JayM Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 (edited) For anyone who says that all the weight of a baritone or euphonium should be held with the left hand, I expect they either were in high brass or did a #### of a lot more work than they needed to. Except for playing runs, or other segments which required a lot of finger dexterity, I always had the weight about 3/5 left hand, 2/5 right hand. When it got to the faster parts, I would move the weight to my left hand, but for anything else, the weight was distributed. Every tech or caption head I've ever talked to says that holding all the weight with just the left hand is simply impractical. Which corps did you march? And please tell me you didn't curl your right thumb around the leadpipe. It's weird to say this, but I agree with cire on this matter. Maybe there's a tiny bit of support from the right hand, just based on the fact that your right thumb is pressed up against the valve casing, but handling any bell-front brass instrument is almost exclusively a left-handed affair. Oh, and I played baritone. Edited September 25, 2006 by Jayzer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juice Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 For anyone who says that all the weight of a baritone or euphonium should be held with the left hand, I expect they either were in high brass or did a #### of a lot more work than they needed to. Except for playing runs, or other segments which required a lot of finger dexterity, I always had the weight about 3/5 left hand, 2/5 right hand. When it got to the faster parts, I would move the weight to my left hand, but for anything else, the weight was distributed. Every tech or caption head I've ever talked to says that holding all the weight with just the left hand is simply impractical.In short, all low brass sucks to hold. I've never marched percussion, so I can't speak for that, but cymbals and tenors seem like they would have a difficult time. Yeah, what corps did you march? I started off in DivI and we definately only used our left hands. There were many times during camps where we had to put our right arms at our sides and hold up the euphs for long periods of times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phirefenix Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 I've always held my bari with the left hand bearing the weight. Man up and hold it. lol I'm a 6'1" 140 pound stick, and I marched a Kanstul Grande for two summers. The mental determination inside yourself to simply not break goes a long way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmazingTrumpeter Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 (edited) My sop is heavier than my flugelhorn surprisingly. Edited September 28, 2006 by AmazingTrumpeter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shostahoosier Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 Yeah....the percussion instruments definitely weigh more then a lot of the brass...but you got to rest them on your shoulder...a euphonium is a BEAST. My ageout year I had this giant euphonium that had been a 2 valve and was converted into a 3 valve with trombone parts (dont ask)...the lower register sounded FANTASTIC...but it was the heaviest horn in the entire line. Some of the newer baritones and euphoniums and have been designed to be more compact so that the weight is better distributed...but it still takes a lot of mental toughness. I guess its one of those things where the grass is always greener... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave_G Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 (edited) I would imagine both Tennors and Cymbals would be a royal pain, thankfully I'm a brass person so I've never marched either at any level. To anyone that marched Tymps back in the day, I salute you, those must have been absolute monsters to work with. Everything Eric and quite a few others have said about the Euph/Baritone is spot on. About the only time the horn wasn't exclusively supported in my left hand was when I was at carry. Basically if you're not supporting it exclusively with your left hand you're doing it wrong and are quite possibly causing damage to the horn in the process. They can be absolute beasts (especially some of the older models) but as someone that's marched Euph for 4 years in DCI and 1 in DCA I can say it's simply a matter of mind over matter. Edited September 25, 2006 by d_grey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 OK, we're going to solve this once and for all !!!! Everyone bring your instruments over to the scale, sopranos first !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheezedogg 23 Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 I'd rank then this way. And by the way, on Kanstul horns, Mellos are lighter than the sops. Thinner metal I guess. I don't know, but they had sops at 3.5 and mellos at 3 lbs. Anywho, This is my list based on weight and difficulty since i've held all of them as a visual instructor, course I never actually had to march most of them for a show, so i'm going on 5% experience on the various horns. And i'm also distinguishing between euphonium and baritone, if you've marched both, you would too. Contra (all styles and makes but 3quarter tubas, they don't count. :-P) Bass5 Bass4 Euhponium Tenors Bass3 Bass2 Baritone Snare Bass one Soprano Mellophone Flugal Horn Gaurd (.... just kidding) Thats my list based on having "carried" every instrument for teaching and self-educational purposes. Course i've also done this with all woodwind too, but this is drum corps so its not important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sburstall Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 There are two different things going on here: 1) The actual weight of the instrument and 2) how the instrument is carried. A simple static engineering equation dealing with work will solve 2) or Work = Force x Distance. So the center of gravity of 35 pound contra sitting on one's should would require less work to hold up than the center of gravity of a 32" cymbal or bottom bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyboy Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 ....But cyms, each arm has it's own weight and you can't let the cyms touch each other. Huh? I thought the whole point was to make them touch eachother!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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