Side-blown horn

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Simon Chadwick
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Side-blown horn

Post by Simon Chadwick »

After reading up on Simon O'Dwyer's work on the bronze age Irish horns, I had a go at making a similar instrument from cow horn. He mentions in his book the likelyhood of horn examples pre-dating the extant bronze ones, and he also mentions African side-blown horns. He does not give very much technical info though so I had to make it up as I was going along. I have made the mouth hole on the small size just in case I want to make it bigger (easier to make it bigger than smaller!)

It blows nicely I think. It is 24 inches overall and sounds a slightly sharp G below middle c.
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Jim McConkey
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Jim McConkey »

Nice horn, Simon! Not unlike a transverse flute with no finger holes. The embouchure looks big to me given the size of the horn. I would expect about 1 cm or 1/2" and your hole looks much larger. How did you cap the end? Any special preparation of the horn?
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John Mueller
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by John Mueller »

Simon, Is this a lip reed instrument? My Dad had a kudu horn trumpet with a side hole mouthpice http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course:HIST104/_Ning ... c_Vuvuzela Very loud. If so you should be able to play overtones (hence the title of O'Dwyer's book) and produce more than one note.
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Simon Chadwick
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Simon Chadwick »

Thanks! The mouth hole is about 4 1/2 cm wide. I think it could be a little bigger but I thought it would be easier to make it bigger than smaller... I understand these things are played more like didgeridoos, but that is not something I have any experience with (trumpet and trombone were my instruments at school).

The end is not capped, it is all one piece. The horn came from the supplier in the Scottish Highlands clean on the inside but rough on the outside. I carved and scraped the outside but did not need to do any work at all on the inside, save for a little beeswax furniture polish to seal the whole thing at the end.
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Jim McConkey
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Jim McConkey »

Playing a didgeridoo is not unlike playing a trumpet or trombone, except the embouchure is much looser, more like a tuba. In the end it is flapping lips substituting for a reed as John suggested. That explains the large hole. At first I thought it would be blown like a flute.
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Thomas Hastay
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Thomas Hastay »

You can tune the fundamental frequency by adding a wax (sealing wax) ring on the bore end. As you reduce the diameter of the end you will reduce the frequency. I think this technique works better than a tuning hole on the lower end of the horn. You can also cap the end with wood and then bore a smaller diameter hole. A dome plug would look nice. As you slowly expand the hole in the "plug" you can tune the fundamental frequency +/- a 12th, just like an Ocarina resonator.
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Simon Chadwick
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Simon Chadwick »

Thanks Thomas, there is no hole bored through the narrow tip end of the horn. I understand that the African side-blown horns have a tip hole that is covered and uncovered with a finger to give 2 notes, but the Irish bronze age horns made from cast bronze do not have this end hole and so I did not include it on mine.
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Stephen Bacon »

Simon, I find it of interest that you sourced information that these instruments were played like digeridoo. Could you elaborate? I assume you mean slack lip playing, and not just circular breathing. Have you heard convincing demonstrations or is it just someones historical speculation? These type of horns resonate so well in the fundamental it is a wonder one would play them below that. Because of the greater size of the dige as well as being wider and more cylindrical the slack tones are often the fundamental. A smaller mouth hole can facilitate overtones, larger fundamental. I haven't been fortunate enough to read O'Dwyer's book but I am familiar with scholarly review of it. From the press releases wasn't he referring to much longer wide bored trumpets ? The horn you have presented is documented in most old cultures. The short horn is often used as a signal horn. In Africa where the bore is much narrower yet it is used in the music. By the way beautiful job.
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Simon Chadwick
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Simon Chadwick »

Stephen, I don't know anything about didgeridoo playing, but blowing this thing is very different from my baroque trumpet, "slack lips" you say. The thing is perhaps 22 inches internal length, G below middle C is the easiest pitch to get. I can kind of find a pedal note below that but it sounds like a malfunctioning toilet. Trying to find higher pitches is harder than the diatonic 'clarino' octave on the baroque trumpet. What pitch would you be referring to as the 'fundamental' for a conical horn that length?

O'Dwyer is the only real info I have read about these things. He has some Youtube videos demonstrating these side-blown bronnze horns. Those ones are all about this length. There are also end-blown bronze horns that are a lot longer. Still a big mouthpiece though with no 'throat'.
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Stephen Bacon »

My bad, I did not notice the length. O'Dwyer refers to an extended horn with a cow horn on the end, which I have been hearing a bit about, and I was wondering ......, however, my mistaken assumption was that your horn was much shorter.
How wide is the bore at the mouth hole? O'Dwyer is defiantly doing the didg thing on the utube. Can you approximate that on your's? My cornetto is around that length but with a much smaller bore, and though I'd like to say the fundament is G, I have to lip down to get it but it is clear. On Baroque trumpet , even with a principally mouthpiece, I find the fundamental impossible and even the 1st overtone , as you say, as a malfunctioning toilet bowl. My working range begins on the 2nd overtone . I would say that how to decide where the fundamental sits is what is wether the first over blown note is the 8va or the 5th.
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Simon Chadwick
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Simon Chadwick »

"wether the first over blown note is the 8va or the 5th"
Nothing so simple here I'm afraid... here are the 4 notes I can manage to get out of it this morning. The highest (first in the video) is uncomfortably high. The 2nd is best. The 3rd is very unstable. The 4th and lowest is a bit rubbish sounding. Almost any note inbetween the 1st and 2nd can be lipped easily but the instrument then acts like a kazoo and does not resonate.
I'm sure this says a lot more about my poor technique than the abilities of the instrument!
Internal bore at the nouth hole must be about 35mm. It tapers to a natural end level with the 'step' where the end knop joins the main body of the horn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0egaTzdxek
PS the video on my phone is for some reason mirrored...
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Stephen Bacon »

My guess is to go for the second as the primary signal call fluctuating with the first. However for the circular breathing , didge sound I would go for the third. I have worked with didges before and they do go counterintuitive to my traditional brass training, real loose chops. I think you just need to relax more and work on your circular breathing if you aim to achieve this new sound. I think the horn is right. Is that a kora I see, nice?
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Simon Chadwick
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Re: Side-blown horn

Post by Simon Chadwick »

Yes, I cannot play the kora either!

Thanks for your thoughts!
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