tedrick Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 curious as to the breakdown of french horn players to other brass players that march drum corps mellophone - would the collected wisdom of the group consider the percentages a 50/50 split between french horn players and other brass (ie trumpet players)? or are most mello spots marched by french hornists? do most lines march a special mello mouthpiece or do members march french horn mouthpieces or trumpet mouthpieces? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffmolnar Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 I remember the vast majority being horn players. For years I assumed that mellophone was just a fancy name for marching French horn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownBariDad Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 Just now, jeffmolnar said: I remember the vast majority being horn players. For years I assumed that mellophone was just a fancy name for marching French horn. I had always thought mellophone mouthpieces had a cup while French horn mouthpieces didn't which made the latter so darn hard to play w/o fracking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffmolnar Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 21 minutes ago, CrownBariDad said: I had always thought mellophone mouthpieces had a cup while French horn mouthpieces didn't which made the latter so darn hard to play w/o fracking. Probably, I know nothing about the mouthpieces. Baritone player here so take anything I’m saying with a grain of salt. I just remember most mello players having a French horn background. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Tuma Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 1 hour ago, CrownBariDad said: I had always thought mellophone mouthpieces had a cup while French horn mouthpieces didn't which made the latter so darn hard to play w/o fracking. I think the fracking is more a result of the close overtone series inherent to the French horn rather than the mouthpiece. I might not have explained that properly, I’m a bassoon player. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownBariDad Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 34 minutes ago, Brian Tuma said: I think the fracking is more a result of the close overtone series inherent to the French horn rather than the mouthpiece. I might not have explained that properly, I’m a bassoon player. I believe you are partially correct. Yes -- in the higher registers, the partials are really close together. But, I'm told the lack of a cup in the mouthpiece means lesser resistance when you play and is less forgiving. I have a single French horn I bought at an auction and have played a little on it. It has a decidedly different feel (at least to me) than when I play trumpet (left handed valves notwithstanding). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaxDCIFan Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 I have a mello player at home and I would offer that about half of the people he marches with are French horn players, but marching mellophones really play a lot more like trumpets then they do French horns. . In fact the mello mouthpiece that most corps use looks more like a trumpet mouthpiece than a French horn mouthpiece. Because of this there are a lot of trumpet players that go back-and-forth between trumpet and mello. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 15 minutes ago, WaxDCIFan said: Because of this there are a lot of trumpet players that go back-and-forth between trumpet and mello. That's how the BD have had their 40 trumpet moments. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terri Schehr Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 I’m a horn player and I played French Horn bugle in Drum Corps in junior corps and mello in all-age and alumni corps. I found a mello mouthpiece with a thinner rim and deep cup that worked out great for me. I was ###### because if I’d know mello was so much easier than the “beast”, I would have played it 47 years ago. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnpendell Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 I would say the majority of Mello players are horn players, myself included. I don’t know of any corps in the top 12 that use horn mouthpieces with the adapters to adjust to the lead pipe size of a mellophone. It hurts projection, and I would think it’s actually more harmful to the embouchure of Horn players. Horn is played at an angle, so when using adapters the mouthpiece is straight to the face, like a trumpet. I’ve found that trumpet players can play mello far more easily than a horn player can play trumpet, so I suppose it would depend on what’s needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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