Milton's post touched on what I was thinking too. I've noticed that if the horn isn't tuned well with itself or with whatever you're trying to play in tune with, if can induce those sort of "quivers" as you try to put the note someplace that it doesn't want to be. A bad fit of the mouthpiece shank can be one factor that can make the horn play oddly out of tune with itself. For instance going up the scale, 3 or 4 notes in a row might be just fine, the next 3 notes very flat, the next 3 notes very sharp, a lot of work to play something like that in tune. You mentioned feeling better on the Bb horn I think, could it be that your F horn is not in tune with the Bb? Often people pull the F slides too far. For instance on a Holton, never pull the F slide that's on the front of the horn. That one's only for dumping water. The one on the back will make the F horn plenty low enough. On 8Ds, the F slide is often too long and it won't match the Bb horn unless it's pushed in all the way (front F slide all the way in too). Play Cs back and forth between the two to see if they match pitch. Some horns just aren't in tune to start with. Not long ago I went with a friend to the Brasswind and we tried out a brand new Nirschl horn. Looks like an 8D. Well the thing played almost a half step flat with all the slides pushed all the way in. Whoever buys that one is going to think they have no talent. There were 8Ds made in the 50s that had extra long tuning slides. Those play low too. You can play a horn like that in tune, but not without doing some really weird things. Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Trying to play an "out" of tune horn "in" tune can turn your lip into Jello!
- Steve Mumford _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
