Marking Horns for tuning.....anyone know how?

[Leland]

Correcting the horn is a start, and makes listening much easier to accomplish. It's also much quicker than having to carry a tuner from player to player. Plus, everyone's been "existing in tune" for so many weeks in a row, constantly working on playing fundamentals, and consistency is just going to happen.

Adjusting with temperature is quite important, especially with the recent introduction of 120 dB vibraphones. :( Having the pit & horns play out of tune with each other is just plain annoying. Once you've spent enough time having them in tune, it hurts to hear them play otherwise.

One more thing while I'm thinking of it -- some horns (or players) just won't be able to reach "normal" tuner calibrations under certain conditions. Players who are always on the sharp side (or the DEG 2-valve French horns we had in junior corps) almost certainly won't be able to get down to A=440 or 442 on hot summer days. Recalibrate the tuner so that they can play without their tuning slides falling out.

[blublood]

DCM,are you "ANT" who came to BD from dutch boy with Toni ????????

If you are.......................DOOOOOOOOOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im the mello player from London (UK) roomied with herbie the scot.

[JayM]

Different strokes for different folks, I suppose, but I know for a fact that The Cavaliers haven't touched a tuner since the 2001 season.

[JayM]

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Edited August 28, 2005 by Jayzer

[Shadow_7]

The Freelancers used a system like this in the late 80's.

The idea is that a single strong and consistent player, tunes the horn on a well matched mouthpiece. And a mark is made(hacksaw back then) where the horn sits centered. The follow up is that all players in that line use that mouthpiece. Giving a good average center to sound and pitch. Although in practice only about 50% of the line actually ended up using that mouthpiece.

Granted there are flaws. Different mouthpieces have different intonation tendancies. Some players play tense and no matter how far you pull out, they'll still be sharp. And if the horns get cold (not such a problem during hot summers) the tuning on larger horns goes flatter quicker.

But there are advantages though. Given a homogenous set of horns and horn players, you can just set to the mark. And at least for the end of the show when the horns get warmed up, the corps will have a good median average tuning point. Since you can't really tune beyond your immediate neighbors while doing a field show anyway. Sound is directional and most of the hornline is not pointed at you.

I probably could of used a mark on my frenchie last senior season. We gave our horns to the guard to cary out because we were carrying heavy props out. And it never failed, the instant they touched my horn they'd push the tuning slide in, however accidently.

Shadow_7