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 The Register Key and tuning compromises
Author: Paul Aviles 
Date:   2014-08-10 03:19

I really should have title this, "How I spent 40 years NOT knowing the basics of how my instrument tunes!"


As I sat in front of my Korg trying to figure out how to best OBJECTIVELY determine how a certain mouthpiece was tuning, I decided to do the 'ol "play the twelfth without the octave key" thing. It was obvious that most clarion notes were slightly (just slightly) flat (example: get "C" below the staff right on the mark, then jump to the "G" sitting on the staff (without register key) and that "G" comes out slightly flat. Then I had a lightbulb moment, "Oh, I guess the register key raises the pitch slightly as it 'vents' the note."


This led to playing the clarion register third space "C" to the second ledger line "C" note-by-note, adding and taking away the register key like a slow trill. To my amazement, I found that the pitch was most drastically changed on the last three highest of those notes (maybe not so surprising) AND also on the last two lowest clarion notes, middle line "B" and third space "C" (REALLY surprising to me!!!). Another odd thing about this tuning issue is that the fourth line "E" and top line "F" are virtually unaffected by the opening and closing of the octave key.


Now for the fundamental tuning part: It became clear that this difference in pitch on the most affected notes was lessened as the amount of the space of the octave key pad was made smaller and smaller. Once I got down to no more than one millimeter open, the difference was still as much as eighteen cents (for the extreme "Cs") but it was less than when I had the octave key opened up as I had over the last 40 years!


So, as I was advised by a tech back when I first started playing clarinet (and promptly ignored in an attempt to vent the throat "Bb" better), your overall scale will be much more even if you keep the distance of the octave key pad as close as practical.





...............Paul Aviles
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 Topics Author  Date
 The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-10 03:19 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
donald 2014-08-10 08:11 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
DavidBlumberg 2014-08-10 16:30 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
rtmyth 2014-08-10 17:32 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
ruben 2014-08-13 17:29 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Ken Shaw 2014-08-10 17:49 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Caroline Smale 2014-08-10 18:06 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
kdk 2014-08-10 18:21 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
kdk 2014-08-10 18:33 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-10 18:55 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-10 19:48 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Silversorcerer 2014-08-10 20:29 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Tony Pay 2014-08-13 18:32 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-13 23:45 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Tony Pay 2014-08-14 01:32 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
ruben 2014-08-14 10:53 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-14 01:45 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
ned 2014-08-14 05:46 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
GBK 2014-08-14 06:28 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-14 14:09 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-14 14:44 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Ken Shaw 2014-08-14 16:39 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-14 17:54 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Tony Pay 2014-08-14 18:16 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Tony Pay 2014-08-14 20:21 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
ruben 2014-08-14 20:44 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-25 15:56 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
sonicbang 2014-08-25 17:59 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Tony Pay 2014-08-25 19:12 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Luuk 2014-08-26 11:23 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
cyclopathic 2014-08-26 21:15 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
cyclopathic 2014-08-27 00:04 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-26 23:16 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Tony Pay 2014-08-27 00:56 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Paul Aviles 2014-08-27 01:28 
 Re: The Register Key and tuning compromises  new
Tony Pay 2014-08-27 01:43 


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