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Size Differences

Author: SecondTry
Date: 2024-01-16 21:18

How much bigger is the combined length of the upper and lower joints of a concert "A" Soprano clarinet over a concert "B flat" Soprano clarinet's same upper and lower joints comvbined.

I just loaned out my "A" to a friend and this got me thinking.

A justification of the answer in terms of pitch and/or math would be appreciated and hopefully come in a form similar to any of the following responses:

* A concert Bb Soprano clarinet is 11/12ths (I just made that number up) the size of a concert A Soprano clarinet.

* A concert A Soprano clarinet is 1 1/14 (I just made that number up) the size of a concert Bb Soprano clarinet.

* A concert Bb Soprano clarinet is 92% (I just made that number up) the size of a concert A Soprano clarinet.

* A concert A Soprano clarinet is 107% (I just made that number up) the size of a concert Bb Soprano clarinet.

You see I'm interested in the relative difference in size. Which method of mathematical proportion one expresses this in, fraction, percentage, decimal notation is all good by me!

TIA

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Re: Size Differences

Author: Bennett ★2017
Date: 2024-01-16 23:21

I believe the bore diameter also differs so expressing the difference in length doesn't fully capture how the semitone between the two instruments comes about.

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Re: Size Differences

Author: lydian
Date: 2024-01-16 23:26

Correct numbers below:
* 66/71 (~11/12)
* 1 5/66 (~1 1/13)
* 93%
* 108%

So your guesses were very close. Since adding an octave doubles the length, it makes sense that adding a semitone increases the length by about 1/12th.

Post Edited (2024-01-17 00:29)

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Re: Size Differences

Author: Burt
Date: 2024-01-17 05:43

The lengths need to be in a ratio of the twelfth root of 2, or a bit over 1.05, or a little over 5% increase.

The other question is where the mouthpiece end of the measurement is; I believe that this is appx. half an inch further into the mouth than the tip of the mouthpiece.

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