PR Mello Line

[Steve Knob]

Best Mello lines ever.......

1. Star

2. Cadets

3. Sun Coast Sound (even though they played on french horn mouthpieces (I love me some Frank Williams hornlines))

4. Phantom 1996

Suncoast Sound - I taught that middle horn section in 1983, and it was actually made up of Mellos, Flugels, and FRENCH HORNS (Suncoast vets will add my own special, southern, way of saying that!). The Mellos and Flugels did play on the correct mouthpieces for the instruments when I was there.

Anyone who uses horn mouthpieces with adapters on mellos needs to have both their hearing and brain checked to make sure they work. "Hey, here's a neat idea, lets just have everybody in the hornline play on a trumpet mouthpiece, no matter what instrument they play, they're all about the same anyway... We can just order 64 of the same thing. It'll be easy... Hello, music store? Can you send me 64 Bach 7C's please?"

...and this is where I think there is missed opportunity for some DCI corps to be innovative!

This qoute in response to another post that said if someone marched Bb Horns, they'd go there in a second. Although going back to something we had is not really innovation.

Both of these point directly to my post about "French" Horns. We are missing an important voice. Imagine a wind ensemble or orchestra without horns because they are "hard to play". Wagner or Mahler without horns? Sounds totally stupid, right?

My son is now the third generation horn player in our family, but he's not too sure about doing corps because he won't be able to play his main instrument. My mom never got to march (but she was a professional horn player for over 30 years), but she LOVED to listen to our horn line with it's 8 "French" Horns. I let her play my corps horn once, she nearly ripped the bell off with her sound! We also marched "only" 4 mellos, but you never have problem hearing them. The first section feature in our 79 opener is only the middle horn section - 12 people! Listen to the recording and tell me it's not good.

(Thanks to Tim Salzman for having the confidence in us to write us all those cool parts! And he never once went "Wait, the horns can't play that". It was always "If I write it, they'll figure out a way to get it played". And we did.)

And no, the corps I teach now does not use "French" Horns. We have talked about it in passing, and I make a "joke" now and then about them, but they don't fit our musical style right now. If we were to go to classical or concert band style music, I'd be the first one in line saying that we have to march "French" Horns. Our mello section uses mello mouthpieces, and we are looking into getting custom mouthpieces made by Warburton for this summer. All horn mouthpiece to trumpet leadpipe adapters should be banned, melted down, and made into crowbars to get the last few out of the leadpipes.

I think I'll go start working on that marching arrangement of the Schumann Konzertstuck now...

Hello, music store? Can you get me 16 Dynasty Bb Marching Horns please?

Edited March 5, 2010 by Steve Knob

[BlooContraGuy]

(BTW, We Horn players dropped the "French" thing a long time ago, but some people still use it. I use it here simply for clarity. The "French" Horn is actually German. It's kind of like the English Horn, which is actually neither. It's really a French Tenor Oboe.)

Oh... Thanks.

In many cases, those bad individual mistakes that everyone notices are from the Finals recording. It's their last show of the season, and a great deal of over-hyping can occur. There really isn't anything JD can do to prevent that from happening. If it wasn't a recurring error during the season, it wouldn't be something to fix. If it happens at finals, chances are, they won't be playing it again.

I've seen JD during rehearsals before, and he won't tolerate the mellos playing badly. If something sounds like ####, he has them fix it so he never has to hear it like that again.

That is just a quick and easy way to spot an immature horn line. JD can talk to them about not overhyping, but you're right as far as concept goes.

I've seen them warm up on multiple occasions, and they sounded pretty similar (as far as tone quality at louder volumes) to how they sound in the shows. This opinion is solely based on my limited hearings of them during the 2009 season.

Edit: So the question that comes to mind is, does the Phantom Regiment rehearse one way, and then warm up/perform in another way?

Edited March 5, 2010 by BlooContraGuy

[Piper]

French horn players will never forgive mellos for taking away their instruments.

[Steve Knob]

Not me. I still have my Bb Marching Horn, and I play it.

And just as high and loud as any mellophone.

[Adrian]

euphoniums FTW!!!!!

[euphononium]

Edit: So the question that comes to mind is, does the Phantom Regiment rehearse one way, and then warm up/perform in another way?

