Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2005-11-02 12:07
According to my teacher (and to some extent, from my own experience), woodwind instruments typically have these variations in their scale.
Ask any clarinetist about their "long B", or their pinch Bb -- notes which can be supremely stuffy, feeling and sounding out of line with the rest of the tones on the instrument.
The most "at risk" tones are those which are either long or short on the pipe -- like the C# on an oboe (which is a "long" fingering -- lots of fingers down) or the dreaded two-finger C natural (which is a "short" fingering). To my way of thinking, these are the oboe tones which correspond to the clarinet B and Bb.
These two tones follow each other in the chromatic scale, but require fingerings that are, relatively speaking, miles apart. The need to transition from short pipe to long pipe in the aural space of a half-tone seems to me to virtually guarantee some perception of (undesirable) tonal change.
The notes themselves may actually be out of line with the rest of scale. In the case of the "bright" oboe C, I have to think this is so. My teacher, however, believes that the color difference on the C# is largely a matter of the player's perception, but is imperceptible several feet away.
At least, that's what she tells me when I complain about my C# being awful . . .
Susan
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