Sorry about my last message if it got through. My spellchecker went wild and sent the message before I was done. I was just going to comment on tuning to the concert A, our E, on the bottom line of the treble clef. This is a very flat harmonic on F horn. If you tune to this note you run the risk of having just about everything else sharp. If you try to tune the rest of your horn accordingly, the slides may end up in some really strange positions. This note is used as a tuning note by a lot of the low horn players in a section. Then they are playing sharp with the horns above them and creating all sorts of pitch problems. I agree with the idea that you should know your own intonation well enough to tune to almost any note, but I have met few players, especially young, inexperienced ones, who would qualify along these lines. The E above this can present problems too if that harmonic is out of tune on your horn. Most modern horns are pretty good on that harmonic but it is wide enough that it can be lipped over quite a range (and what is that 2nd valve slide tuned for, anyway?). Since most of us have to tune to this note (A) most of the time, we need a way to be sure we are tuning accurately. If you use the method of tuning all of your slides to be in a compromise position for multiple valve combinations, every note, even a single valve note, is slightly out of tune by definition. You make minute adjustments as you go. This was the method that Farkas promoted in his book and I think most people do tune this way. There are other ways to go, but it just shows that we all need to be aware of our pitch tendencies. The F horn is much more stable, and, in the middle to upper registers, has much smaller and less bendable slots for the notes. That is why I think it is advisable to start the tuning of your horn with the F side. You then need to learn to center the Bb notes where they belong because the slots for the notes are so big. If you have a note that uses a single valve fingering that is not "corrected" for multiple valve fingerings that you can relate to the tuning note by a perfect interval such as a fourth, fifth or octave, use that note. If not, you need to be very sure of your basic tuning of your horn and your ability to recreate pitches consistently so that you "know" you are in the ballpark. Anyway, there is a lot more to this, but enough for now. See you all in Indiana. Glad you are OK Carlberg! -- Wendell Rider "Real World Horn Playing" is here, see www.wendellworld.com
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