SLIDE MEMREED
This is one of several membrane reed instruments I’ve made. In membrane reeds, a flow of air is forced to enter a pipe by squeezing under the flexible membrane that forms one end of the pipe. The membrane repeatedly lifts and then snaps back to let the air through in a series of rapid pulses, and this sets up the vibration. In the memreed instrument shown in the picture on right, pitch is controlled by a trombone-like telescoping slide in six segments. In one of those shown at left, you can see an alternative system: a multi-scissoring system which ensures that the sliding sections of tube space themselves out uniformly when the tube is extended. Thanks to the late François and Bernard Baschet for this slide-extension idea (which they applied to a slide clarinet).