Author: huboboe
Date: 2014-07-07 08:47
Hi, John -
Here's a thought to further unsettle your mind about the mechanics of reeds:
You know how a string vibrates; in one part, the fundamental pitch, in two parts, the octave, in three, four, five parts and so on. If you shorten the string it just does the same thing at a higher frequency. The body of the instrument decides which of these overtones to enhance and which to suppress, resulting in the difference in sound between a violin and a guitar, for instance.
A woodwind reed needs to produce a balanced set of overtones in a similar manner, and once again, the body of the instrument selects the overtone suite to feature. EXCEPT...
When you change notes, you have in effect a different instrument; the reed needs to produce a different set of overtones than before, appropriate to the new fundamental.
So the reed needs to be, for all practical purposes, a white noise generator, capable of providing the overtone spectrum for each note of the chromatic scale. This is a skill learned the hard way. I think Martin Schuring addresses it, but I first met it in Jay Light's 'Essays for Oboists': Put a laundry basket beside your reed bench. When it is full of your discards, you may know something about what you are trying to do...
:-)
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
