An Explanation of Different Acoustical Mechanisms Observed Within the Woodwind Family of Instruments by Comparing the Oboe with the

Flute
By James Cooper 23417153
Table of Contents
Introduction What classifies a woodwind instrument? ....................................................................... 1 Woodwind Instruments as Simple Pipes ................................................................................................ 2 Pitch Control ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Excitation Methods ................................................................................................................................. 5 Reeds and Double Reeds .................................................................................................................... 5 Flute .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Bore Effects ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Flute .................................................................................................................................................... 7 Oboe.................................................................................................................................................... 8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 9 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 9

Introduction What Classifies a Woodwind Instrument?

Woodwind instruments are all played by blowing air into, or over, a mouth piece. This is, however, not enough to define the woodwind family as this is also true of the brass family. Despite having very different characteristic timbres, woodwind instruments do, in fact, have many acoustic similarities with brass instruments in that the production of sound in both families is owing to longitudinal vibrations of a column of air within the tubular cavity or bore of the instruments body (Benade, 1990). The distinctions are in the way in which pitch can be varied by the player and the

vibration excitation methods (as well as cosmetic differences in materials etc.). For all wind instruments, the sound is characterised by a series of formant frequency patterns (Hall, 1960). These are generally governed by the nature of the air column within the instrument (along with other intricacies and details particular to each instrument). Woodwind and brass alike use this to allow alterations to the acoustic response of an instrument to be made by altering the effective length of the air column, allowing one instrument to have multiple potential registers. For brass instruments, this is done by literally changing the bore length either by using valves to redirect the air flow through various different lengths of extra pipe, such as with the trumpet, or by using a slide, such as with the trombone. Woodwind instruments, however, differ by using tone holes in the side of the instrument which can be opened successively, starting from the bottom end, to shorten the effective bore length. Within the woodwind family different excitation methods lead to two main subcategories being determined. First, there are the reed or double reed instruments such as the Oboe or Clarinet; these have a flexible cane reed configuration which vibrates to allow a modulated air flow into the bore (this is a notably similar action to a brass players lips allowing puffs of air into a brass instruments mouth piece) (Benade, 1990). Secondly, there are the flute-like instruments, such as the Flute or Piccolo; these are played by blowing a steady jet of air over an embouchure hole which splits the jet causing pressure fluctuations to enter the instrument (Benade, 1990). Other factors which could be used to further subcategorise this instrument family include the nature of the bore, be it straight and cylindrical or tapered and conical, and ending detail, such as a flare; all such considerations critically altering the acoustics of an instrument. This essay will first outline the general acoustics of all woodwind instruments by looking at a simplified pipe model and then proceed to describe the differences in the types of woodwind instrument and their effects by using the Flute and the Oboe as examples.

Woodwind Instruments as Simple Pipes

In all woodwind instruments, regardless of excitation mechanisms and other factors, sound is produced by travelling longitudinal waves in air along the bore. These waves travel along the air column from the mouth piece to an open end where they are reflected. It is the interaction of these reflections which that generally form the audible notes. To understand these interactions, first let us consider a simple model of the bore being a single open ended cylindrical pipe. In such a model, wave impedance can be expressed as a function of the properties of the air and the cross-sectional area of the duct (Benade, 1990). Where represents the cross-sectional area, and is the density of the air. is the bulk modulus of the air Eqn. 1

At the open end of the pipe, entering the free space essentially acts as a sudden and great increase in duct cross sectional area. This results in a sudden and great drop in impedance which causes an acoustic wave to be almost totally reflected. The reflected wave will be inverted, i.e. compressions and rarefactions reversed, and will interact with the outgoing wave as it passes it. If the round-trip time of this outgoing and returning wave equates to an integer multiple of cycles of the acoustic

