Hot answers tagged brass
6
The best definitions in my opinion (and after some considerable research) are:
A trumpet has a mouthpiece and bell that are located at opposite ends of the instrument.
A trombone is defined by a bell section that is located to the rear of the instrument, with a mouthpiece located near the center of gravity and grip location.
Thus, the trumpet will be ...
5
Your first assumption is (mostly) right. Trumpet physics are actually fairly complicated: The basic tube has an open and closed end which by itself would only produce odd numbered harmonics with a quarter wavelength fundamental. However the tapered mouthpiece tapered bell change the harmonics spacing so it gets much closer to the natural harmonic ...
5
There are two things on the tuba that make it hard to play fast runs -- the valves and the pitch. The valves are big and have a lot of travel, and they have fairly strong springs. Moving them fast and accurately requires training your muscles as well as your brains. This requires practice.
The low pitch of a tuba means there's a bigger time lag between when ...
5
In the British Brass Band Tradition, the Baritone is a member of the Saxhorn family, whereas the Euphonium is a member of the Tuba family.
The Euphonium has a wider bore and a more conical flare over more of the instrument's length, compared to the smaller, shorter Baritone flare. Generally, most Reasonable Euphoniums in the UK will have 4 Valves, arranged ...
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It's very different! The mouthpiece is smaller than a trumpet's, yet the instrument's range covers that of a trombone. And, while you can get away with playing flugelhorn like a trumpet, if you play the horn like a trumpet not many people are going to want to listen to you.
My advice would be to essentially relearn the horn fingerings from scratch instead ...
4
That is a Sousaphone, but this one is made mostly of fiberglass plastic (except for the small brass pipes and valves.) Other Sousaphones are made with brass parts (sometimes silver plated.) It is not "Home-Made" - Sousaphones are manufactured by several music instrument companies in the US, Europe and Asia.
Sousaphones are usually pitched in BBb (old ones ...
4
I think half-valve is the only technique that would be effective.
Try to find a valve position that gives you the flexibility. It can involve any number of valves in any position (whatever if they are involved in the start or the end tone). Once you find a position where you can have a rather large range, use that for your drops and falls.
In these ...
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From an equipment standpoint alone this is a better technique, and is encouraged whenever smaller piston instruments are taught as well. Curving the fingers on top of the finger buttons ensures that the force on the valve is going to be straight up and down instead of to the side. On student instruments, this is especially important since seldom-oiled valves ...
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Cody's summary of the differences between what you will generally find in an instrument called a "Euphonium" vs. one called a "baritone" is mostly spot on for today, but traditionally there really wasn't a difference between the two and it is a recent phenomenon where the high-end instruments are called euphoniums while cheaper student instruments are called ...
4
I suppose with a cornet you'll have the ability to add something extra in for texture, so something like finding the main melody line in the song, whether it be with guitar or vocals have the trumpet follow this line to emphasise the line and it could offer a massive difference to the sound and feel of the song depending, you should try looking at reel big ...
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As Matthew indicated in his comment, once the wavelength of the sound gets smaller than the diameter of the tubing, the trumpet will no longer behave like a column of air. This means that, at these wavelengths, the trumpet will not support the resonance modes that make up its behaviour at normal frequencies. I.e. not sound like a trumpet (to the extent ...
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Think of a bugle in C. Bugles have no valves, and the notes you can produce on them are only the following:
C - G - C - E - G - Bb - C - D - E - ...
These match the overtone series of C.
On the trumpet, however, you have valves, which enable you to play additional notes. Press the second valve and the length of tubing increases in the amount needed to ...
3
Are you referring to a different sized mouthpiece for the saxophone? Or are you referring to the difference in size of brass mouthpieces?
Assuming you are referring to the saxophone, each type of saxophone will have a different size mouthpiece. By that I mean the soprano saxophone uses one size, alto saxophone larger, tenor saxophone larger than that, and ...
3
Unfortunately the design of most piston-valve flugelhorns encourages that kind of playing technique, but it really should be avoided if possible. Actuating the valves with the middle of your fingers actually makes you work a lot harder since the movement of the tip of your finger is amplified as though it were a lever over a fulcrum.
You should try to keep ...
3
You can normally use silver solder on brass instruments. It may take a propane torch instead of a soldering iron. A lot of instruments are silver-plated brass.
