Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

[despammed] Re: Brass accompaniment was Re: Listen To Me Sing In Rokbeigalmki!

From:Garth Wallace <gwalla@...>
Date:Friday, January 17, 2003, 2:15
Steg Belsky wrote:
> > On Thu, 16 Jan 2003 14:39:15 -0800 Padraic Brown <elemtilas@YAHOO.COM > <mailto:elemtilas@...>> writes: > > --- Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@JUNO.COM <mailto:draqonfayir@...>> > > > > That's more than enough. Take a long wood tube > > with a slight flare in the bore at the distal > > end; hollow out a cup at the near end and lightly > > rub in some wax. Voi là, instant brass > > accompaniment! That's your basic didgeridu. Keep > > the length down to about two feet and drill some > > holes in it for a cornett. If they can steam and > > bend, then cut bore and reglue a piece of wood > > (or else carve an S shaped piece out of a block) > > they'd have a serpent. They may finger like a > > woodwind, but it's the sound production that > > counts. > > Padraic. > - > > Okay, cool, thanks! > I was under the impression that it's the material the instrument is made > out of that counts. So what is it exactly that separates woodwinds from > brass instruments?
It's all in how the vibrations are caused. Brass (which includes conch shells and didgeridus as well as trumpets and tubas) -- the lips vibrate in the mouthpiece, like blowing a "raspberry". Woodwinds are really two categories: flutes and reeds Flutes -- vibrations are caused by air passing over a hole (like blowing across the mouth of a glass bottle, or the hole in a flute) Reeds -- vibrations are caused by an airstream being forced past a reed. The reed is a springy flat object. The airstream forces the reed to flex outward, the reed's springiness forces it to flex back. The simplest form of this instrument is a piece of grass folded over itself and pulled tight: you blow between the blades.