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davewerden

Playing - Whether or Not the Horn Cooperates

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I have observed two tendencies in brass players. In one case the player has a strong sense of the sound they want and will blow the horn in such a way as to "encourage" it to produce that sound. In the other case the player will be more affected by the horn itself; they will still be working for a particular sound, but they may be influenced more by the instrument. For lack of a better term, I'll call them "music players" and "instrument players" (with no intent of saying that instrument players have any less musical feeling).

I believe I fall into the former group. There is an advantage there, in that I will have a better chance of getting decent results from a poor instrument. When I was a junior in high school I bought an old tenor horn that was about 70 years old. The valves were terribly worn, and the bore was just about trumpet size. Consequently it did not easily produce notes. I more-or-less automatically adjusted my playing style and made the horn work like a valve trombone. If fact, I used it that way for a number of years.

Since then, I have played a number of different euphoniums, including cheap marching instruments, and I have always gotten along fine. I sometimes still use the tenor horn for practicing (it is 100 years old now), and I play a double-bell euphonium that is about 70 years old. It's more work to play the older horns, but it's not especially challenging.

"Instrument players" expect a certain kind of help from the horn. I handed the tenor horn mentioned above to a senior in the band, who was a better euphonium player in general and was also an experienced trombonist. He could hardly make a note come out of it. The senior had very good breath support, but he was used to the resistance and response of a quality instrument (which at the time was a King; this was before the days when Bessons or similar horns were used in high school bands). He needed the feedback that a good horn provides - not too much and not too little.

The advantage the "instrument players" have is that they tend to get a little more benefit from the quality that is built into a good horn. Their air stream counts on having the correct kind of feedback and response, so they tend to blow the instrument the way it expects to be blown. This can result in a more relaxed sound.

And this is not a black-and-white issue. Even though I am a "music player," I still appreciate the difference in instruments. While I was playing Sterling and helping develop the various Sterling versions, I changed horns many times. Each time I could feel a difference and the difference came across to the audience. On the other hand the "instrument players" will also be contributing some of their own "touch" to the sound no matter what horn they are playing.

In one type inherently better than the other? Not in my experience. I think either group has players who produce fine results. Certainly I have known lots of "instrument players" and lots of "music players" who sound wonderful.

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