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Re: High notes

Author: Donald Casadonte
Date: 2012-08-16 23:42

High notes are stabilized by what is known as reed resonance. Steve Thompson wrote his physics doctoral thesis under Arthur Bonade about the subject. A copy of his thesis is online, here:

http://www.sctacoustics.com/CV.htm

Essentially, high notes on the clarinet are naturally weak, but the reed has a few natural vibrational frequencies in the range of the high notes and when the note on the clarinet is close to the frequency of the reed, the two systems resonate and the sound becomes stronger. The reed frequencies can be modified by lip pressure, air speed, and oral cavity formation. Ed Planker is right on. Playing a scale forces the lip to relax favoring the lower frequencies of the reed which are closer to the notes on the clarinet. Playing slowly causes the oral cavity to contract and the lip pressure to increase forcing the reed frequency higher than the clarinet frequency and resonance is lost leading to a weaker sound. So, in playing higher notes the hard part is to relax. One can modify the reed to a certain extent to bring the frequencies of the lower natural reed modes (usually 1 and 2) closer to the clarinet frequencies of the upper range, but without detailed knowledge of reed shape and mechanical properties, the best one can do is give general principles.

Donald Casadonte

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High notes new

clarinetfan97

2012-08-04 07:27