Dual-bore Venova design aims for chromatic, keyless woodwind

Jefftk, a musician and blogger, details a theoretical modification to the Yamaha Venova—a hybrid instrument combining a saxophone mouthpiece with recorder fingering. The standard Venova plays well in C but struggles with sharps or flats. To fix this, Jefftk proposes a dual-bore design: two parallel meandering tubes, one tuned to C (white keys) and the other to C# (black keys), with a flapper valve to switch between them. This mimics the B/C melodeon layout but uses Janko keyboard logic (two sets of whole steps a half step apart) to give 6 notes per bore.

The fingering would be partly isomorphic: lifting a finger raises pitch a whole step; engaging the valve raises it a half step. The left thumb operates the valve, left forefinger does the octave key, and the remaining fingers cover the tone holes. By accepting two extra keys (similar to existing Venova keys), the design can achieve a full three-octave chromatic range with no fork fingerings. The entire instrument could be mass-produced cheaply using molded ABS resin, avoiding complex metal keywork. Jefftk notes that while the concept works for reeds, it could also apply to flutes or pennywhistles.