HornsUp

The Yamaha 201 is the same horn as their 321, minus the 4th valve. Yamaha dealers are required to buy a certain number of new horns each year, to maintain their franchises. So I have bought decent 201s for 450-500, in the summer when the rentals are returned. I have bought a rat 201 on eBay for a hundy, but laid out another hundy to have the large branches & bow de-dented. They are easy to sell, at a profit, when school starts. And decent enough to play at the community/college band level.

Very progressive. Very innovative. But nowadays, nearly everyone wears bibbers.

Hair color to match your reptilian boots. Shave it off for DCA, and grow some yellow scales.

I have spent a decent amount of time constructing and playing hosaphones, and other Frankenhorns. A lot of the basic principles of brass design can be learned through science fair type projects.

Yes he read your post "I was wondering if I should get this or any other euph that comes my way." There is absolutely no need for anyone to buy a marching horn to prep for a corps audition. Get yourself something that's useful in the real world.

I have been sourcing G bugles for the last two decades, equipping and upgrading alumni corps and startup groups. I'd really like to know where all this stuff is you are referencing. A lot of it I know has been donated to the Field Band Foundation groups in South Africa. The Indonesian corps are snapping up every G horn they can bind. And BAA members are grabbing all the used G sopranos to use for funerals. I just helped a parade corps being formed at a new charter school in Milwaukee. I managed to find them about 30 decent bugles from two sources. They would be real happy to find a set of lighter-weight drums. The situation is worse in Bb/F. Sure, there are plenty of cheap used trumpets available. Mellos, there are usually a few ratty 20+yo Olds/Bach or King on eBay. After that, nothing. Marching baritones and shoulder-carried tubas are not disposed of by school districts until they are no longer serviceable.

See my post above, about Milwaukee's Schaefer Ladies. Also google "Hormel Girls show troupe" for info on the 60-member group that toured in the post-WWII years promoting Spam. And check out the bio of Donna Mae Smith, inducted into the Buglers HOF.

But then there was that 1pt penalty for dropped equipment . . . . . .

Mac, they were history by the time you stopped wearing diapers. They were a SENIOR ladies' parade corps from the Cpl. Henry W. Schaefer VFW post in Milwaukee. With ugly green archaic uniforms and organ-grinder-monkey hats. A carload of their 3rd-generation members were Kenosha Kingsmen groupies.

<br /><br /><br />VFW prelims were 5-6 minutes with NO stop time. They were on the same day (Wednesday) as finals. Corps usually did their opener (with no standstill fanfare), then color pre with no stop time ending, then fudged it through a drum solo to get to their exit number. Inspection was held separately on Tuesday, and the score counted for both prelims and finals. The parade was Tuesday evening and seemed to last forever. In 1963, the young Troopers marched the parade TWICE. Once, representing their home state of Wyoming. And the second time around, earning a few bucks and carrying a different state's flag.

Best AG ever. On the field, or off the field?

Would you pay TWO bucks for a rather major show?

I've only tried out a Miraphone BBb years ago (played like a 25 foot garden hose with a funnel) and a Rath F about 5 years ago. I honestly don't remember the shank sizes. Chickenman makes some valid observations in the post above this. They apply to just about any mouthpieces that are way the wrong size for any kind of brass instrument. Best to go here: tromboneforum.org You could easily spend a month going through their archives.

Playing their brand new concert number "Malaguena". Looks like Nick Venden, who wrote the chart, is 4th man in the back platoon of bugles.

On a per capita basis, some small towns had a huge percentage of their kids marching in the local corps. Most notable is Osage IA, pop. 3500. The Precisionnaires placed 14th at DCI in 1975. In the 60s, Michigan's Upper Peninsula had a whole circuit of tinytown corps. It included: Munising [pop. 2500] Silver Echoes L'Anse [pop. 2100] Golden Eagles Ontanagon [pop. 1800] Mountaineers The Mountaineers also had an active alumni corps (clad in Hawaiian shirts!) early in this century. And Bessemer MI [pop. 1900] has been the home of Marty's Goldenaires, a sizable all-male parade/exhibition unit, since 1950.

This decree dates from the late 60s. At the time, the active corps in Racine were: Boys of 76 Kilties Kiltie Kadets Racine Explorer Scouts Racine Junior Scouts Racine Junior Junior Scouts Ambassadears Ambassadear Fawns and the multi VFW Nat'l champion Elks Band and 10 miles South in Kenosha were the Kingsmen seniors, the Queensmen, Queensmen Squires, Shoreliners, and Shoreliner Cadets. Rochester had a bunch of corps, but was a much larger metro area.

For many decades, corps arrangers have used the term "Trooper drum part" to denote a section tacet.

Spats and Cowboy Hats. In North Carolina, where they're playing on a NASCAR track . . . . . Facing away from the grandstand.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winna . . . . . . .

To obtain a characteristic tone, the mellophone mpc has a significantly deeper cup, which may be V-shaped. Although the shanks are identical, the body of the mello mpc is almost an inch shorter. Which means the backbore is only about half as long. The trumpet mpc might sound "just fine" to you, but it cannot produce the full mid-register sound used in contemporary hornlines. But in the 60s and 70s, most of us used trumpet mpcs. Mellophones were usually a small section, used soloistically rather than as a workhorse ensemble voice.

The alloy science is for the high-end horns, the differences will get lost outdoors and in the constant company of percussion and electronics. Silverplate is relatively thin, typically less than .001". A bell is about .016 thick. A coat of lacquer will double the bell thickness. Chromeplate is chrome over nickel over copper, thus thicker and harder than silver. Finally, autographs with a Sharpie pen do not adversely affect the tone color.

Nancy, there are many fanfares that are march-like in their musical style. But if the composer titles the work as a fanfare, that's what it is. A fanfare does not follow any particular musical form. Neither does a prelude. A march is generally a series of related strains - each a complete melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic entity. In military marches these strains are often repeated, to get more mileage out of a dinky page crammed full of little black dots. Grand marches, such as Crown Imperial, are played at stately tempos. Circus marches often are played at blazing speed. Because there really are no marching acts in a circus. Since we usually have two feet, most marches are written in two or four beats to the measure. The exception is if you are writing for a procession of nobles.

OK, Mr. Tech Head. A mono phono cartridge sensed variations in the bottom of the groove. Stereo carts had two elements with axis at 60 degrees, and sensed variations in the sides of the groove. The wrong cartridge might still function {especially with a few pennies taped onto the tonearm) but would prematurely wear out the grooves in the LP. You could put a stereo cart into a mono machine, and wire the elements in parallel. This way, you could at least play the newfangled platters, although the output was only mono. My first reel-to-reel tape recorder had stereo heads, but only a mono amp. I could overdub by bouncing tracks, but ultimately had to patch the unit to an external amp to get playback on both tracks. Away at college (UW Madison) I of course had no piano. But a borrowed Hohner Pianet, plugged into that same reel-to-reel machine, was used to check out all my arranging projects. Iron Lips, ya got anything to add to this history lesson?

Yeah, but four of 'em looked like this: