Hello everyone. I've just bought myself a clarinet and I'm learning the key combinations for getting the notes. I can see what is meant when they say it's not all about keys, it's also about how you blow. I lived with this with the trumpet. Going from A to B needs a sudden change of fingering, doesn't it. Why is this, do you reckon? What's the physics/engineering behind it? It's simple on a trumpet: just release valve 1 and out come B. The clarinet is great fun. I'm teaching myself to play because I don't want to play in a band but just for my own amusement. Nice to meet you all.

Talkative lot, arnen't you

The accoutics of musical instruments is a complex topic which is probably why nobody has spoken up.

On the trumpet operating the valves alters the length of tube in operation enabling the player to obtain all notes with the various combinations of valves & altering harmonic of that length which is produced with the lips.

With clarinet raising the fingers alters the length of tube that is in operation thus changing the note. When you run out of notes at Bb putting all fingers down plus opening the speaker/register key produces the next harmonic (A 12th above the low E) & this also enables the next range up to high B. After that the more complex fingerings enable higher harmonics of lower notes to sound producing the altissimmo range.

Would this have anything to do with the clarinet being originally made from two instruments, chalameau and clarion? Do you have any idea why opening the speaker hole moves the resonance up an octave? It isn't like the other case in which opening a hole shortens the resonating tube's length, leaving a shorter tube, is it. The speaker hole is quite a long way further up the tube than the holes we use for the lower notes from C upwards. So its mechanism must be different, surely?

Sorry, you said it moves the range up a 12th. My mistake. But the rest of my question still applies I think.

But you're not going to answer it are you?

I don't look at the forum every day & I'm not a real acoustics expert.

Opening the speaker key causes the air column to operate at that higher harmonic. This is the equivalent of altering you lips on the trumpet.

I'm sure an internet search along the lines of 'woodwind acoustics' should come up with more details.

Hello Woollyhead
mike from west yorks here, where are you
dont get too tied up with the whys , just practice and play, once you can guarantee a sound when you blow, practice playi g up and down the instrument for a start, lower notes come easier.
lots of stuff on you tube lessons etc, some better than others.
lots of practice is the answer
i took lessons to start with not cheap, but it is worth it having someone to actually show you anything you dont understand, mine is a former pro clarinet orchestral player, still young and enthusiastic. Nice to have someone who can play duets with you and also accompany you on keyboard, like a real pro and better than playing on your own, i am lucky my son is a professional musician and teacher ( not mine) so i can get him to accompany me occasionally.
yes i found they were not good communicators here, so i havent been here for ages but i will try again, perhaps between us we can get enthusiasm going
mike

contra and clarinetmike, thanks for your replies. I will look up that reference - oh blow! I can't see which one it was now. As soon as I begin typing a reply your posta dissappear and I can't refer back. I would also like to have an edit facility for my posta that I've already sent, wouldn't you? For a good example of this see sheffield forums. They have both facilities. Anyway, I'm actually interested in the engineering/physics of how the clarinet behaves. For a good example see cafe saxophone. Many of their users get into the physics of saxophones on that forum. I'll look up that reference now.

Clarinetmike thanks for your advice. I looked up one or two references and found out that there are in effect several speaker type vents. These functions are created by various finger holes along the body, as well as the main one which bears the name. They work by releasing the internal vibrating air pressure maxima to atmospheric pressure, thus forcing vibration pressure maxima to choose a different position by vibrating at a different frequency. The subsidiary speaker type holes aren't called speaker holes but that's what they are in effect in terms of what they do. So now I know I'll go back to learning how to play the instrument, speaker holes, sorry, note positions and all.

Hello again. I'm getting along fairly well without a tutor and I can play popular tunes now, in some keys. I'm still having the usual problem (I gather it's usual) in moving from A4 to B4. Why on earth did the clarinet's designer think that going from 1 key for A to 10 keys for B was a good idea? I still think it's a hangover (!) from when the lower range was played on a chalumeau. But practice makes perfect I hear someone say. I haven't forgotten the good advice I was given here to find a tutor, either. I'll get round to it.

It is the same for all woodwind instruments & the only way of getting higher notes.

Very clever, the clarinet is a wonderful instrument the result of many decades of invention, one wonders how they knew that drilling a hole in a certain place would produce thd required note, rather like the science of organ pipes
on another note, I have decided to resume clarinet lessons that got interupted a year ago when i had a surprise double cardiac by pass op