 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2006-01-03 14:43
Over the festive season, I've been carolling with our local community band. They're mainly brass - clarinets are very much in the minority. So I tune to them (by ear). Venues have ranged from hot, packed, stuffy halls to sub-zero streets. Some interesting observations:
- When it was hot, I had to push in all the way
- When it was cold (and I mean, steam coming out the bottom end), I was pulling out so far you could see the cork, like over 2 mm.
Question: why? And does anyone else have similar observations to report?
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2006-01-03 14:59
Could it be, that "tuning to the brass" may be telling you that they [the brass] are more influenced by temps than you [cls??] are ?? Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2006-01-03 15:19
Brenda, Don,
Both your posts make perfect sense... I'd expect to push in in the cold and pull out in the warm. My experiences over the past few weeks have been counterintuitive! Maybe you're right - the brass section moves more with temperature (perhaps due to the thermal conductivity of metal?)
Just need a brass player now to answer that one...
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Author: archer1960
Date: 2006-01-03 17:11
> Question: why? And does anyone else have similar observations to report?
There are other factors, but the biggest one is how the speed of sound changes with temperature.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2006-01-04 14:41
In my experience playing in such groups and in the same venues is that the brass is never in tune.......and as a result the entire group is not in tune. As one member said, "most of the audience can't hear anyway". Not my personal attitude. The bottom line,however, is that it's hopeless ....so just play.
Bob Draznik
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2006-01-04 21:51
I sure hope you are playing a plastic clarinet - really cold playing can crack a wooden clarinet in a heartbeat.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2006-01-05 21:15
Perhaps David. Personally I played a wood clarinet in high school during the war years and we played outside for servicemen at the local train station in all kinds of weather. My clarinet never cracked and I took no special pains with it. Go figure.
Bob Draznik
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2006-01-05 22:26
Some clarinets can take that better than others. I had a student who marched outside with an E-11 and didn't even bother to swab it out. He had his Pro Clarinets which he took proper card of.
Yes, it got pretty gross too - he was a very advanced player (Principal Clarinet Phila. Youth Orch., 1st Chair All State Band fo PA) and just didn't care about it.
But it never cracked!!!
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Author: Dee
Date: 2006-01-05 22:33
If you calculate the stresses resulting from thermal expansion/contraction they are nowhere near enough to crack a clarinet.
However drying/hydrating can cause quite substantial changes in the dimensions resulting in major stress levels.
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2006-01-06 09:45
It's a wooden Selmer Paris about 5 years old. During that time the timber has settled noticeably - all the joints are nice and snug now (to the extent that the centre joint has been 'adjusted' :-) so I can get the thing apart without assistance [note to anyone thinking of trying this - it only takes about 50um, or 2 thou, i.e. a 'hairsbreadth' to make a significant difference]). I live in the UK so the wood swells in the damp summer and shrinks in the centrally-heated winter, as do all the doors in my house! I have noticed that if I oil the thing now and then it's noticeably more stable.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-01-06 10:30
Plastic clarinets are a pain in cold weather - just make sure there's plenty of end play between keys and pillars when they're at room temperature (and even more than you think is acceptable), especially the long key barrels and pillars on the bottom joint, or the lot will bind as the joints shrink.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-01-06 11:25
> didn't even bother to (...) But it never cracked!!!
Maybe it's like with plants - the neglected ones are sometimes the sturdiest. You pamper that orchid with greatest care, even talk to it, yet it refuses to blossom; at the same time you notice some dandelions pushing through a crack in the sidewalk pavement...
--
Ben
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2006-01-06 12:44
-------------------------------------
If you calculate the stresses resulting from thermal expansion/contraction they are nowhere near enough to crack a clarinet.
However drying/hydrating can cause quite substantial changes in the dimensions resulting in major stress levels.
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Remember Dee that this isn't as easily measurable on a scientific basis as a Clarinet sitting out in the cold.
It's the warm air from the player blowing through the Clarinet which creates a situation where the inside is a lot warmer than the outside and the expansion occurs from within.......
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-01-06 13:17
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> Remember Dee that this isn't as easily measurable on a
> scientific basis as a Clarinet sitting out in the cold.
It's trivial and done _all_ the time.
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