What key does a toilet flush in?

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 07:21 PM

Was unable to get in here a while ago - then been offline...

Actually, since idiophones like drums and rocks etc have a range of harmonics related to the fundamental, which forms its own 'scale' not necessarily with all the pitches related to the basic western scales, such as major or minor, etc, perhaps 'key' is closer than 'pitch'....

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 03:24 PM

Drop pee minor ?

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 03:05 PM

Le trek, to loos

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 02:56 PM

The thread title seems to assume that all toilets flush in the same key. Why would they.? In fact I have two [which is why I call my house Toulouse, tho my wife used to prefer Lulu], and their flushes are quite differently pitched.

~ Michel, Comte de Toulouse [knock twice & ask for Lulu]

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Aeola
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 02:36 PM

I think it depends on whether you are in a soft or hard water area!In a hard water area you have much more scales to chose from!

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 06:50 AM

The German composer Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) would have been the man to ask. Or one of his skids perhaps.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 06:06 AM

Our washing machine appears to hum along in C... major if it's a light load, minor if it's a full load.

LTS

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 03:13 AM

OK what key did the toilet flush in?   :-P

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 12:51 AM

That's jazz at its finest! I especially liked the bathroom one.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 10:58 PM

Various household sounds

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: mousethief
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 10:37 PM

It has a fine assonance.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: GUEST,mayomick
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 09:01 PM

A major turd .

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: GUEST,matomick
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 08:47 PM

I think you'd have to know all about scales before answering that question.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 07:41 PM

"The Ding of the microwave oven door" is in almost the same class as "the flush of a distant toilet"... but if you ever met Ding (from The Swamp), you'd probably be concerned if he was anywhere near any electrical appliance...

Re the Vacuum drone, Aussie TV currently has an advert for "Green stuff" trying to get people to save electricity - and it shows a little kid humming in front of an electric fan, harmonising...

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Rowan
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 04:46 PM

And Malcolm Gill (who proferred the E flat on SPicks & Specks) does have serious cred. I've been trying to tune the water hammer in my system for quite some time.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: JennieG
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 04:41 PM

Robin, I'm on your side......no jokes from me, this is serious! I watched that episode too, and remember being surprised. I wonder what pitch other fairly common household noises are? The ding of the mcrowave oven door when food has finished cooking.....the high pitched whistle of the kettle when the water boils.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 04:37 PM

Did he play Toilet Time?

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 04:36 PM

Ask Ebbie. She'd know.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 03:41 PM

I remember somone playing a Loo-phonium aquired from a building site, on a Keele Rag float

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: GUEST,erbert
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 02:59 PM

I used to tune my guitar to my Braun shaver which buzzed at a fairly precise constant "G".

So, if I were to now sit on the bog for a shave
and sing any random notes to fit;
I could harmonise an entire chord ?

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 02:51 PM

G Splat

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: olddude
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 02:09 PM

Key of L
cause it sounds like L when it backs up

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 02:01 PM

Ah Amos, it pays to read back sometimes :)

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Rockhen
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 01:09 PM

Lol :-)

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 12:54 PM

Rockhen - you are not alone!

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Amos
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 12:53 PM

P sharp?


A

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 12:40 PM

A turd higher than the tonic.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Maryrrf
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 11:08 AM

I don't know what key but a friend of mine who was making a recording of Hawaiian music (in New Jersey) used a toilet flush to replicated the "sound of the surf". It worked!

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 11:07 AM

When all the shithouse poets die
There'll be erected in the sky
A monument to mark their wit
A monument of solid shit.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 10:36 AM

And when the job's complete,
He'll haunt that sewer suite,
And when they pull the chain,
Oh, won't they howl!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: GUEST,Pete Sumner
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 10:18 AM

You have to watch out for Bum Notes!

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Bernard
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 10:02 AM

Pink noise? Brown noise, more like!

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 09:51 AM

Serious (me serious?) the bowl and pipes and tank all have resonances, they will selectively enhance some frequencies, thus give a certain impression of pitch. Much as a cymbal isn't all frequencies (white noise) small and larg are different. Pink noise might be a better description (it does exist).

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Tally Ho Man
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 09:49 AM

This is beginning to sound like a load of ballcocks!

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 09:41 AM

Key Largo. Key West has outhouses.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Darowyn
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 09:31 AM

The movement of water creates a sound very close to white noise. Thus a toilet flushes equally in every key, mode and octave. As Foolestroupe says, like a drum or cymbal, only more so, since the frequencies of the harmonics of both of those do follow a formula called a Bessel series.
Only last week I heard someone on the radio claiming quite sincerely that a single, isolated chord of E flat played on the piano was completely different from a single isolated chord of D sharp played on the same piano. Her reason was that it gave her a different sensation of colour.
A toilet flush, containing every frequency allows you to hear whatever key you wish it to be, or none.
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 09:31 AM

Bernard - your comment on my last post was a Loo-Loo.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 08:16 AM

I seem to recall the late Mr Dankworth pleading Not Guilty to a Speeding charge , because at 30 mph his car was a constant A Flat !

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 08:09 AM

Now look guys, you're treating this serious music thread like a BS thread - Joe will move it if we are not careful...

I suggest that the sound is more like that of a drum or cymbal, an idiophone, and really it's a misnomer to say it is in a 'key' - more that it has a particular 'pitch'...

... and that's my pitch for the moment...

I'll get me hat...

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 07:54 AM

Father Abbot looks after the Brethren, and Mother Abbess looks after the Cistern.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 07:26 AM

Hope this thread is just a flash in the pan!!!

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Tally Ho Man
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 07:19 AM

Are we sure it wasn't on the BBC's T**D programme?

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 07:14 AM

Wasn't Sir Malcom Sargent nicknamed Flush Harry?
He would have known the answer to this one.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 06:57 AM

WC minor or WC major, depending on whether it's a number one or a number two.

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Rockhen
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 06:35 AM

Anyone ever harmonised with their hoover...(NO I am not being rude...sigh...) Of course I do not actually do any housework that would be too scary...but I have tried keeping a harmony going whilst pretending to wheel the hoover around in an efficiently domestic style and have even debated recording its lovely frequencies so I can add several harmonies...er...ok ok, not normal...I'll get me anorak

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 06:14 AM

Why not ask the Beeb.

Apparently, many years ago, the BBC Third Programme as it was at the time, broadcast a live opera production from the King's Theatre in Edinburgh (during the Festival, of course). At some point, it was required that the tenor sing off-stage, and they thought they'd found a suitable place. However, nobody remembered to turn off the automatic flush for the Gents' urinals!

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 06:14 AM

First or second movement?

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 06:11 AM

I'm usually too busy washing my hands to listen out but I do know that the hot water pipe at work sings in Bb.... but only when you've got the cold water tap on.

LTS

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: GUEST,foxyloxy
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 06:00 AM

Not a key, strictly speaking, more of an A-holeian mode...

Subject: RE: What key does a toilet flush in?
From: Bernard
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 06:00 AM

Wasn't he a famous artist? Two loos...

(I'll get me coat!)