Check for and seal leaks in the joints and around the valves and spit valves. They can cause resonance problems that make it hard to hit certain notes.
3
The first answer above by NReilingh covers the physical appearance of the instruments but there is also an acoustic difference.
A Slide trumpet has a large bore of .460-.470" and is played using a trumpet mouthpiece. It also has a long tapered lead-pipe inside the upper tube just like any other trumpet.
A Soprano trombone has a more trombone like smaller ...
3
1.The best way is to take it to a repair shop! They might even fix it for free.
2.Otherwise there is a specific tool for separating mothpieces from trumpets that you could get (for instance the Bobcat Mouthpiece Puller which you find at for instance Amazon), but the first option is probably easier and cheaper if available to you.
Trying to fix it yourself ...
3
The simple answer from a historical perspective is that valves on brass instruments were an addition to simple coiled horns like the bugle and hunting horn. It's kind of counterintuitive to add something in order to take away something; why not add something that adds something? Add the valve, and add its pipe; with the valve not depressed, the instrument is ...
3
The act of tonguing gives a slight burst of additional air pressure, just what is needed to skip to the next note in the harmonic series. (You may not notice as much of a benefit in descending for this reason).
In addition, that separation between the notes (using the tongue) makes it sound much cleaner. You eliminate the "in-between" of the slur. (So it's ...
2
I used to play in a church band with a professional jazz Sax player. Whenever we had a break, he would pull out out these pages of runs in different keys and just play them. I always thought it strange that someone who was a professional would bother doing that. Isn't that just for when you are learning?
One day, I had a chance to see him do an improv ...
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Baritone
Smaller Bore
Cylindrical
Tubing size stays same until it reaches the bell
3 valves
Usually only found in brass bands
Cutting and "solo" sound
Euphonium
Common to find bass clef parts
Conical
Tubing progressively gets wider as it approaches the bell
4 valves
Deeper cut mouthpiece
Darker sound
Traditional concert instrument
...
1
You've probably already found out that with a fairly loose embouchure, pressing one valve will drop that note by a semitone, pressing another will drop by two semitones(one tone) and the third drops it by a tone and a half.Thus, when you move up to the next tightness of lips, you can drop that note by as many semitones as necessary before you reach the first ...
1
The valves are changing the length of the tube from the mouthpiece to the bell. Each length can produce the overtone series of a different fundamental pitch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music)
Your embouchure and support will directly affect which overtone comes out. Generally, the more closed the embouchure is, the higher the note. ...
1
When I first started playing, I had much of the same problem as you. In fact, for the first month, I played every last partial wrong and I sounded terrible. However, I started going to the lowest partial I could hit (low C). I counted up from there. I had to do this before every piece for a while to "find my place". After that, I knew by listening whether I ...
1
1. Hearing
If you know how the part is supposed to sound (either because you've heard it before, or because you can read music sufficiently well to hear the melody in your head), then you can obviously notice when the sound you play does not match. It can be a problem if you are playing in a very loud ensemble and can't really hear yourself (think 3rd ...
1
Like the other answer, it's a matter of starting off slowly and building up speed when you practice. The technique I find most helpful for double-tonguing is to double-tongue scales in a variety of ways:
four beats (tu-ku tu-ku) per note
two beats (tu-ku) per note
one beat (tu or ku!) per note
I've also found the exercises in Arban's Cornet Method really ...
1
Like you, Samuel, I've gotten away from my double-tonguing but found some excellent suggestions on this website:
http://www.trumpetmaster.com/vb/f131/learning-how-double-tongue-64418.html
It seems that building speed slowly, using the mouthpiece only, and using tu-ku (heavying up on the ku's until clear) are the highlights of the advice offered on this ...
1
There are some good examples. Have a look at Less Than Jake's song, Gainesville Rock City:
You need to arrange the songs so it works, but rock music can definitely cope with ...
1
I love my Denis Wick 2F. It is very deep (small bore).
You may be aware that there are different bore size standards, the french standard being much smaller than the US, resulting in a more mellow sound.
I never play only the flugelhorn at a gig, so I appreciate the contrast between my trumpet and my flugelhorn. I don't want to swap instruments and have ...
1
Do Nothing!!
Claude Gordon (is quoted in the article below) states that you should not be focusing on lipping any of the notes, ever, when playing pedal tones, and that you should simply focus on loose lips and steady air flow.
The article in which these techniques can be elaborated on is
...
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