wave, then these interactions result in constructive superposition interference and a large, consistent pressure disturbance is set up along the length of the duct, called a standing wave. If the acoustic wave frequency is such that the returning wave is out of step with the outgoing wave, the resultant interference pattern will be unsteady and, owing to destructive interference, minimal in amplitude. In other words, if the excitation is matched to a resonance of the air column, strong standing waves will be set up after an initial transient response. In this example, of a cylindrical pipe open at one end, the modes would be set up with pressure anti-nodes at the closed, input end and pressure nodes at the opposite, open end. The given air column will have a range of harmonically related resonances with standing wave patterns that include quarter wave lengths (odd numbered harmonics (Wolfe, 1994)), resulting in an instrument frequency response of peaks and troughs. It is harmonic combinations of these peaks, or formants, which generate particular musical notes. In order for a note to be easily played, the excitation needs to be matched to one of the peaks, which will then act as the fundamental for the note, with higher formants being excited in turn. Energy is dissipated as a wave travels along the duct owing to viscous friction and thermal energy transfer to the duct walls. This means that the returning wave will realistically have a lower amplitude than the outgoing wave. Since these dissipation effects are greater for higher frequency sound waves (Benade, 1990), the peaks in the frequency response of the instrument will decay towards higher frequencies.

Pitch Control
As previously mentioned, the pitch of a woodwind instrument can be altered by changing the effective bore length. This is owing to the change in length altering the air columns resonances and therefore the instruments frequency response. This is achieved in the woodwind family by controlling the opening and closing of tone holes along the bore. Holes starting at the bottom end are progressively opened leading towards the mouth piece to increasingly alter the instruments pitch up in frequency. As a travelling acoustic wave reaches the point along the bore where the tone holes are opened, much of the acoustic energy can radiate out through said holes. This results in the wave beginning to massively weaken and trail off past this open hole cut-off point (Benade, 1990). Based on the frequency of the input wave, this trailing off results in a varyingly reduced effective bore length. Shortening the effective bore length in this way is more prominent for lower frequency modes, i.e. low frequency waves will be unable to travel through the bore where holes are open and will be reflected early (see Figure 1) (Benade, 1990).

Figure 1 Diagram showing standing wave patterns in a typical woodwind air column. (Benade, 1990) Figure 1 shows that with tone holes opened past the point marked
, standing waves considerably reduce in amplitude. The points marked represent the effective bore length for these particular modes, shortest for mode 1 and gradually increasing for modes 2 and 3. For these lowest numbered modes, the wave is almost fully reflected at the boundary of open holes, therefore very little of the acoustic energy leaks out through any of the holes, and a strong, fundamental standing wave may be formed as before, simply at a higher frequency (owing to the now shortened trip length) than when all the holes were closed. Notice, however, that for the 4th mode plotted, the effective length is equal to the actual length. This implies that past a particular critical frequency, determined by the size and spacing of the holes, the wave is able to travel along the full length of the instrument. This cut-off frequency is proportional to the ratio of tone hole size to bore size (Benade, 1990). Where is the diameter of the tone hole, is the speed of sound in air, is the bore radius, is half the distance between tone holes and is the length of a cylinder of air that moves in and out the tone hole (this is intuitively just the thickness of the pipe walls, but actually works out to be slightly larger owing to a small volume of air either side being moved as well). Past the cut-off frequency, the acoustic wave travels the full length of the bore, allowing the sound energy to escape through the tone holes (Benade, 1990). The effect on the frequency response of a woodwind instrument with open tone holes is that beyond this cut off frequency, resonance peaks are severely damped meaning higher frequency components to a tone are removed from the response. Controlling this cut off frequency is key to achieving particular desired timbres and characteristic sounds of woodwind instruments. Another way of controlling the response with the Eqn. 2

tone holes is to consider that they could be strategically placed around a pressure maximum or minimum of particular modes. If there is a hole where a mode would normally have a pressure maximum, the pressure is released through the hole and the mode severely reduced in strength. Conversely if a hole is placed over a modes natural pressure node, the effect is bolstered (Scavone, 1999). Using this, the player can change which formants are present in the note he/she chooses to play, or even change the fundamental to the next nearest resonance peak.

