Physics & Acoustics on Tuba

[Michael Roest]

Hello,

I am taking a college course physics - musical acoustics, and I must lecture on a topic within musical acoustics.

I would like to present information on the tuba. These are areas I would like to cover.

-instrument construction (F tuba vs. CC tuba - conical vs. cylindrical)
-harmonic series (maybe false tones)
-desirable concert hall reverberation time for tuba
-bell position (regarding directional sound vs. reflected sound in halls)
-mutes

Does anyone know a good resource to find this information regarding tuba?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Mike

[Rick Denney]

Hello,

I am taking a college course physics - musical acoustics, and I must lecture on a topic within musical acoustics.

I would like to present information on the tuba. These are areas I would like to cover.

-instrument construction (F tuba vs. CC tuba - conical vs. cylindrical)
-harmonic series (maybe false tones)
-desirable concert hall reverberation time for tuba
-bell position (regarding directional sound vs. reflected sound in halls)
-mutes

Does anyone know a good resource to find this information regarding tuba?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Mike

I don't know of much in the specific subject areas you mention.

But you should start with Fletcher and Rossing, The Physics of Musical Instruments

The tuba books do not go into sufficient depth on physics for your application, and what they do have is suspect, in my view.

A good topic would be the relationship between the impedances of the tuba, the mouthpiece, and the player's embouchure. (This is what you'll need to deal with the harmonic series.)

Another good topic would be the difference in what the listener hears from tubas with a narrow projection and propagation versus tubas with wide projection and propagation, if any. You'll probably have to do your own research. This is close to your issue of bell direction, but not quite the same thing. Phase shifts as a result of multipath delay seems important here.

And the notion of horns that follow Bessel functions (which may be better explained in Benade's Horns, Strings and Harmony might be aimed at conicity to some extent. But not directly with tubas.

Rick "who thinks some experimentation is in order" Denney

[DonShirer]

Mike
I thought I might chip in, not only because I taught a Musical Acoustics class for many years, but since I grew up in Olmsted Falls, just a short hop east of your school.

If your class is mostly composed of musicians (as it was when I visited Oberlin many many years ago), you and they might appreciate the more approachable explanations in two other books by Arthur Benade, "Horns, Strings and Harmony" (Anchor books), and "Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics" (Oxford U.P.), both of which should be in Oberlin's library. The latter has an interesting discussion of differences in Bessel horns (trumpets, trombones) and mostly conical horns (tubas) at the end of the chapter on brass instruments.

The topics you suggest are all interesting, but you may have trouble finding published info about them. Might I suggest that something which always wows an instructor is a project which goes beyond just library research. It doesn't have to be anything complicated....for example if you have access to a mike, an oscilloscope and a camera, you could get a few friends from the brass section together and compare the onset and decay of tones from various brass instruments.

Good luck with your report.
Don Shirer

[tubarnak]

Hi Mike, Hi everyone,

This is THE thread I've been waiting for... Thankyouthankyouthankyou.
My field of studies is a little different -mechanical engineering- but I want to study manufacturing processes for brass instruments and the physics of sound is an inherent part of instrument manufacturing. I have been trying to get as much info as I can for years.

I'm VERY interested to know what you guys find out, or what you already know on this subject especially the more experienced among you who have a good empirical knowledge of brass.

Please share

Fletcher/Rossing IS a very good start! Also have Berg/Stork "Physics of sound" anyone know this one?

Thanks for anything you might be able to throw at us!
And huge thanks to Mike for the post!

[Michael Roest]

Thanks for the input! Any more information?

-Mike

[tubarnak]

Here are a few links that could be of use, if you haven't been there already. They all worked the last time I checked

http://www.smithwatkins.com/papers/papers.htm
http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocu ... lltext.pdf
http://www.acoustics.org/press/133rd/2amu4.html
http://acoustics.open.ac.uk/pdf/paper2.pdf
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... on.html#c1
http://joeleymard.free.fr/Smith/IOA/material.htm
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/marl/

I wish you all the success in your research