 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-02-23 15:36
question: (I am just a question-posting fiend!)
If I were to get a longer barrel, I'm guessing that would flatten my upper notes, that tend to be sharp. However, would that just cause trouble for me in the lower register, which tends to go rather flat the more I pull out to get the upper register in tune?
and I might have asked this before...or someone might have (excuse my bad memory!), but do reeds affect tone? .becuase I had an audition and my clarinet was unusually sharp. I was pulled out as far as I could go, both in the barrel and the middle and even my LOW notes were sharp! (and they tend to be flat). granted, it was an inferno there, so perhaps it was just the temperature, but what do I know?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sanya
Date: 2005-02-23 16:15
maybe you were pinching at your audition, because you were nervous, and that caused you to be sharp.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-02-23 16:20
no, I tuned as I warmed up and wasn't in the slightest bit nervous. when I got in there I was nervous, but not before hand...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-02-23 21:18
Different reaming of different barrels can affect certain notes and not others. For instance, Moenigg barrels had a certain taper which helped tuning of the upper clarion notes without drastically affecting the others. Chadash barrels have a similar but slightly different taper which does about the same. Sometimes it's not just the length of the barrel but HOW it's designed.
As to reeds affecting tone, I think we would agree that THAT statement is true. But affecting pitch, I'm not too sure.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-02-24 00:27
I met this guy who had a special tuning barrel. I had never seen one before, but he was able to adjust it to fix his tone...or intonation? or would it be pitch? ga! music vocabulary!
...he also had this odd tuner that you attach to the bell, and no, it was not a microphone, but some kind of device that would...I guess measure the vibrations of the clarinet which would determine the intonation (pitch?). supposedly it's the best way to tune. and better than a mic because it wont pick up any other sounds around the person tuning. and obviously better than a typical tuner with the little meter...
but anyway- I feel so stupid, what with playing for 8 years and taking theory for 3, and not knowing this (call it a brain fart) but what is the difference between tone and pitch? (my director would smack me if he saw this)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Kevin
Date: 2005-02-24 00:41
Pitch is the specific rate of vibration, in other words the frequency, that a sustained sound produces. For example, our American standard tuning 'A' vibrates at a rate of 440 Hz, or beats per minute. When we play and hold one note, it consistently vibrates at a specific frequency. Of course, all sound produces sound waves, and therefore all have various frequencies. The difference between musical notes, and say a pencil dropping on the floor, is that one musical note will vibrate at the same rate, and if you were to measure it on a graph, you'll see a continuing longitudinal wave. (BTW, sound waves are actually transverse. When we create graphs of sound, we draw them as longitudinal because it would be easier to put down on paper. Sound graphs actually measure the air pressure, which is disturbed by the sound wave, rather than the wave itself) whereas the pencil dropping may produce some messy, random graph. Thus musical notes have pitches, and pencils dropping do not.
Tone, which can mean different things, is pretty much used in a subjective manner to describe the quality of the sound. For example, you've probably heard many describe someone's tone as being "bright" or "dark".
Post Edited (2005-02-24 00:45)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-02-24 00:45
ah physics! both a lovely and confusing science! thank you, Kevin, that was a wonderful explanation! [smile]
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-02-24 01:29
MIL,
He probably had a tuning barrel. CLICK barrels are the name that I've heard when it comes to tuning barrels. You either "click" it up, or twist it sideways to elongate or shorten it.
As per the vibrations of the clarinet, there is a pick-up that you can buy for your normal tuner. Most tuners have a jack in the side. That is for that pickup. The pickup is only about 15 to 20 dollars, and usually plugs into your tuner. You can clip this pretty much anywhere on the clarinet, but my HS instructor (as most other clarinetists that I saw that had it) would clip it onto the long post that goes down to the low E/long B pad. Clips fine there, isn't in the way of anything, and gives you a very accurate reading. Pros to me are it isn't affected by ambient noise or other instruments in the background playing, and it fixes in very quickly on a certain pitch (doesn't seem to waiver much with your playing as it tries to center in).
Not a bad investment if you ask me.
The difference between tone and pitch is (as Kevin described above) dependant on the actual wave that comes across. For instance, an A-440 is an "A" no matter WHAT instrument you play it on. So no matter WHAT sound is making that "A" pitch, there is a wave that is vibrating at 440 cycles per second. What differentiates between different instruments is the number of harmonics you hear, the level harmonics that you hear, the purity of the wave (how smooth/jagged it is), probably the amplitude of the wave, the difference in the makeup of the instrument and vibrations of anything else around the actual sound. SO many variables!!!! I probably missed a bunch (and the amplitude I'm not sure of, but I figure it's got to make SOME difference).
Alexi
PS - I'm not POSITIVE, but I think The Doc has done some studies on different materials and their affects on sound (probably during some barrel experimentation or modification experiments). I'd do some searches under "the doctor" and "material" or something of that nature. He more than likely posted up some stuff on this board . . . . . . . somewhere . . . . . . .
US Army Japan Band
Post Edited (2005-02-24 01:33)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
