audience throws off pitch

[Sarah Fox]

Hi David,

> > The pitch would actually go sharp with moisture, owing to expansion of
the
> > barrel's diameter.
>
>     Wouldn't a larger diameter (larger tube) produce a lower, rather than
> higher, pitch?

I suppose I'm thinking of the effect on the tube's termination, which is
isn't actually at the physical end of the tube.  It's somewhere in a fuzzy
zone just short of the end.  When the tube increases in diameter, the fuzzy
termination zone recedes farther into the tube, and the effective length of
the tube becomes shorter.

The time it takes for warm, moist air to fill the tube is quite short,
actually, so I doubt there's much of a longer-term speed of sound effect in
the tube.  Dunno.  I always found that my instrument's warm-up time was
perhaps 5 or 10 min, max -- not 30 min or an hour or two!  Most of that
warm-up had to do with the barrel warming up and no longer condensing
moisture from my breath (which causes gurgling inside the tiny bore of the
oboe) -- and the reed becoming limber and stable.

Peace,
Sarah