Archived under: Mellophones & Marching | Descants & Triples, Fingerings, Single horns
Pitch in Relation to Fingerings
A topic that has come to mind for me recently is facility in the use of alternate fingerings. Some teachers really push this, especially facility in B-flat horn alternate fingerings. But my teachers did not. Which is fine but, as a result, I have at this time excellent facility in double horn and triple horn fingerings, good facility with natural horn hand positions, and decent facility with straight F horn fingerings (at one point I was trying to make a period instrument recording on single F horn, and they relate to stopped horn as well), but I don’t have the ability to play anything more difficult than slow scales accurately on the B-flat or high F horns through the mid range, especially in remote keys. [UPDATE: I do now!]
Part of what makes alternates tough for some players is that their sense of pitch is tied up with fingerings. New mental “categories” of fingerings have to be developed.
For me this year a goal is to build up my facility in non-standard fingerings. In particular I have had enough fun trying to imitate the jazz Mellophonium playing of the late 50s and early 60s that I would like to really get the high F horn fingerings cooking. It should also pay off on the triple horn.
While I still think it is most important to have a great handle on standard fingerings, take the time and consider branching out with better facility on B-flat and, if you have a triple or descant, high F fingerings.
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