[Trombone-l] Leadpipe

[Alisha Ard]

Well, my only comment to this is that my physics teacher in high  
school asked me to bring my trombone to class one day to demonstrate  
the point that it is the vibrations which produce sound waves, not  
air, that makes the instrument work.  She had me dip the end of my  
bell in a big tub of soapy water and play, and predicted there would  
be no bubble.  But there was.   A BIG one.  (That would make a nice  
photo actually...)  And anyway, if there's enough air out the end of  
the bell to do that (maybe it's not the SAME air that left your lips  
- all those air molecules just bump the next guy in line, which is  
perhaps why the smoke took so long...) I think that it's safe to say  
there's enough air moving around at the mouthpiece that it's logical  
to assume  leadpipes are designed to help the player cope with it.   
And I want to add that I think this is all so silly...  My boyfriend  
says they're supposed to be called "leaderpipes" anyway, but I've  
never heard that...

Alisha


On May 25, 2006, at 10:48 AM, Jeff Albert wrote:

>
> On May 25, 2006, at 12:39 PM, Lars Kirmser wrote:
>
>> A number of years ago I recall hearing of an experiment where a
>> smoker (with a lung full of smoke) played his instrument (a
>> Baritone I believe) to see if the smoke would come out of his bell.
>> As it turned out, the smoke took quite a long time to be expelled
>> from the bell; indicating that air movement is very much secondary
>> to the movement of the vibrating air column.
>
> I agree that by the time the air reaches the bell, it is not flowing
> very quickly.  That airflow dissipates as the instrument increases in
> size.  i think airflow is still an issue at the leadpipe, even though
> it is much less of an issue at the bell.
>
>> Air, of course, is a necessary element for humans to play any wind
>> instrument. In the early years of C G Conn's research, they
>> developed a mechanical embouchure which didn't involve moving
>> (flowing) air at all (called "Hot Lips Harry"). They wanted to
>> remove the human element from the testing of prototypes. - Lars
>
> How did they create buzz if there was no moving air?
>
>
> Jeff
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