Relationships among the various acoustical parameters which may be associated with musical wind instruments are explored. By defining appropriate input and output planes and assuming a linear, time‐invariant system, many of the concepts of transmission line theory are applicable. The real and imaginary parts of the propagation constant may be deduced from measurements of the input impedance and transfer function and used to study the effects of wall condition, for example. The influence of the mouthpiece is very different for the trumpet and trombone, and the concept of a unique impedance ‘‘seen’’ by the player is shown to be misleading. The power efficiency of the instruments between input and output planes may be calculated from measured data but more information is needed on the radiation impedance at the bell before detailed estimates of the components due to the regeneration process may be separated from internal losses in the instrument. Finally, it is shown that use of the time domain is very helpful when the influence of particular parts of the instrument is being studied.

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