Excitation Methods
Hermann Helmholtz was the first to discover, in 1877, that in wind instruments the input excitation was strongly related to the frequency characteristics of the instrument itself (Fletcher, 1979). The input flow to a woodwind instrument is controlled by a feedback loop of sorts where the pressure close to the mouth piece oscillates allowing a rapidly alternating input air flow which can excite vibrations within the instruments air column. These oscillations will favour frequencies corresponding to resonances of the air column itself. This leads to it being easy to play and sustain notes which correspond to peaks in the instruments frequency response, but very difficult around the troughs (Benade, 1990). Reeds and Double Reeds In woodwind instruments with reeds, like the Oboe, a flexible material forms a pressure valve in the mouthpiece. With nobody playing the instrument, atmospheric pressure is observed everywhere and the reed will be open. As a player begins to blow the instrument, pressure in the mouthpiece increases and forces a mean flow of air through the reed valve proportional to the pressure. This can be thought of as analogous to DC electric current flow (Wolfe, 1994). However, mean flow will not generate any acoustical waves, besides negligible aerodynamic noise, continuing the analogy with electricity; its an AC signal that is required. As pressure is increased enough to flex the reed, the gap will begin to close and start to restrict air flow, causing it to drop. Indeed it follows that blowing too hard will flex the reed to the point of closing the air flow off completely. This results in reed operated instruments having both a minimum and maximum operating pressure (below minimum results in the DC behaviour and above the maximum closes the valve off completely) i.e. operating pressure must be on the downward slope shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Diagram showing the working mechanisms of a reed (Wolfe, 1994).

When the reed has closed off somewhat, the initial flow of air has become an isolated puff of high pressure air. This high pressure propagates acoustically down the bore and (as previously discussed) is reflected. The reflection heading back will cause a high pressure on the instrument side of the reed, forcing it open again. Assuming the player is still applying a constant pressure to the reed, this

allows a second big puff of high pressure air into the bore. This system, therefore can act as a positive feedback system since air is injected into the system when high pressure is observed at the injection point. This system repeats for as long as the player keeps providing the constant pressure to the mouth piece (Wolfe, 1994). The result is a constant train of high pressure air puffs being injected, which acts as the necessary AC input to start vibrating the air column. It follows that it would be easier to play note which correspond to resonances in the air column, since this would result in the pressure (and therefore input impedance) being at a maximum as the reflection returns to the mouthpiece. A reed is usually designed to be tuned to have an appropriately high resonance itself such that when it is vibrates; it does so in the stiffness controlled region and doesnt exhibit its own resonant behaviour, causing an unwanted squeak (Scavone, 1999) (Wolfe, 1994). The player does, however, have some control over this mechanism in that they can alter the effective mass and damping of the reed via strategic and controlled lip placement (Scavone, 1999). An oboe actually uses a double reed, instead of a single reed. The difference being that instead of a single flexible strip vibrating against a fixed mouth piece, there are two flexible strips that vibrate against each other in synchrony (Almeida, 2002). Flute The Flute or air reed branch of woodwind instruments uses a similar mechanism of excitation only instead of controlling the flow with a physical reed across which a pressure difference is applied, it is controlled with a jet of air blown over an embouchure hole. When the jet of air is blown over the hole, it strikes the sharp edge on the other side causing a wave like displacement of the jet itself. This vibration of the jet occurs uniformly at a frequency dictated by the air jet flow velocity and the length of the jet. The result is that air is alternately blown into, and out of the embouchure hole (Wolfe, 1994).

Figure 3 Diagram showing the working mechanisms of an air reed (Wolfe, 1994).
Just like with the reed, a positive feedback mechanism works in such a way that air flow going in and out matches in phase with the acoustic travelling wave at acoustic resonances in the air column (Scavone, 1999). In this case the acoustic impedance at the embouchure is important. Acoustic impedance is the ratio of the acoustic pressure to the flow velocity; if this value is low, air can easily flow in an out of the embouchure. A low acoustic impedance, considering a constant flow velocity, implies a low pressure about the embouchure; i.e. acoustic impedance is at a minimum when there is an antinode at the end of the bore. Owing to the bore being open at the embouchure end, an antinode here occurs at resonant modal frequencies (discussed later). This, therefore, implies that air flow through the embouchure is a maximum at the resonant frequencies, giving the instrument the positive feedback and making it easiest to play at these frequencies (Wolfe, 1994). A player can control the excitation frequency easily by altering the air jet velocity; this allows different

fundamentals to be excited. A higher jet velocity will result in a higher excitation frequency (Wolfe, 1994).

Bore Effects
The acoustics of a simple, single open ended cylindrical pipe have been briefly and simplistically discussed already. This model is not actually appropriate for either the Flute or the Oboe. The flute is cylindrical, but has the crucial difference that it is open at both ends which drastically alters the internal acoustics. The Oboe simply does not have a cylindrical bore; it has a conical bore which, again, has acoustic implications.

