Forgive me if the term is wrong, but bending notes (changing the note by rolling in or out the flute’s embouchure) is easier in the lower octaves than the upper octaves. So is it more important that second octave is more in tune with the first octave or the third.
I guess it would depend on where you played…generally the upper two octaves should be in tune w/ each other (as they don’t vary much…) and the lowest octave should be in tune when playing LOUD…ie the upper octaves are set ~~35 cents sharper than the low so that when you play loud they all come into tune and cooperate
I hate it when it does that (not the flute…the keyboard repeating)
Ugh
okay Jack!
I find when a flute has bent notes, I can usually bend 'em back.
Takes strong lips, though.
–James
I keep my tuning slide really slick so I can use it like a trombone slide while I’m playing.
not to be antagonistic but…
id10+,
is bending notes easier in the first octave? i never heard that before.
can you explain…
i imagine if you are planning to play itrad, then having a flute that plays well in the first two octaves helps alot. unless you plan on playing alot in the third octave, then i wouldn’t be overly concerned about it.
jackbrad…,
i don’t understand your post - where are you getting your information that the second octave is 35 cents sharper than the first unless it is played loudly? i seem to play my flutes ‘in tune’ with themselves with no problem. … and i don’t need to play loudly either. why is that?
You have such a cute sense of humor, Bun!
I think he’s been hanging out on the Robert Dick site… 
Owww…its too early…head hurts…out at session last two nights…dangerously under-caffinated…wher’s djm when I need him…
Ok…I’ve made it to my laborrrrrratory (www.sputtercoat.com)…and trying to get my brain to wake up…Cofffeeeee !!!
Ok class, settle down. The text for today’s lecture (which may be a series of edits interupted by phone calls und udder neccesities on this end) is “Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics” by Arthur H. Benade, Oxford University Press, 1976. The class notes (you can find the worked out version here) are from a course (Physics 323) taught by A. H. Benade in the fall of 1977 at Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio (see p.44…Acoustical evolution of wind instruments…http://ccrma.stanford.edu/marl/Benade/documents/Benade-Physics323-1977.pdf......5.3 MB, PDF)
I’ll just assume everybody is familiar with these so we won’t have a pop quiz…
Back again…had to field a call from Sweden, and no, it wasn’t Henke calling in late for class !
Let’s see…at the outside, we are dealing with two effects. One has to do with rolling the flute in and out and the other with the velocity of the airstream. (and let’s keep in mind that a flute-playing musician, as opposed to an acoustical physics type trying to make a decent sound, will automaticaly compensate between these two)
So lets forget the flute for a moment and substitute a (roughly) 1 inch dowel instead. When you blow across the dowel the air stream will break away in a series of vortices (turbs, whirlpools, spirals, whatever) at a (fortunatly subaudible) rate which will vary with the velocity of the airstream. (Note to self: get lazy butt out into lab and measure it or at least look up formula.) There are wind velocimeters built on this principal w/ no moving parts.
Think of this velocity effect as acting on the LOW frequency end of the flute.
(the high end is affected by the cork position making a little cavity resonator that helps pull the upper registers around, pretty well known)
Rolling in and out on the other hand, (that is to say the acoustic cavity formed between the lips and the blowing edge) has a pretty broad effect, more on the high end but still well spread over the octaves.
So the first thing to note is that the low register is easier to “bend” because there are more tools to use to do it…both velocity and embouchure…(and of course, vommitbunnys slide keys on the cork and barrel…shades of the Rudall Patent Head !) Its the combination of rolling and velocity change that gives the low register the most bending ability.
Ok, every body still awake…lambchop ?
Where, oh where, does the 35 (or so ) cents come from ?
(boy, I could put in a real shaggy dog story here if I could remeber how it goes…we’ll just leave that as part of the homework assignment)
Back with nice cupa French Vanilla…
Anyway, to recap, there are (at least) 4 “resonators” involved in this game:
-
The “flute” resonance itself, the one we’re trying to make behave as nicely as possible..
-
The “tuning stub” set by the cork position and used to set the relationship between the upper registers (don’t let me forget to come back to this one and its effect on the low register)
-
The embouchure “cavity” between the lips and the blowing edge
-
The “sub-audible” and velocity-dependent oscillation of the airstream leaving the head
The player has active control over 3. and 4., passive control over 2, and the poor flute tuner has to figure out how to make him (or her) as happy as possible using what he (or she) can of number 1.
