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Re: High Pitch Instruments

Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-02-23 22:43

It will only have the most effect on the upper left hand notes and less as you go further down the instrument so the instrument will be out of tune with itself.

The best way to demonstrate it is with a guitar using the low E string as an example. The bridge is the equivalent of the reed and the frets represent the toneholes so the lowest note (E) is the entire length of the string. When you stop the string at the 12th fret you'll get E exactly an 8ve higher as that's the exact midpoint of the string.

Now place something at the bridge end to act like a bridge to shorten the overall length of the open string (or move the bridge if this is possible). Retune the open string down to E and then stop it at the 12th fret and the note you'll now have won't be a perfect 8ve anymore as the scale has been thrown out as the frets are still in the same place.

If the frets could be moved around in relation to the length of the string then it'll be in tune. But as they're fixed (just like the toneholes on any woodwind instrument) the scale has been thrown out by altering the distance of the string in relation to where the frets are set out.

If a woodwind instrument was made of stretchy tubing, then stretching the entire length of the tube will also move the toneholes in relation to the length so it should in theory still be in tune with itself.

This is why clarinet barrels that are short (ie. using a 62mm barrel instead of a stock 67mm barrel) will throw out the scale of a clarinet as the mouthpiece has been brought nearer the uppermost toneholes making them sharper in relation to the toneholes further down the instrument. And pulling the reed on an oboe or crook on a cor right out won't flatten any oboe/cor uniformly as they're built to a specific pitch with the toneholes laid out accordingly.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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