Wind instrument

Abstract

A wind instrument having a mouthpiece connected to the inner end of a tube forming an elongated resonating chamber, the tube being provided with a slot along virtually its entire length, and an elongated flexible strip closure member having its inner end fixed to the tube adjacent to the mouthpiece and the strip overlying the slot, the outer end of the strip being fixed to the tube structure adjacent to its outer end. Resilient sealing means are provided between the lower face of the strip and the slot walls whereby the closure strip closes the chamber from the mouthpiece end to a selected point where the user digitally depresses the strip into sealing relation with the slot walls, thus creating a resonating chamber of selected length, as determined by the position of the user's finger. The upper surface of the strip is smooth, permitting the user to produce glissando or bending of notes, and the strip itself is desirably of thin metal, preferably of upwardly concave transverse section to enhance longitudinal stiffness. In a preferred form of the invention the strip closure member is so contoured that no part of the closure member, in sealing position, lies within the imaginary circle or cylinder formed by a continuation of the interior surface of the cylindrical tube across the slot.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.