Woodwind Instruments
Recorder (Photo Cedit)
|
What are they?
Woodwind instruments are played with the mouth and they contain a long tube with holes that are opened and closed in order to change the pitch of the sound. Many of them are played using a reed. Woodwinds include a wide variety of instruments from the recorder to the saxophone.
How do they Work?
There are many things that affect how woodwind instruments work. The length of the tube is one of the main things that affects the sound, because it affects how long the air has to travel before it escapes. This means that instruments with longer air columns have a lower sound. The holes along the sides of the woodwind changes the frequency of the sound, because the air travels different distances. Some woodwinds use a reed to prevent outside air from interfering with the sound (6). Flutes and recorders do not use reeds and instead allow free air to move in and out of the instrument. The air blown into the woodwind causes the instrument to vibrate and the sound to be heard. Blowing more or less air into a woodwind changes the amplitude of the sound waves, and changes the volume of the sound.
|
Clarinets
|
Clarinets use a reed in order to cause only one end of the instrument to be open to the air (which is the end that expels the air). The player has to force air into the instrument through the reed to cause vibrations. This causes the pressure to be different than those instruments that have both endings open to the air, and the instrument to play an octave lower than it would if both ends were open (1). The reed also causes the clarinet to have a less cutting sound than the flute. The clarinet has holes along the length of the tube, and depending on which ones are open affects the pitch of the sound, because the air has to travel more or less far along the tube.
|
|
|
Flutes
In order to play the flute, one must blow on the mouthpiece in a way in which the air interacts with the flute to vibrate the instrument and make a sound. The flute is open at both ends, and opening and closing the holes along the tube with the instruments keys change the pitch played (1). Recorders are a more simplified version of the flute that just has holes and not keys to change pitch.
|