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Mello rips


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5 hours ago, Brian Tuma said:

Who remembers the old Conn mellophoniums? The Stan Kenton band could barely tame them. Imagine eight of them in the hands of a high school marching band back in the late 70’s. Harsh!

Oh God that thing.  I had that thing in junior high marching band.  We had mellophones in high school marching band. 

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6 hours ago, Brian Tuma said:

Who remembers the old Conn mellophoniums? The Stan Kenton band could barely tame them. Imagine eight of them in the hands of a high school marching band back in the late 70’s. Harsh!

Oh gawd, I had to play one of those misshapen unbalanced contraptions in HS marching band. Hard to play and hard to even hold. Like a french horn combined with a sledge hammer. 

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8 hours ago, FTNK said:

Not a horn player, but I do live for “rips”

I live for big low brass moments, especially when you get the right guy on bass trombone! But boy do I love me a good horn/Mello rip!!

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1 hour ago, DasTuba said:

I live for big low brass moments, especially when you get the right guy on bass trombone! But boy do I love me a good horn/Mello rip!!

There's an entire FB group devoted to (dare I say, fanatics about) the bass trombone -- Bass Trombone Appreciation Society.

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I will assume the OP was supposed to be in pink for sarcasm...

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A favorite arranging technique I hear a lot in Crown (and prob others) is to have the mellos rip up to a high note and hold it while the rest of the brass moves through a chord progression underneath before finally -- with much anticipation -- resolving, often with a few "crunch" notes thrown in for flavoring.  It never gets old, even in warm-ups. 

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16 hours ago, FTNK said:

 Very unmusical.

For what definition of "unmusical"?

Orchestras have been doing horn rips since at least the early 20th century.

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When I arrange for my students, they look forward to what I write for the mellos.  It is such a great opportunity to write counter-melodies.  I would get hung by my you-know-whats if I didn't write these great licks for the mellos.

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Geez, mello rips go way back. Listen to SCV 1984 opener, Fanfare and Allergo. The mellos rip the space-time continuum on that one. And there were only 4 mellophone players!

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