6 ms·

So that's why clarinet "squeaks" sound so grating: the higher overtones don't fit cleanly into the twelve-note scale.

• sizzzzlerz 7y ago
  I pity the family of a beginning clarinet student, like mine when I was learning to play it. Gaining control of the amount of wind to put into the instrument along with understanding how the mouthpiece and reed interact with your mouth, lips, and teeth takes a lot of practice during which time, mostly squeaks are produced. But, it's like riding a bike. Once mastered, you rarely fall off. It just takes practice.
• leethargo 7y ago
  But clarinets, with their (literally) odd harmonics, work very nicely for the Bohlen-Pierce scale [1], which is a 13-note scale based on the tritave, not octave. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohlen%E2%80%93Pierce_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohlen%E2%80%93Pierce_scale