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Woodwinds include the single-reed driven instruments (clarinets and saxophones), double-reed instruments (oboes, bassoons, english-horns), and ``air-reed'' instruments (flutes, piccolos, and recorders). The common element to all these instruments is their use of toneholes to vary the effective length of their air column.
If you wish to pursue a more in-depth analysis of woodwind instruments, perhaps for your class project, a unique collection of research materials is maintained here at CCRMA. The Musical Acoustics Research Library
(MARL) is a collection of independent archives or libraries assembled by distinguished groups or individuals in the field of musical acoustics research. Currently, MARL is comprised of the Catgut Acoustical Society Library, the Arthur H. Benade Archive, the John Backus Archive, and the John W. Coltman Archive. Our current understanding of woodwind instrument acoustic behavior owes much to the work of Arthur Benade, John Backus, and John Coltman.
- Cylindrical Bores: See Section on Brasses
- Conical Bores:
- Register Holes:
- A register hole or vent is designed to destructively interfere with the fundamental resonance of the air column and thus force oscillations at the next strongest resonance.
- The strength of a particular resonance can be reduced by locating a register hole at a point of maximum pressure for that mode and a point of zero pressure for the desired resonance.
- For clarinets, the register hole is ideally placed about 1/3 the distance from the reed tip to the first open hole. For saxophones and oboes, the register hole is ideally placed 1/2 the distance from the imaginary cone apex to the first open hole.
- The register hole also should be designed as an ``acoustic inertance or mass'', which will shift the frequency of the fundamental mode away from it's normal value. This is necessary for loud sounds that have many strong resonances. Simply reducing the strength of the fundamental in this case would not succeed in shifting the pitch because the cooperation of the higher partials would still support the weakened fundamental mode.
- Ideally, there would be a separate register hole for each fingering. Since this is not practical, comprimises in tuning must be made. A misplaced register hole will cause the second resonance frequency to sound sharp, in proportion to the distance from its ideal location.
- Reeds Driven Closed:
The single-reed as a mechanical oscillator blown closed.
- The reed functions as a pressure-controlled valve that admits a puff of air whenever the pressure is high in the mouthpiece.
- Positive pressure pulses reflected back from the far end of the horn tend to force the reed open ... positive feedback.
- The resonance frequency of the reed is typically between 2 - 3 kHz so that the reed always vibrates in its ``stiffness dominated'' region.
- The player can control the damping of the system via his/her lips.
- The player can indirectly control the mass of the system via the placement of his/her lips on the reed.
- Oscillations are favored when the air column has one or more resonances that correspond to the harmonics of the fundamental pitch.
- ``Air Reeds'':
- The air jet mechanism functions as a flow-controlled valve that admits a puff of air whenever the air flow at the embouchure hole is inward directed.
- The flow-controlled air stream collaborates with an air column to oscillate at frequencies corresponding to air column impedance minima.
- The player can control three parameters of the air jet - blowing pressure, length of the jet, and area of the lip opening - to affect register changes and other timbral effects.
- Most efficient excitation of the fundamental frequency takes place when the time for the air jet to travel across the embouchure hole is about half the period of oscillation.
- To sound the second register, the player increases the blowing pressure (to speed up the air jet) and/or moves the lips forward to decrease the jet length. At the same time, the lip opening may be decreased to 