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Re: Top D
- To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Re: Top D
- From: Bill Buffam <brass@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 10:04:18 -0500
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Oooh, now *there's* a can o' worms. If you do the maths, you'll see that open top D is a tiny bit sharp, though much less sharp than 1st-valve D is flat (using the well-tempered reference). So, yes, open top D is much preferred. BUT (and this is where the worms start crawling out of the can) open E is flat (which of course is why 1st-valve D is flat), so what are we to use as a reference? As far as I've observed, most cornet players finger E open -- and it sounds okay, doesn't it? Well, that's not because it *is* okay, it's because that's what our ears have become used to. Have you ever felt that the solo horn's top B is wickedly sharp? I know I have. But the truth is that he's probably bang on, while your open E is the one that's wickedly flat. It's interesting what happens when you pick up a C trumpet. Now the open E sounds wickedly flat, because your ears "know" what a concert E sounds like (aka F# on your B flat horn). So what do you do? You finger it 1-2 of course. Same as every professional orchestral player I've ever watched. Same as sop players who want to be playing the same pitch as the B flat cornets' top A's. So what do you do about the middle D? It's flat on 1, sharp on 1-3 (and awkward to boot). Well, that's probably enough worms slithering around for this round. Bill Buffam - NJH Sheet Music, bandsman.co.uk/music.htm, id xpress, www.idxpress.co.uk, brass band insignia and uniform products, Just Brass, the on-line resource for the world of brass music www.justbrass.co.uk, Prima Arts, quality music for quality bands, www.prima-arts.co.uk, wax-recording.com, simply the best, most cost-effective and least stressful route to recording an album and eBay, the world's largest on-line market place, www.ebay.co.uk Free e-mail address with spam and virus removal, bandsman.co.uk/mail.htm
- References:
- Top D
- From: Nigel Horne
- Top D