I can imagine a couple of things that might make the slurs bumpy. Let's just pick E to F at the bottom of the staff. You're going from open E to 1st valve F, which means the F is on a "longer" horn than the E. The longer horn makes it a little harder to go upward, it would be easier to slur down to the D. That's a good way to pick fingerings for a trill. If you make the upper note a "shorter" fingering than the lower note, the trill will naturally come out smoother. It would be interesting to experiment with your E to F slur using 1+2 E to 1st finger F just to see if the horn responds to that better. That would definitely be a smoother trill fingering. Air direction through the valve can also add a blurp to valve changes and horns that have one of the valves turning the opposite direction from the others sometimes have that characteristic. The rotor can either turn with the air or against it depending on whether it turns clockwise or counter cw, but the "right" direction also depends on whether the air is coming in from the top of the valve set or from the bottom. For instance on a standard Geyer, the airflow comes from the bottom of the valve set on Bb horn, from the top on F horn so one of the sides is going to be less than ideal in a rotational sense. Usually it's not that hard to overcome those slight tendencies, but I can imagine a particular horn maybe being a little less flexible that way.
- Steve Mumford XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Molly wrote: On my horn, I experience a terrific bump slurring from first line e/e-flat (written) to first space f/f-sharp; on the F side, open e to the f or f-sharp, or e-flat to f. (e-flat to f-sharp is not a valve change on the F side & isn't a problem.) Slurs using the same valve change sequences (open to first or open to 2nd or 2nd to first) on other partials are not nearly as rough. Very nice valve slurs pretty much all over the horn except for this spot. It is such a mighty wrestle to get a smooth slur between these notes that I will use the b-flat side or alternate findings as much a possible. The horn is a Yamaha 862, about 25 years old. I had the valves rebuilt about 4 years ago. I think it has always done this, even before the rebuild. The first thing I do when I have a chance to play other horns is check them for this issue. I don't think I have run across another horn that has this problem to such a severe degree. When I ask other people to play my horn, if I tell them about this they agree it's extreme. If I don't say anything, other people tend not to say anything either. Most people say it seems like a good horn. I think it is. But it has this odd problem. The first valve turns clockwise (looking at it from the top where the valve caps are). The 2nd & 3rd valves go the other way. Why does it bump so bad, just on these notes? Is this a fixable problem? Thanks! Molly (PS spell check is a wonder. Sometimes slur comes out with a t instead of an r. Wouldn't that be a fun discussion!) _______________________________________________ post: horn@memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
