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How does weather affect intonation?

Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-08-05 16:35

Hello

I'm interested to know, what is the proportion of the intonation change that is caused because of weather to the general intonation of the instrument (for example some notes more affected than others). It is VERY hot today, and like the normal effect my clarinet plays very sharp. Checking with a tuner, it looks like all notes got sharper by about the same. I'm wondering if there is a usual effect or if it can be different on each clarinet because of different bore shape, acoustic design, etc.?

I hope my question is clear because it was a little difficult to phrase it in English. If I need to explain better let me know.

Thanks.

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Re: How does weather affect intonation?

Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-08-05 20:03

Hot air (at the same pressure and gas composition) is less dense than cold air. Less dense air yields in sharp pitch, like colder/denser/heavier air (eg a soda burp) results in lower pitch.

Edit: Wouldn't dare to quote a proportion as questioned in the original post. I'd guess it has to do with mol and hectopascal and their relative amount with their sea-level-at-20°C respective numbers.

Side notice:
I observed that at an altitude of ~4500ft the reed should be half a notch stronger than at say 1500ft, else it'd stick unless you're using a very relaxed embouchure. May correlate with thick/thin air too. Soda burps flatten the tone as much as 1 note while at 1200ft. it's only half a note. (Pictures of me playing to a herd of cows will follow)

--
Ben

Post Edited (2006-08-05 20:22)

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