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  1. Where Are the Jazz Euphonium Players?

    I just learned that this year's ITEC has canceled its jazz competition because of a lack of qualified applicants. I'm not quite sure why that is, especially for euphonium players. Of course, not all of us have the instinct to do a proper job of playing jazz, but there have to be a large number of folks who could do this but have not chosen to.


    For euphoniumists, there is a long-standing lament about the lack of paying gigs in the USA (aside from our service bands). Certainly there ...
  2. Music Appreciation 101:8 - It's Not the Horn. Whistlers.

    Subtitle: How Much Did You Spend on Your Instrument?

    The purpose of this chapter is to show that music must come from within you. Many players get so focused on the difficulties of playing their horn that they don't manage to get their musical feeling out the bell.

    We have already looked at the ocarina and harmonica, either of which can be obtained for very little money. Now let's look at a no-cost medium: whistling.

    There are some very high-level whistlers ...

    Updated 01-06-2019 at 08:21 AM by davewerden

    Categories
    Euphonium-Tuba Blog , Music Appreciation
  3. Music Appreciation 101:8 - It's Not the Horn. The Harmonica

    Subtitle: How Much Did You Spend on Your Instrument?


    The purpose of this chapter is to show that music must come from within you. Many players get so focused on the difficulties of playing their horn that they don't manage to get their musical feeling out the bell.


    This chapter examines the harmonica. Here I am not pointing to examples of folk harmonica (no Bob Dylan here), but rather classical or jazz.


    Harmonicas are capable of a wide range ...
  4. Music Appreciation 101:8 - It's Not the Horn. The Ocarina

    Subtitle: How Much Did You Spend on Your Instrument?

    The purpose of this chapter is to show that music must come from within you. Many players get so focused on the difficulties of playing their horn that they don't manage to get their musical feeling out the bell.

    The first in this series will demonstrate a virtuoso performance on the ocarina. It is a hollow body with a mouthpipe to blow into. There are a series of tone holes on the instrument. A very simple type is called ...
  5. Help for Left-Handed Euphonium Players

    The wait is over. A major manufacturer has finally begun to design products for players who are left handed. The first such example is based on the popular Wick/Mead SM3 mouthpiece, shown below in its standard form:


    Standard Right-Hand Model




    Of course, the smooth other surface and tapered shape may have been difficult for left-handers to pick up and handle, but that has now been solved with the SM3-LH:


    New Left-Hand Model
    ...
  6. A Great Way to Clean Out Your Horn

    I have finally found a really good cleaning swap for my compensating euphonium! Every brass player knows it can be hard to get the inside of the horn swabbed out. The traditional swap has a coiled metal "snake" with a pad or brush on each end. You need to run it through the tubes to clean them inside. However, the metal can scratch the horn if you are not careful and the pads or brushes don't do a very good job of cleaning. Worst of all, the thing gets caught in the horn sometimes and ...
  7. Night in the Tropics - Orchestra Piece with Euphonium

    As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently played a series of eight concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra. Any of you who have heard the orchestra perform know that it is a truly fine group. But what might be hard to tell from listening is that they are nice folks who seem to genuinely like each other. Several pieces on the concert did not use full orchestra so I had some time to hobnob with many players. It's a wonderful group to work with, and I was reminded again how lucky we are to have them ...
  8. Backstage at the Minnesota Orchestra

    Once again I had the opportunity to perform with the Minnesota Orchestra this week. I'll discuss more about the musical side in a future post, but I noticed a few interesting bits of trivia while I was there.


    First, as an electronics hobbyist (in my past), I found this really unusual electronic tuner for instruments. It is of the type that sounds one of 12 tones for the player to match. It appears to have a fine-tuning control.





    The next interesting ...
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