No. Well, not as of a few years ago. I think their approach has changed slightly in the last two years or so. However, prior to this I know that much of the horn line's rehearsal time, especially in the beginning of the season, is devoted to "finding the edge" and then expanding it further and further while also attempting to control it. That is what JD does with his own playing and has done with probably every horn line he's been in front of, so I'm sure he realizes the risk in this system. I'm also sure that he realizes not everyone likes the results, and I'm pretty sure he and nobody else at Regiment really care a whole lot, because there are several die hard Regiment fans and people that really enjoy performing at the edge. So while the reward is never a guarantee, it must feel good to stand in front of a horn line that has "found itself", a la 2005 - 2008, IMO, of course and with few exceptions...

I love that Regiment isn't afraid to wear their emotions on their sleeve, in a sense. I'd rather have a little hype like finals in 2007 (although I believe that semi-finals was a much better show) and 2009. Yeah, it is a little out of tune, and there are a couple individuals popping out of the ensemble, but I feel that if you're really listening so closely and picking out so many minute details, then you really need to just step back for a second. I got to that point a couple years ago, and when I was watching a show I couldn't enjoy a single corps because I was SO CRITICAL of everything that every corps did! It really wasn't any fun and definitely not my money's worth.

Last thought. I'm watching a performance of Mahler's 2nd right now. I can't imagine the brass section performing this piece any other way than "on the edge"... it is borderline crass, and there are a few intonation problems, but overall, listening to this piece is a deeply emotional and moving experience that would likely not have quite the same effect without that aspect of the performance - the human factor, if you will.

And yes. Euphoniums Buicks FTW.

[BlooContraGuy]

No. Well, not as of a few years ago. I think their approach has changed slightly in the last two years or so. However, prior to this I know that much of the horn line's rehearsal time, especially in the beginning of the season, is devoted to "finding the edge" and then expanding it further and further while also attempting to control it. That is what JD does with his own playing and has done with probably every horn line he's been in front of, so I'm sure he realizes the risk in this system. I'm also sure that he realizes not everyone likes the results, and I'm pretty sure he and nobody else at Regiment really care a whole lot, because there are several die hard Regiment fans and people that really enjoy performing at the edge. So while the reward is never a guarantee, it must feel good to stand in front of a horn line that has "found itself", a la 2005 - 2008, IMO, of course and with few exceptions...

I love that Regiment isn't afraid to wear their emotions on their sleeve, in a sense. I'd rather have a little hype like finals in 2007 (although I believe that semi-finals was a much better show) and 2009. Yeah, it is a little out of tune, and there are a couple individuals popping out of the ensemble, but I feel that if you're really listening so closely and picking out so many minute details, then you really need to just step back for a second. I got to that point a couple years ago, and when I was watching a show I couldn't enjoy a single corps because I was SO CRITICAL of everything that every corps did! It really wasn't any fun and definitely not my money's worth.

Last thought. I'm watching a performance of Mahler's 2nd right now. I can't imagine the brass section performing this piece any other way than "on the edge"... it is borderline crass, and there are a few intonation problems, but overall, listening to this piece is a deeply emotional and moving experience that would likely not have quite the same effect without that aspect of the performance - the human factor, if you will.

And yes. Euphoniums Buicks FTW.

I like it when people actually think about what they want to say before posting, yes I am fully aware that I post without thinking quite often, but its nice to see a logical response from someone to help me reevaluate my posting etiquette

Thanks for the answer!

Edited March 5, 2010 by BlooContraGuy

[euphononium]

I like it when people actually think about what they want to say before posting, yes I am fully aware that I post without thinking quite often, but its nice to see a logical response from someone to help me reevaluate my posting etiquette

Thanks for the answer!

Is this one of the times you're not being sarcastic?

[BlooContraGuy]

Is this one of the times you're not being sarcastic?

haha yes indeed it is.

[jjeffeory]

This quote in response to another post that said if someone marched Bb Horns, they'd go there in a second. Although going back to something we had is not really innovation.

I loved your post! I just wanted to say in regards to my "...and this is where I think there is missed opportunity for some DCI corps to be innovative!" statement that I didn't mean **only**

Bb Horns. I was thinking that DCI corps could try mixtures of different brass instruments for different sounds. There are several "middle" voices that could be used at one time. There are several different types of low brass mixtures. That would be just as innovative as adding synths or woodwinds, for example...

Although going back to something we had is not really innovation.

I mostly agree with you, but there are many styles that come and go. We they return they are sometimes only slightly different yet are often perceived as being innovative and "new". I was thinking of this sort of thing.

Edited March 6, 2010 by jjeffeory