Posted by Joe S. on March 10, 2000 at 10:13:17:
I am physics-illiterate, but have the gall to put forth a theory.
If someone KNOWS the answer to this, I would like the answer. More guesses, however entertaining, are not requested. :-)
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I pay a lot of attention to intonation. I believe intonation to be the basic "language" of modern western music.
When I warm up tubas and pay a lot of attention to electronic tuners - and whether or not I am blowing through "the centers" of notes, I notice that lower partials/overtones are flat. As the tubas warm up, the lower notes creep up closer and closer to "in tune".
QUESTION to "those know knows":
Is this (the observation above) due to the fact that...
Right away, my body heat and warm breath heats up the small end of the intrument (mouthpipe, etc.), but I takes a LONG time to heat up the tuba body (and air) way down at the bell end. Therefore, those L-O-N-G sine waves that generate those lower partials/overtones are more distorted when the length of the entire instrument (including that big "colder" end) comes more into play and distorts those duple, or triplet (L-O-N-G) sine waves far more than it does the short, highly-multiple sine waves????