Talk:Tonette

Audio example requested
If anyone has one of these, can they play a few scales and upload an audio file? Willi Gers07 (talk) 15:34, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Not at home on the range
OK, so the article currently states: "The range of the Tonette is from C4 (middle C) to D5." This is false; the Tonette's actual range is an octave higher (C5-D6, and the Song Flute, Flutophone, and Precorder all share this range).

Unfortunately the false range is verifiable (for example d'Auberge's It's Tonette Time which explicitly shows the range beginning at Middle C (C4) -- and I think I've seen this error elsewhere too). What is true is that the notation for the Tonette begins at Middle C, but it is notated an octave low, and naturally no one adds "8va" for 3rd graders.

I'm looking for a notable (!) source to trump d'Auberge, but... let's just say there are not a lot of peer-reviewed papers on the Tonette. However, if you doubt me, consider the (correct) ranges over at Recorder (musical instrument). The Tonette (about 8 inches) is more or less a simplified soprano recorder (about 12 inches) which also starts at C5. It is beyond belief that the Tonette shares the bottom range of the tenor recorder (about 24 inches) which does start at Middle C (C4). Phil wink (talk) 03:52, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

C4 it is
I have my 6" stub end (Swanson) Tonette and my 24" tenor recorder at hand along with my tuner. The low note on the Tonette is C4 (267.5 Hz) (a little sharp) (I use the standard definition of C4 as being middle C and right above B3) and the low note on my tenor recorder is C3 (129.5 Hz), half that of the 1/4th length Tonette, as the ratio should be between closed and open pipe instruments. The Tonette C4 is about the same as the low note (259.3 Hz) on my 12" soprano recorder.Rjohnjacob (talk) 00:13, 20 February 2019 (UTC)

Correction needed
This paragraph:


 * As a closed pipe (with all tone holes closed), the Swanson Tonette's pitch (in Hz) is approximately half that of a recorder (an open pipe) of comparable length. Although the cavity appears to be conical, the overblown (1st overtone) of the low C4 is G5, an octave and a fifth above, indicating a cylindrical pipe such as the clarinet. (The 2nd overtone is C6. A conical pipe, such as the saxophone, has as its first overtone the octave.)

... is wrong, and the fact that it contains some half-truths makes it even more misleading. Yes, the conical bore saxophone overblows at the octave, and the cylindrical bore clarinet overblows at the twelfth -- but this is true of OPEN tubes only.

The tonette in not an open tube, it is -- as stated in the lede -- a vessel flute. How the overblown pitch relates to open tubes is not relevant to vessel flutes, which follow other acoustical rules.

So the overblown pitch does not indicate (as stated) "a cylindrical pipe such as a clarinet" -- it indicates nothing of the kind. And in fact, the vessel of the tonette is not cylindrical. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.253 (talk) 23:05, 15 February 2022 (UTC)