Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2007-01-24 15:13
Artificial embouchures and X-ray movies have shown that the clarinet reed is closed against the mouthpiece rails and tip more than 50% of the time. This is why the clarinet acts as a closed (at one end) tube. There's been vigorous discussion on the Klarinet mailing list about whether this happens on a "subtone" (or at all in the English playing style).
By contrast, the saxophone's conical bore has less reflection at the bell, and the sax reed is open more than 50% of the time. Thus, the instrument acts as an open tube (as do the oboe, bassoon and flute).
There was an interesting experimental instrument called the Octavin, which had a slightly conical bore at just the transitional point between open-tube and closed-tube vibration. It was intended to produce a clarinet tone but overblow at the octave instead of the twelfth. It didn't work at all unless you played it like a sax, with a sax tone. For much, much more, see the Clarinet board and the Klarinet list.
Ken Shaw
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