FireSop1

I am a firm believer in the importance of a proper warm-up. When I am warming up on my own, before my routine practice sessions, I always take between 15 - 20 min. And, in the Corps, I love a good, long warm-up.........between 30 - 40 min, or longer, if we are going through a number of Corps specific "exercises" that take longer to complete. I think a proper warm-up is imparative for lasting endurance.

Yep! I showered with my horn!!! And, it was GREAT FUN! And, no, I don't mean that in any sick, KINKY way, LOL!!!!! But, I would take all the slides and valves out before I took it in. I would then run water through the slides, seperately, and clean the valves seperately.

All posts on here have great advice and I agree with it all 100%! Also, I am a great advocate of having a "proper" warm-up and "warming down", as well. One of my private teachers taught me that a good warm-up should consist of long tones, some nice slurring, on the lower and middle registers and some short staccato passages, to get your tongue working. Then you can add a few regular scales and some chromatic scales. All this should encompass about 15 min worth. This has always worked great for me! I feel it really primes your chops and gets you ready to go! I also feel that a good "warm-down" is very important; especially after you've been playing for a long time or have just gotton done playing a number of very strenuous/demanding pieces of music, and your chops are very "tight". For me, a warm-down consists of some good, long tones, starting on low C and then continuing down chromatically to "peddle tones". We used to do a lot of warm downs, with both long tones on the lower register and peddle tones, when I was in Crossmen, especially in 1990, and it always helped us immensely. It's a great way to loosen up and you'll also find that, in a lot of cases, your chops are less tight the next day, when you go to play. In my opinion, "warm-downs" are especially good for high brass players, who have been doing a lot of heavy playing in the upper register, for long periods of time. P.S. - Bill, great idea about the "pencils"! Brings back memories for me, as we had a thing we used to do in the lead sop line in Crossmen 1990: We would take our mouthpieces out and turn them upside down, bow our heads, then put the shank of the mouthpiece between our lips and hold it there as long as we could!

I have never heard "Phantom" play an entire show that I would have considered "bad balance". Granted, there have been several years that I heard them and thought that they were a little "bottom heavy" in certain sections of the show, but for me, it just made the show more exciting, to hear what their wonderful low brass section could do! But, I've always felt that it was part of their "dark" style of playing and they do tend to be "bottom heavy" in a lot of cases. But for them, I think it works well and just adds to their very beautiful, rich and powerful sound!!!

I think it mostly depends on the style of music that you are playing, as to which approach works best to get the desired effect of the music. As a general rule though, I think "Tah" and "Doh" are a good way of producing a more open and "singing" sound.

For Drum Corps, "G-Bugles" ALL THE WAY!!! I think the sound of a horn line playing "G-Bugles" is a much more "exciting" sound than a line playing "Bb's". I think the "G's" produce much more of an "edge" to the sound, especially in the sop sections. And let's face it, it is "unique" to our "awesome" activity and gives a "unique" and "powerful" sound. Also, playing "G-Bugles" was also part of the unique challenge for many entering Drum Corps because they had to learn the differences from their regular "Bb" instruments. To me, this is also part of the fun. People are looking to see, "how well we can do it" on exotic "G-Bugles" and to me, this has always been part of the "charm" of Drum Corps!!!

This is a tough question to answer if I have to pick just one, because I think both are so important, especially in drum corps. But, if I absolutely had to pick "only one", I would have to say "quality" first, because no matter how loud a drum corps can play, if they are out of tune and sound awful when you hear them, most people are not going to be very eager to hear them again. If you have a horn line that can play really well, with great quality of sound, technique, intonation, etc, then the rest will usually fall in to place, ie. - they will automatically sound louder from playing so well in tune! A good example: A horn line that has lots of great "overtones" happening! So, I have to admit, I really can't pick "only one"! Especially in corps, I've got to have both!!!

I love Marcinkiewicz mouthpieces! They are so comfortable and give great endurance. They produce a nice sound and are good on both the upper and lower registers. A good all around mouthpiece! I also like Schilke mouthpieces.

Without a doubt, the french horn. Due to the technical aspects and major intonation problems that can occur. Too bad corps rarely use these beautiful instruments anymore, because I think they add so much to a horn line!