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Re: stuffy note

Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2004-03-01 04:43

I don't know a lot about acoustics, but I do know that there is a breeze blowing in and out of a tone hole, oscillating at a frequency the same as that of the note being played. Try taking a key off the instrument, playing the relevant note, and holding a piece of cigarette paper above the tone hole. It vibrates in the oscillating breeze. So does a loose pad membrane, making a buzzy sound. Try lowering your finger slowly over a ring key, and feel the air movement as the note deteriorates.

The smaller the tone hole, the greater the amplitude of the oscillation, as it attempts to equalise the pressure inside the instrument with the pressure outside. Hence the importance of free air movement (non-turbulent) around a register key pad to reduce fuzziness in throat Bb, achieved with a cone-shaped cork pad.

The C# tone hole on standard clarinets is displaced up the instrument to avoid the tenon socket, so it is necessarily smaller to get the pitch right. Hence it is extra subject to fuzziness.

I have noticed from my own testing of instruments I service, that when an instrument has an acoustic design which leans towards fuzzy notes, then the fuzziness is greatly accentuated by a harder reed. Try it youself.... Play with a reed considerably harder than what you are used to, and you will inevitably get fuzziness in several notes, most likely side Eb (but not the other side keys), the G# being discussed, and perhaps other notes that involve small tone holes with pads over them. I also notice that if more lip pressure is exerted in the centre of a reed, with good breath support, the fuzziness is slightly reduced.

My guess is that with a harder reed the wave form of the air vibrating at a tone hole becomes more complex - more spiky perhaps, less like a smooth sine wave - such that the air is trying to move a lot faster during shorter time intervals.

An acoustics expert may be able to correct me, or elaborate.

Post Edited (2004-03-01 09:26)

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