Flute
Acoustic propagation in a Flute occurs according to the wave equation, which can be expressed in polar cylindrical coordinates to allow for the modelling instruments with a predominantly cylindrical bore (Riffe, 2011). Eqn. 3 Where represents the speed of sound in air, is the acoustic pressure, is time, is the radial distance from the central cylindrical axis, is the angle about the axis and is the distance along the axis. The solution of this can be proven to be generally formed by a combination of Bessel functions of the radius, (Riffe, 2011). These roughly take the form of a decaying oscillation. Given the boundary conditions of a rigid walled pipe, i.e. at a fixed radius , and those of a pressure release boundary at both open ends, (i.e. a pressure node at an either end), it is possible to approximately mathematically model the acoustics within a Flute. The result of this is that pressure waves encounter the high impedance mismatch at both ends of the tube and will, therefore, be reflected at both ends. The fundamental mode is takes the shape of half a sine wave (as opposed to a quarter before) and subsequent mode shapes are formed with cycles of a sine wave (Wolfe, 1994). This means that the harmonic frequency of a Flute can be estimated based on its length using the simple relationship shown below: Eqn. 4

Where is the wavelength, speed of sound in air.

is the length of the Flute bore and is the

Note that with this scenario, both even and odd harmonics of the fundamental can be produced (whereas with one open end, only odd harmonics existed).

Figure 4 Diagram showing the mode shapes of an open ended pipe bore (Wolfe, 1994).

Oboe
Acoustic propagation along an Oboe also occurs according to the wave equation, only instead of cylindrical propagation; conical propagation can be thought of as being spherical with distinct boundary conditions. As an acoustic wave propagates down the bore of an Oboe the cross-sectional area linearly increases, and the wavefront is spread out to fill the larger space. This power spreading causes the intensity of the wave to drop according to according to , where and acoustic pressure/particle velocity is the distance from the apex of the cone along the bore (Wolfe, 1994). Of

course, an Oboe is not a true cone since it must be truncated in order for there to be an opening for air to travel into in the first place. The boundary conditions for an Oboe are similar to the original example, leading to a pressure node at the open end and an anti-node at the mouthpiece end. In general, the mode shapes will still adhere to the sinusoidal patterns to be expected from before, only to account for the spherical spreading, they will end up linearly decaying in amplitude towards the open end. The harmonic frequency of an Oboe can be estimated based on its length using the simple relationship shown below: Eqn. 5

Where is the wavelength, speed of sound in air.

is the length of the Oboe bore and is the

Pressure

Motion

Figure 5 Diagram showing the mode shapes of a conical bore (Wolfe, 1994).

Conclusion
The woodwind instrument family is, upon inspection of the acoustic mechanisms at work, quite varied. Though all share the common ground that the sound is produced by a vibrating column of air, the way in which this air is excited and indeed also the characteristics of how it vibrates once it has been can be very different. The Flute and the Oboe are prime examples woodwind instruments with both different excitation mechanisms and different internal vibrational structures. Even though the basic mechanics and control systems are very similar, these two instruments sound very much distinct from one another, the result being that the two instruments are very much different, having their own characteristic timbres.

Bibliography
Almeida, A. (2002). Physical Study of double-reed instruments for application to sound-synthesis. Benade, A. H. (1990). Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics. Dover Publications. Fletcher, N. H. (1979). Excitation Mechanisms in Woodwind and Brass Instruments. Acustica, Volume 43, Issue 1, 63-72. Hall, J. C. (1960). Relationships between Wind Instruments Timbre and Sound Spectra. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, Vol. 32, Issue 7, 935-935. Riffe, D. M. (2011). Lectures on "The Wave Equation in Cylindrical Coordinates" (http://www.physics.usu.edu/riffe/3750/Lecture%2020.pdf).

Scavone, G. P. (1999). Lecture Notes on "Woodwind Instruments" (https://ccrma.stanford.edu/CCRMA/Courses/150/woodwinds.html). CCRMA, Stanford University. Wolfe, J. (1994). Lecture Notes on "Conjunction: An Interactive Introduction to the Orchestra" (http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/woodwind.html). The University of New South Wales.