Back again…hot dog for lunch !
Soooo, if #1 was perfect and all we had to deal with, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. (back when, I was dealing with “perfect” resonator cavities…the math and measurements were sooooo nice !)
But real flutes have end effects, open holes, closed holes etc etc to screw things up…of course if they didn’t they’d all sound pretty much the same…(comparitively speaking)
(Alright, already…where does the 35 cents come from ?)
Ok, it starts with the flute player who wants to make him/herself heard over the accordian in the next chair…ie, who wants to play LOUDER in the low octave
Two ways to do that: increase the air velocity over the blowing edge AND excite more partials (harmonics, modes, whatever) to make more sound.
Now if you want to play softly, you realy don’t need to excite the additional modes, and if you just increase the air velocity the low register will increase in pitch due the low frequency coupling.
Of course, you stay in tune by rolling the flute and not even thinking about it…
So, since the upper registers arn’t much changed with velocity and you don’t need them to line up with the low register except when playing LOUD, the idea is to get them all to line up when you want to play your LOUDEST, …ie, when the low register is at its sharpest. (relative to the high registers)
Now there’s nothing magic about the 35 cents. A real “honker” might want to go 40-50 and have the air and focus to use it while a baroque “quiet” flute might only want 25 cents (but wants it nice and uniform on all the notes)
Which brings us back to the cork position.
Turns out it’s quite difficult to achieve a perfectly uniform tuning across the octave (boring all them holes and all) So the usual compromise is to let the higher notes get by with a little less difference since they sound louder anyway (this is one of the sources of David Levine’s justified gripe about newbies going too loud and too sharp as they go up) The middle is generally pretty uniform and the difference goes up as you get to the lowest notes.
Wait for it…now, if you are playing ITM in the lower two registers you can pull the cork out a bit and tip the compromise to make the lowest notes line up with their harmonic modes a bit better (and cost you a bit of tuning on the high end) so that you can squeek (sorry about the pun) every last bit of volume out of that bottom D or whatever using your own best embouchure and slide position (it varies from flute to flute and on some it might even help to push it in !)
Well, now that the entire class has been put to sleep, think I’ll go try to find another session…
It seems that the notes can be altered in pitch to a greater extent in the lowest octave than in the upper ones. This is just what I have personally found. I also find that it is much easier to adjust the tone with a round embouchure than a rectangular one.
Your point about playing ITM was a good one.
id10+,
the reason i ask is that, i find it very easy, and maybe easier, to bend notes in the second octave, so i guess we must just blow a bit differently. but i like the rounder or elliptical embouchure hole too.
professor jack,
thanks for the class! i had no idea what i was signing up for! i guess i was not sure initially where you were coming from, a practical or theoritical point of view. but now i see…
Ok…have great weekend…reports are due Monday !
Herr Doktor Profffesssor Jack
vegetarians unite!
Hmmm…
9 out of 10 cannibals agree, vegetarians taste better!
–James
And they’re on menus everywhere. Why just tonight, while eating out at the Tip Top Cafe in San Antonio, I saw that they have a Vegetarian Platter… How do you cook vegetarians, anyway? 
I’ve heard they taste best fried in the grease of a veal calf. 
Ahhhhhh, yesss…
I see (in typical scholarly fashion) the class has spent the homework period passing notes instead of reading the assignment… 
We’ll pass on today’s lecture…“Why One Would Want to Bend Notes in the First Place”… 
Those interested should read Benade…Secs. 15.3,15.4,15.6…extra credit for 15.5… 
(Tal…I,m really surprised at your lack of attention this semester… 
)
Herr Doktor Profffesssor Jack
Well the F nat, I would assume that you would need to (not part of the original sidcussion because this is cross fingering). You can usually find creative fingerings for the third octave (disclamer I am more a fife/piccolo player at the moment) So I would think that again it would be best to concentrate on the lower octaves.
While playing with others cork adjustment would bring the flute partly out of tune with its self, so again a necessity.
I also heard that and tuning to “Perfict” pitch would be different than tuning to “piano” pitch (sorry I do not know the correct termonology). Adjusting pitch, again seems to be a necicity depending on who you play with.
Also It seems like something to thinkabout if you want to have dynamics rather than playing lous all the time.