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Advice on Holding Horn


superdonndonn

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When you get tired, just pretend you need to emtpy the spit valve/water key. This will give your shoulders a short breather.

Gosh there sure is a lot of spit in here.

Must be the cold.

Don't be giving away our secrets! :lol:

Also, any instructional staff sees right through that, they can because they have done it in a past life at some time.

Oh yeah, I got called out for that one my rookie yr. Wasn't fun. :(

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:rolleyes:

When you get tired, just pretend you need to emtpy the spit valve/water key. This will give your shoulders a short breather.

Gosh there sure is a lot of spit in here.

Must be the cold.

Don't be giving away our secrets! :thumbup:

Also, any instructional staff sees right through that, they can because they have done it in a past life at some time.

I have done that a few times will playing euph. BUT, if you just kill yourself (in the proper position) your muscles will get use to it.. hence the reason we used weights!

And I swear, when you add two pounds of extra weight... you get extra spit in your horn

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I have done that a few times will playing euph. BUT, if you just kill yourself (in the proper position) your muscles will get use to it.. hence the reason we used weights!

And I swear, when you add two pounds of extra weight... you get extra spit in your horn

You are correct. The photo on page 3 was an audition. The girl in red eventually played soprano (trumpet). She wasn't strong enough. Decades ago I taught body alignment and breathing techniques. The baritones understood the concept immediately...the other sections?...it took them time to accept the concept

Edited by lindap
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Hi i was wonder what can i do to build my arms to hold up a Marching Euphonium? Its a Dynasty.

Think Shadows advice is best all around for the Euph. It really is about endurance, and I do know that you will feel it your back as much as your shoulders. While it is a bit heavier than a Baritone, it is not by much. I think a lot of it is psychological because of its size. Though you know at the end of a parade/performance that you were carrying something more than a soprano. You will either carry it, or you won't. Practice, practice, practice, is not only about learning and playing the music.

I still carry one today, and am thinking of creating a rig to hold it up during a show... Old age + blown shoulder= "this darned horn is not staying up the entire show where it should be". I could switch to soprano I suppose....

Oh, and the best way to hold it, is with your hands, not your feet. It is a real pain to play with your toes.

Unrelated to the actual holding of the horn itself, but Shadows "empty the spit" comment brought up something that has been bugging me. It seem to me that the Dynasty Euph I am playing now seems to trap and hold farm more spit/condensation than the Baritone I had prior to picking up the Euph. To the point it is not all coming cleanly out of the spit valves, and I am either pulling out slides and dumping it that way or constantly spinning it. Not sure if it is the design of the horn or what? I know more recent models have one of the 3 spit valves on the rear where mine has them all up front. Or is it just me and me needing to adjust embouchure or drink less water during rehearsals?

I just know I did not have anything near that issue with the Baritone. I would still spin it, and pull slides (usually at the end of a rehearsal), not constantly.

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When I marched Euph, we put 2 1 pounds weights on the horn for rehearsal. One was around the bell, and one was underneath the valve casing on those support bars.

The first month or two, you get your butt kicked. You hold your horn like normal, trying not to "break" because "pain is for the gain". The longer you can hold it up, the better off your gonna be. Towards the end of rehearsal for ensemble we always took off the one on the bell...you would be surprised how much lighter the horn feels just taking one off. When we took off both for shows, holding the horn was NO problem!

Of course, you need to do alot of other excerises to build your "core" and arms.

That's what the Euphs used to do when I marched Star of Indiana in the 80's. It worked we had some small kids in the euph line and by first tour they were hogs

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The most important thing of all:

Keep your back straight! Leaning back just to hold the horn up makes you look like a total bag.

Any visual staff member who tells people to hold the horn up and then just walks away when the person leans waaaaay back to hoist it up needs to get a pay cut. Your arms will get stronger and you will eventually be able to hold the horn up, but if you train your back to bend while you play you'll probably never fix it.

When I was a visual staff member I used to get annoyed when I saw corps that were giving us a pounding on field visual scores that had marching members with absolutely atrocious posture.

By the way, here's a nearly instant fix for bad posture. If you also get staff members yelling at you "STRAIGHT LEGS! STRAIGHT LEGS!" all the time you can also use this fix: squeeze your butt cheeks together. All the time. Forward march, backward march, everything in between. It's #### near impossible to lean back or go all bendy-leg when your cheeks are flexed.

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  • 2 weeks later...
The most important thing of all:

Keep your back straight! Leaning back just to hold the horn up makes you look like a total bag.

Any visual staff member who tells people to hold the horn up and then just walks away when the person leans waaaaay back to hoist it up needs to get a pay cut. Your arms will get stronger and you will eventually be able to hold the horn up, but if you train your back to bend while you play you'll probably never fix it.

When I was a visual staff member I used to get annoyed when I saw corps that were giving us a pounding on field visual scores that had marching members with absolutely atrocious posture.

By the way, here's a nearly instant fix for bad posture. If you also get staff members yelling at you "STRAIGHT LEGS! STRAIGHT LEGS!" all the time you can also use this fix: squeeze your butt cheeks together. All the time. Forward march, backward march, everything in between. It's #### near impossible to lean back or go all bendy-leg when your cheeks are flexed.

what he said. getting your back into it just cheats yourself and you look like ####. don't rest your horn on/near/around your collar bone. i had a black and blue from that and in the end it didn't help me any, it just made me look like a ######. hold your horn exactly how you were told - fingers in exactly the right spot and everything. you'll be amazed and what a difference finger position can make as far as weight distribution goes. the best tip i ever got was balancing the horn in your left hand on your index finger and middle finger (which is generally where corps have you place that finger). 90% of the weight should be distributed to that side and your right pinky finger will thank you.

ankle weights around the bell definitely help out a lot. i never played a dynasty, at least i don't think i did... but most euphoniums are generally a lot more bell heavy than baritones and adding that weight to the bell will help you accommodate to that. there is hands down no substitute exercise to holding up your own horn. dumbbells won't do it, milk-jugs won't do it, etc, etc...

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  • 2 weeks later...

for my baritone players i attach a pint size water bottle (at first) to the instrument during the winter camps, then when spring comes i fill the bottle with sand (keep the water... wet sand feels heavier) it adds significant weight to the horn... i call it the "strength and endurance program" i keep the bottle on until tour.

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