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#1 2009-02-15 19:31:40

Alan Adler
Member
From: Los Altos, California
Registered: 2009-02-15
Posts: 78

Hello and experimental flutes

Hello All,

This is my first post.

I am an engineer/inventor.  Wikipedia has a few words about me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Adler

I made some experimental end-blown flutes 25 years ago.  Now, after a long gap, I'm back.  In the past several months I've made about a dozen.  They are mostly tuned in the scale of D minor.  A few are tuned in F pentatonic major scale. 

I like very wide blowing edges.  They are equal in width to the bore diameter.  To my ear they have a powerful tone.  Bores range from about 17mm to 29mm.  Some have a square bore.

I'd like to visit with players and/or makers in my area.  I live in the Los Altos, California (SF Bay Area).

If you would like to get together, email me at aadler@sbcglobal.net.

Alan Adler

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#2 2009-02-15 19:54:57

airin
Member
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Registered: 2008-10-17
Posts: 303
Website

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Welcome to the forum Alan!

Its great to see you here.

Do you happen to have any pictures of your flutes that you can post?

cheers,
Erin

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#3 2009-02-15 20:57:12

Alan Adler
Member
From: Los Altos, California
Registered: 2009-02-15
Posts: 78

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Erin asked me a few questions by direct email.  I'll answer here:

"As for the wide blowing edge, how much impact does it have on one's
embouchure?"

Probably not much, but that's one reason for getting together with a local player -- to get his/her comments.

"As well, often flutes with a powerful tones in the low notes have some
limitations when it comes to the second register and even sometimes don't
have much to offer when it comes to the third octave.  How do your flutes
handle the different octaves?"

I can only manage about halfway up the second register.  That may be due to me, or to my flutes.  Again, getting together with a local player could provide some answers.

I most enjoy improvising in the fundamental register.

Best,

Alan

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#4 2009-02-15 21:21:55

airin
Member
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Registered: 2008-10-17
Posts: 303
Website

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Thanks for explaining Alan.

Though only a beginning player myself, I'm excited by your experiments and am keen to follow your progress with the various creative shakuhachi designs you are coming up with.

OK, someone here on the forum who lives close to Alan, get over there and try out some of his flutes for us!

cheers,
Erin

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#5 2009-02-15 21:22:51

David Earl
Member
From: SE Iowa
Registered: 2006-05-29
Posts: 69

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Welcome Mr. Adler,

Do you think you can combine the Shakuhachi and the Aeropress! That would be fantastic. I would love to see some pictures of your flutes.

All the best

David


Spring peepers provide
a croaking choral backdrop
sleep time aria

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#6 2009-02-15 22:16:53

Yungflutes
Flutemaker/Performer
From: New York City
Registered: 2005-10-08
Posts: 1061
Website

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Alan Adler wrote:

Erin asked me a few questions by direct email.  I'll answer here:

"As for the wide blowing edge, how much impact does it have on one's
embouchure?"

Probably not much, but that's one reason for getting together with a local player -- to get his/her comments.

"As well, often flutes with a powerful tones in the low notes have some
limitations when it comes to the second register and even sometimes don't
have much to offer when it comes to the third octave.  How do your flutes
handle the different octaves?"

I can only manage about halfway up the second register.  That may be due to me, or to my flutes.  Again, getting together with a local player could provide some answers.

I most enjoy improvising in the fundamental register.

Best,

Alan

Hi Alan, From one experimental maker to another, welcome to the Forum!

I just finished two custom flutes last week for the prolific bamboo flute recording artist Glen Snell. Glen knows that I specialize in traditional shakuhachi but he keeps commissioning me to make bamboo side blown flutes and special bass raga shakuhachi, all of which have ended up on his CDs over the years.

This one here is a 3.2 length flute pitched in E. It's about 38" long and 2" in diameter. This aspect ratio favors the lower octave (the diameter is wider than it should be for the length). This produces a big booming sound in the low octave but it only works well up to the middle of the second. After that, I get some wacky harmonics. Glen sent me this bamboo from Georgia and I told him this would be the case but he wanted to use it for the low octave only anyway. So, it didn't matter. He was happy to get a few notes into the second octave. It also has a unique tuning made specially to fit his finger span. Due to the length and diameter, the standard five hole Minor Pentatonic hole spacing would have been too far a stretch for most humans.

http://www.yungflutes.com/logphotos/gsa.jpg
http://www.yungflutes.com/logphotos/gsc.jpg

If you are ever in New York City, please come by my shop for a cup of tea.

Best, Perry

Last edited by Yungflutes (2009-02-15 22:18:45)


"A hot dog is not an animal." - Jet Yung

My Blog/Website on the art of shakuhachi...and parenting.
How to make an Urban Shakuhachi (PVC)

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#7 2009-02-15 22:28:52

Alan Adler
Member
From: Los Altos, California
Registered: 2009-02-15
Posts: 78

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Below is a link to some photos of my flutes.

The square bore flutes have one side of the square sharpened.

The round bore flutes have a transition from round to "D" section in the headpiece.  The flat side of the "D" is sharpened.

Best,

Alan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20211654@N08/?saved=1

PS  How do I simply post the photos directly to this forum?

Last edited by Alan Adler (2009-02-15 22:30:14)

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#8 2009-02-15 22:56:38

Alan Adler
Member
From: Los Altos, California
Registered: 2009-02-15
Posts: 78

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

A few more words about my flutes.

My smallest satisfactory diameter is 0.75" or 19mm.  My largest is 1.14" or 29mm. 

The smaller diameters have a reedier sound, more like an oboe.

I've made 0.75", 0.875", 1" and 1.14".  I like them all.

Surprisingly, I can play the same range on all of them with equal ease.  But as I wrote earlier, that's only halfway up the second register.

My square flutes have ranged from 0.63" (16mm) square (very reedy sounding)  to 25mm square (too dull for my taste).  I like the 7/8" (22mm) best.

Holes sizes range from .375" (9.5mm) to .40" (10.2mm).

There are two unreachable holes at the bottom, D and C#.  When all reachable holes are fingered, the flute sounds primarily through the D hole but some of the sound is also emitted from the C# hole below the D.  Thus all notes sound through at least two holes.  This makes the timbre of the lowest D note somewhat more similar to the timbre of the higher notes.

The following tuning formula works pretty well, though it's not perfect at the upper end of the fundamental octave:

For all flutes
Frequency = 6830 / (L + k)
L= length from edge to center of hole inches.
k= end-effect correction inches (see below)

For square:

k=4.54*D^0.83     D=one side of square (inches)

For round:

k=4.18*Dia^0.85

Best,

Alan

Last edited by Alan Adler (2009-03-14 12:43:57)

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#9 2009-02-15 23:28:20

Yungflutes
Flutemaker/Performer
From: New York City
Registered: 2005-10-08
Posts: 1061
Website

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Alan Adler wrote:

Below is a link to some photos of my flutes.

The square bore flutes have one side of the square sharpened.

The round bore flutes have a transition from round to "D" section in the headpiece.  The flat side of the "D" is sharpened.

Best,

Alan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20211654@N08/?saved=1

PS  How do I simply post the photos directly to this forum?

Hi Alan, you just have to add the [img]opening and closing tags with the photos address between:

[img] http://yourpictureaddress[/img]

Nice looking flutes! PErry


"A hot dog is not an animal." - Jet Yung

My Blog/Website on the art of shakuhachi...and parenting.
How to make an Urban Shakuhachi (PVC)

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#10 2009-02-16 00:03:19

edosan
Edomologist
From: Salt Lake City
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 2185

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Hi, Alan, and welcome.

Are those mouthpieces injection molded?

Or are they milled?  Very interesting.


Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.

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#11 2009-02-16 00:18:02

Alan Adler
Member
From: Los Altos, California
Registered: 2009-02-15
Posts: 78

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

edosan wrote:

Hi, Alan, and welcome.

Are those mouthpieces injection molded?

Or are they milled?  Very interesting.

Hi Colbert,

The square mouthpieces are milled from Delrin.  At first I simply sharpened the end of the square metal tube.  But when I played I was left with a (temporary) groove in my chin.  So I developed the Delrin part in the photos.

The round mouthpieces are first turned from Delrin on a lathe.  Then milled to make the "D" and the blowing edge.  I also do a bit with a hand file.

Best,

Alan

Last edited by Alan Adler (2009-02-16 01:15:21)

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#12 2009-02-16 03:28:26

Bruce Hunter
Member
From: Apple Valley CA
Registered: 2005-10-10
Posts: 258

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Alan!
Interesting work there. Please do keep us posted. Any possibility of audio files?
later...


Develop infallible technique and then lay yourself at the mercy of inspiration. - Anon.

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#13 2009-03-10 23:54:27

Toby
Shakuhachi Scientist
From: out somewhere circling the sun
Registered: 2008-03-15
Posts: 405

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

I love aerobies! Nice to see you bring your talents to flute. I should be in the Bay Area (San Jose) in April. Perhaps we can meet. I have some knowledge of flute acoustics.

Here is something for you to consider: all endblown flutes, including shakuhachi and recorder, suffer from a sharp third octave. This is compensated for in transverse flutes with a small end cavity just above the embouchure hole. In correspondence with both Dr. John Coltman and Dr. Neville Fletcher, both leading musical acousticians, they mention that it should be possible to add a similar tuning cavity to endblown flutes via a local enlargement just beneath the blowing edge. If any of your flutes actually get up to the third register and you find this problem, you can experiment with this to bring the third register into line.

