehearsal and cold by the evening concert), not helped by having the windows in the concert hall left open and the harpsichord in the draught!
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2006-02-14 04:17
// Are there any other instruments (other than wooden) that I need to be careful with extreme temp. changes?
All of them. Well, perhaps not the $20 specials.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-02-15 17:42
You don't have to be VERY careful with brass instruments. There is something of a fad for cryo-treating brass instruments, that is to say, exposing them to extremely low temperatures. It may not do any good, but it certainly doesn't seem to damage them.
If you think I'm making this up (I know, it sounds very improbable) see, for example, http://www.onecryo.com/onecryo/otherapp-music.htm.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2006-02-15 22:21
Cryo treating is usually something reserved for Iron and Iron alloys (steels).
It is, for example, a legit way to improve brake rotors:
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=83
Its not well understood yet, and there is a lot of marketing-speak running around, but I wouldn't discount cryo-treating out of hand:
http://www.metal-wear.com/More%20Detail.htm
The domininant effect on any wind instrument, at least in the range of human-survivable temperatures, is going to be differences in the speed of sound in air of different temperatures and humidities. Make sure that he works that research into his hypothesis and actually makes a calculation on how sharp or flat a note should be.
Plastic clarinets are unlikely to sustain permanent damage, but the thermal effects can make pads come loose by cracking the glue or make rods and keys bind (though the latter is temporary, the former will need repair, and pad replacement is actually somewhat expensive). I have gotten plastic Vito basses really cold in a number of environments, and about the worst that happened was that the elmer's glue I used to keep the adjustment screws in place would pop off. (Sometimes with a fair amount of velocity.)
At normal temperature (assume 20 C), notes on an instrument can be generated by the funciton:
f = 440 * 2^(x/12)
Where x is the number of half steps above or below 440 A. (This is B on the Clarinet or Trumpet.)
To get the number of cents sharp or flat, use the following formula:
c = log2(p/a)*12*100
Where
c is the number of cents sharp
p is the played frequency
a is the actual frequency of the intended note
Note for calculation: log2(x) = log(x)/log(2) = ln(x)/ln(2)
<digress>
A digital tuner can be had for about $20 that should provide plenty of accuracy and precision - much more than when I did the doppler effect experiment in middle school where I:
1: Recorded 440 A from a synthesizer while riding past on a bicycle with a speedo (using a clarinet patch because of the clean sinusoidal waveform - long before I knew why that was the case)
2: Played the recording through an oscilloscope
3: Played the tape on a big TV and took a ruler to the waveform.
</digress>
Any good thermocouple should do fine for temp - the ones for ovens (you put the probe inside and the reading is displayed outside) would be good for this - plus very useful after the experiment. (Thats true for the tuner as well.)
There is a small blurb in some of Legere's literature about the effects of temperature on their reeds, and I know that if its really cold enough a reed will freeze and you'll have to warm it up before it becomes playable again.
Have fun!
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