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Late Posting Women in Brass Bands

To: <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Late Posting Women in Brass Bands
From: "Hal" <hloader@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 18:03:52 +1000
Importance: Normal
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sorry for the late posting however lets look at this issue from another
angle.

>From all the comments on the subject of women in bands there has generally
been agreement that women can play the same as men as the relative physical
structures are the same - WRONG!!

These comments come from people who have never considered the relative
physical reactions of the body during playing or have never played at a
brass concert at a nudist camp.

Men
Top end brass players generally have to reach higher in range. Observation
of men would show that once they leave the comfort of the stave they suffer
scrotum and sphincter contraction. This is not possible in women or at least
not to the same extent.  The human body becomes a part of the instrument in
that the body mass supplies a resonance chamber for the sound. With
contraction the body becomes smaller in volume whilst the mass remains
relatively constant, depending on the degree of anxiety. This results in an
increase in density which in turn effects the celerity of the sound wave
through the medium and thus the resonance frequency. This therefore
attributes to the thin, squeaky and often sharp sound a male produces on a
Soprano compared to the more mellow and tuneful sound produced by a women.

Women
Consider the shape of the human form. For a man it can be likened to a
series of cylinders of varying radii stacked in a vertical mode. For a women
it is a similar configuration but with the very important addition of two
cones (of varying dimensions) whose axis are perpendicular to the principle
axis of the cylinder but the axis of the cones are never parallel. (It does
evolve an interesting mathematical equation.) Now it is well known that
sound using an irregular shaped resonance chamber produces more enharmonics
and thus a fuller sound than that whacked out on an empty beer can. Women
therefore produce a fuller warmer tonality than men simply based on the
physiology of the body form.

Looking at the above, it appears slanted towards the upper brass. Consider
the lower brass. The highest priority generally for this section is the
ability to produce a sound from a large bore instrument and that generally
depends on the volume of gas passed through it. You may draw your own
conclusions as to which gender has the reputation in this area.

Mental attitude.
That's another topic that would require another epistle.

Drummers
That becomes really interesting at a nudist recital!

HAL  :-)


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