There are also good reasons to use an inverted conical bore rather than a cylinder, as it brings stability to the second octave, and by stretching the partials it compensates for the rise in pitch associated with the higher jet velocity needed to produce the second octave.

Blowing edge width, by conventional wisdom, should equal jet width for maximum efficiency. The physics of the air jet and its coupling with the resonator are very interesting subjects, and extensive research has been done in this area.

You obviously have some math. I strongly suggest "The Physics of Musical Instruments" by Fletcher and Rossing. Fletcher's papers are also all online here:

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/peopl … tions.html

Check out his flute research in Section D: Musical acoustics

Toby

Last edited by Toby (2009-03-11 00:32:24)

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#14 2009-03-14 01:46:46

Alan Adler
Member
From: Los Altos, California
Registered: 2009-02-15
Posts: 78

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Toby wrote:

I love aerobies! Nice to see you bring your talents to flute. I should be in the Bay Area (San Jose) in April. Perhaps we can meet. I have some knowledge of flute acoustics.

Toby

Hi Toby,

Oops, I just now discovered your post.  Yes, I'd love to meet you when you are here in April.  You can call my office (Aerobie, Inc) 650-493-3050.  I'm not always there, but they'll call me wherever I am.

I've owned Fletcher and Rossing for many years.  And recently I've become aquainted with Rossing, who lives here now and teaches at Stanford.

I've also read many of Fletcher's papers.

I can only get halfway up the second register with my flutes.  But that doesn't trouble me because I like to play in the fundamental register.

Best,

Alan

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#15 2010-02-20 11:47:02

Alan Adler
Member
From: Los Altos, California
Registered: 2009-02-15
Posts: 78

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Hi All,

This is my first post after a long silence.

Most recently, I've experimented with enlarging the bore of my flutes by about 1.5mm diameter, for a length of about 25-30mm, beginning just outward from the blowing edge.  The bore elsewhere is constant.  The transition of diameter is pretty sudden.  It's simply chamfered at about 45 degrees.

I've read that clarinets have worked well with stepped bores.

I think this enlargement makes my flutes speak more freely and more strongly, while sweetening the timbre.

It's possible to overdo this.  I tried a 4mm enlargement about a year ago.  It sounded sick.

Best regards,

Alan

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#16 2010-02-21 06:04:45

Toby
Shakuhachi Scientist
From: out somewhere circling the sun
Registered: 2008-03-15
Posts: 405

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Alan, I'm guessing that you are still not overblowing to the second octave, since a stepped bore like this should definitely throw the modes out of whack, with the higher modes being flat compared to the lower mode. I still owe you some quena measurements--I'll get to that soon, I promise.

Toby

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#17 2010-02-21 19:00:35

Alan Adler
Member
From: Los Altos, California
Registered: 2009-02-15
Posts: 78

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Hi Toby,

It's true that I'm not playing the higher modes, but --

Why do you think a stepped bore would throw the modes out of whack considering that:

Stepped bores are successful in some clarinets.

Tapered bores improve the tuning accuracy of higher modes in recorders and baroque flutes.

Best,

Alan

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#18 2010-02-21 19:38:05

Toby
Shakuhachi Scientist
From: out somewhere circling the sun
Registered: 2008-03-15
Posts: 405

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Hi Alan,

AFAIK there are no actual stepped bore clarinets. Buffet makes a "polycylindrical" bore which is very slighly opened up at the top (for tuning purposes). Reverse-conical bores, such as in classical flutes and recorders have two effects: they stretch the modes and they move the impedance minima of the bore in respect to the maxima, allowing one to blow harder without as much rise in pitch. However that applies to a bore with a constant cone angle. Benade has written a paper in which he details the effects of enlarging the bore of a clarinet near the top, and the tuning effects of that enlargement. I think you might find this interesting:

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/marl/Benade/

go to > Writings > 1960 and download the pdf entitled "Summary notes on the mathematical theory of fingerholes, as applicable to clarinets." Check out the bottom of pg. 8 and pg 9.

Best,
Toby

PS: I love the AeroPress! I use it every day in China.

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#19 2010-03-01 06:24:11

Toby
Shakuhachi Scientist
From: out somewhere circling the sun
Registered: 2008-03-15
Posts: 405

Re: Hello and experimental flutes

Hi Alan,

I've finally completed some quena measurements for you. Please have a look in the "Miscellaneous Shakuhachi Related" section.

Best,
Toby

Last edited by Toby (2010-03-01 06:44:26)

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