Author: huboboe
Date: 2012-05-14 05:48
OK, let's look at the problem from an entirely different perspective:
Leave the brass aside (please!).
With string instruments, the vibrating string provides a set of overtones - the classic description of the overtone series - where the string vibrates as one loop, jump-rope style, 2 loops, 3 loops and so on, producing a full set of overtones. The body of the instrument selects from among the available frequencies those that resonate, giving the difference in sound between, for instance, violin and guitar. This is true no matter what note is being played, because the string always vibrates in the same manner.
A reed instrument is an entirely different animal. The shape of the bore (and all the other myriad acoustical attributes) asks the reed to produce a set of overtones to fill the 'slots' available in the stack that will complete the set that a given note asks for. (I'm expressing this poorly, but hang in here...)
The thing is, each fingering makes a 'different' instrument - the part of the bore being used, the total length (therefore the pitch) - each note asks the reed to produce a different set of overtones consistent with the pitch being played, and yet these overtones need to be in the same proportion to each other for each pitch or the timbre will be different (forked F and regular F, for instance, though this is a function of the bore, not the reed).
What this means is the ideal reed should be a white noise generator, capable of producing any pitch or combination of pitches at any time.
When the tip predominates or the back is over-cut, the result is that the reed can't produce frequencies in one end or the other of the necessary range. Assuming you can achieve THAT balance, the problem becomes one of finding a shape that compliments all the other parts of your setup to produce the widest range of available frequencies, so that no matter what the instrument is asking for, the reed can produce.
And the shape is only one of the variables necessary here...
The only thing to do is try - with the help of someone who knows more than you do, at first - different shapes, different scrapes, different cane, until you've filled up that legendary laundry basked with your discards.
Learning musical performance is an apprenticeship, and for most of us that wasn't, or will not be, a short process.
It's late: good night and Happy Mother's Day...
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
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