I recently heard some sound clips of a Xaphoon (a tenor saxophone reed on short bamboo body). What puzzles me is that the bamboo body appears to be about the length of a soprano C whistle (the Xaphoon is in C) but the sound clips I heard sound as if the instrument is capable of playing below the pitch of a soprano C whistle. Does this make any sense? Is perhaps the bore area twice that of a C whistle? If so, what would that do to the balance of the instrument across octaves?
I like the sound of the Xaphoon but I want to make one with whistle fingering.
Can the flutomat calculator be used for reed instruments? If so, from what point on the reed does one measure?
Also, can one violate (by fairly drastic amounts) the ideal length/bore ratio as long as one is willing to give up cross fingered notes? Does a wider bore favor the high or low register?
Finally, what effect does a very sharp 180 bend in the air column have? I know a lot of horns are made with numerous bends, are there any correction factors one needs to apply to the bore/length calculation for bends?
I guess in the end Iâm going to buy some PVC and a tenor sax mouthpiece/ligature and have at it, but if some of you folks can give me a good place to start Iâd appreciate it.
I like the sound of the Xaphoon but I want to make one with whistle fingering.
You canât do that. At least not with the second octave. The whistleâs second octave is caused by over blowing, but on a reed instrument (no voicing window) that wonât work. Well, you probably can blow harder, but you wouldnât get the next octave. It requires different fingerings.
Yeah, I noticed that the fingerings on the Xaphoon change when you kick into overdrive. Well, thereâs always my backup plan, a tenor sax reed on a slide whistle â can you say âsaxoboneâ
I donât recall where I read this. It was a link Thomas Hastay provided, though.
A closed ended instrument like a saxophone or clarinet obeys different math than a open ended instrument like a whistle or flute. I believe the frequency on a closed instrument will be half the frequency of an open instrument of the same dimensions, which means one octave lower.
This is not Thomas but I might be able to help.
A reed instrument operates on the close ended bore principle. A closed end bore will play an octave lower than a open bore. Than means that an instrument the size of a high-D will play a low-D pitch.
Also bore for closed-end instrument operates on high pressure low velocity - kind of the opposite of a whistle. The is why the bagwhistle depletes the bag much quicker than a bagpipe.
Now, the high pressure low velocity requires a different kind of bore. In fact your bore size can be less than half the ideal bore size for a whistle.
A reed instrument like the Clarinet, straight bore overblows on the 12th instead of the octave. A C bamboo straigh bore reed instrument will overblow on high f. That is why clarinets have so many keys.
There is a way to overblow in the octave like a whistle. A steep conical bore like that of the saxophone will overblow (blow harder) on the octave.
Sharp Bends will work fine but they are sensitive to interruptions like coupler pits. Look inside the bore of an instrument where the coupler is and youâll understand what I mean.
So, if youâre going to make a Tenor Sax out of straight PVC, youâll really be making a tenor clarinet unless you can somehow taper the tubing.
PVC can be altered by pour acetone in it a wait a while for it to soften, do this outdoors and use gloves - itâs nasty stuff. After it is softened, use a tapered object to form it.
Thanks Daniel and fractalfingers (Iâm not going to ask about that moniker ).
I think Iâll pick up an inexpensive student mouthpiece and a bunch oâ tubing and have a little fun over the holidays. No telling what I might come up with.
I am confused about one thing, though, Daniel. You said that a closed bore plays an octave lower than an open bore. I just tried playing a low D on a Feadog whistle, then closing the end against my leg. The tone I got, without changing breath pressure or fingering, was somewhere around a second octave A??? Is that because itâs a cylindrical bore instead of conical? Or am I just a bore
Edited to add â or are you saying that a closed bore instrument the size of a high D would play a low D if using a high-pressure mouthpiece like a reed instead of a low pressure one like an open fipple?
Also edited to add â wait a minute, hold the phone. Arenât u-pipes jumped from octave to octave by opening and closing the bell end against the playerâs leg? Or am I completely out to lunch on that? Anyway, if that is the case, it should be possible to build a whistle-sized, reed blown, instrument with a âflapperâ at the end of the bore. Use a rod, spring, and thumb âtriggerâ to move the flapper and youâve got a two octave reeded âwhistleâ â right?
Youâre completely out to lunch on that â they left the u-pipes off the leg to hit the lowest note on the scale. I believe octave is controlled by how hard you squeeze the bag.
Itâs the reed end that is closed. For a moment, the reed fully closes, it then reopens to add more air. The beating reed is considered a closed ended. If you want to learn more about it, I recommend Bart Hopkins book âMusical Instrument Designâ. Itâs well written and directed to a non-technical audience. After that, you can graduate to his Air Column and Toneholes book which covers the operation of bores for many kinds of Wind Instruments.
Thanks Daniel! Thatâs exactly the kind of thing Iâm wanting to make. So, how does it sound? Does it overblow the second octave, or to something else?
Iâm confused, the fingering chart on the xaphoon website shows it overblowing (i.e. second register, same fingering except top hole open) to F# not to C. This would be like a D whistle overblowing to G# when fingered 0XXXXX. That would be a flat twelfth, wouldnât it?
It plays the first octave with a bell note of âCâ and the second octave with a bell note of âFâ. hmm, C & F, Chiff and Fipple?
It sounds great, has a strong bottom end. It sounds just like a clarinet.
People look at it and laugh and then when they hear, their jaws drop.
It needs some keys added to make it really usefull. A typical Chalumeau setup of 7 holes on top, thumb hole and two top/bottom opposting keys would do it well.
To voice the reed bed, you need sandpaper in course to fine grades and lot of patience and retesting to get the slope correct.
One more thing, ignore the embouchure hole size and adjust the tubing length to play in tune experiementally. The problem with reeds is that the geometery of the reed and itâs natural beating frequency plays havoc with the sizing formula.
However, once the bottom length of the instrument is established, you can use Peter Hoekjeâs Excel Spreadsheet to calculate the toneholes.
If you use Flute-o-mat, you need a version that will have a ratio of wavelength/bore length factor of two. For Flutes and Whistles, the factor is four. Otherwise, it wonât come out right.
