# Any tonal instruments that map velocity to pitch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839 "2010-05-09T22:07:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/21 "2010-05-12T01:06:49Z")
Panurge, your record with a 10 second pure sinewave would be exactly what I understand the OP seeks. I didn’t know they existed. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/22 "2010-05-12T01:12:19Z")
> [@Chipacabra](#): > > A woodwind works mostly the same way, except you’re changing the effective length of the entire instrument. A bullroarer wouldn’t count because you’re still limited to the resonant frequency and harmonics of the instrument. I’m a professional musician and composer. All wind instruments require some velocity mapping. Take the flute. The fingering for low G and middle G are the same, but a change in air speed/resistance creates the change in octave. Similarly, on the saxophone (or any wind instrument for that matter), you can recreate all 12 pitches using overtones -produced purely by a change in air speed (the same finger position). ---
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/23 "2010-05-12T01:21:28Z")
Let me add that the original design for the saxophone didn’t have any buttons. It was just one long horn that relied entirely on changes in air speed. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/24 "2010-05-12T02:20:43Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Doesn’t that therefore fit the requirements? Changing the velocity of your lip vibrations changes the pitch. What I was clarifying is that a bugle’s pitch is not affected (to any significant degree) by the velocity of the “player’s breath through the horn.” Any pitch produced by _anything_ is related to the speed of the vibrations; that’s the _definition_ of pitch (actually, the speed at which it reverses directions, not the absolute speed). But you can’t extend that to say that every pitch is determined by the velocity of something moving, as in the spirit of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/25 "2010-05-12T03:15:06Z")
> [@Sinisterniik](#): > > Let me add that the original design for the saxophone didn’t have any buttons. It was just one long horn that relied entirely on changes in air speed. Nitpicky correction – the saxaphone is a woodwind, not a horn. ---
**Author:** ![asian\_riff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@asian\_riff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asian_riff)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/26 "2010-05-12T09:51:32Z")
Not a musical instrument, per se, but the old Warner Brothers cartoons often employed a sound effect that sounded like some sort of spinning disk with something that rubbed against it. I don’t know what they used, but I’m guessing it produced higher or lower pitches by how fast it was rotating. Similar principle to a police siren. There is a percussion instrument that also employs this principle - the wind machine. It does produce different pitches depending how fast you turn the crank, but the sounds are not notated as specific notes, so I guess that doesn’t really qualify as a tonal instrument. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/27 "2010-05-12T14:58:43Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > Along the same lines as the bullroarer is the “[whirly](http://www.exo.net/~pauld/activities/AAAS/aaas2001.html)” or “whirly-wind”. Hmm, seems to be a modern version of the [lasso d’amore](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasso_d'amore). ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/28 "2010-05-12T15:25:24Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Nitpicky correction – the saxaphone is a woodwind, not a horn. Technically I suppose so but the colloquial habit, at least among jazz musicians, is to call anything you blow into a “horn.” (BTW despite the name the English horn is not a horn, either.) ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/29 "2010-05-12T16:05:49Z")
Turntabling with a sine wave is certainly the purest example of what I’m thinking of so far. At the very least, the thread is supporting my guess that I wouldn’t be finding anyone playing crisp melodies with such an instrument. (And the thing I wasn’t sufficiently explicit about in the OP (but that I mentioned mid-thread) was that I am interested in instruments where pitch is chosen by setting the velocity of _a human body part_, not just by setting the velocity of _something_. Turntabling is pretty much this (where “body part” is “tip of finger in contact with platter”.) ) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/30 "2010-05-12T16:31:26Z")
> [@Pasta](#): > > Turntabling with a sine wave is certainly the purest example of what I’m thinking of so far. At the very least, the thread is supporting my guess that I wouldn’t be finding anyone playing crisp melodies with such an instrument. (And the thing I wasn’t sufficiently explicit about in the OP (but that I mentioned mid-thread) was that I am interested in instruments where pitch is chosen by setting the velocity of _a human body part_, not just by setting the velocity of _something_. Turntabling is pretty much this (where “body part” is “tip of finger in contact with platter”.) ) If you want an example of turntablism melodies, check out [Kid Koala’s Drunken Trumpet](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia5oK4PCCoM&feature=related). Around 3:00 is where the most pure velocity-to-pitch stuff comes in. Throughout the song, he’s using a blend of techniques (as far as I can tell, I’m not a turntablist) to achieve pitches, mostly just cue points on the record with some scratches thrown in, but at 3:00, or a bit before it, he pretty much goes “solo,” using the speed of the turntable only to control the pitch, all the way to the end of the song. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/31 "2010-05-13T00:05:28Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Technically I suppose so but the colloquial habit, at least among jazz musicians, is to call anything you blow into a “horn.” Correct. I’ve even seen the flute referred to as a “horn” by other players. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/32 "2010-05-13T06:12:59Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Correct. I’ve even seen the flute referred to as a “horn” by other players. Furthermore, you’ve got the English horn, which is a double reeded instrument. I’ve heard that the official name of the “horn” as you mean is “brasswind,” which can thus include a saxophone. ---
**Author:** ![asian\_riff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@asian\_riff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asian_riff)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839/33 "2010-05-13T17:55:18Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Furthermore, you’ve got the English horn, which is a double reeded instrument. > > I’ve heard that the official name of the “horn” as you mean is “brasswind,” which can thus include a saxophone. Actually, “English horn” is a misnomer. It’s not a horn at all, despite the name (except in the sense of all musical instruments being informally referred to as “horns” which was already discussed) It’s also not English. And saxophones are woodwinds, despite the fact that they are made out of brass. The designations “woodwind” and “brasswind” refer to how the sound is produced, not what material the instrument is made out of. Brasswinds produce sound by vibration of the lips. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tonal-instruments-that-map-velocity-to-pitch/538839.md?page=1)