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

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.