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Following up on the post from Bruce yesterday (on playing notes out the valve slides–check that video) I have two more horn player “tricks” that may or may not mean much but mean something.
One is about the “pop frequency” of mouthpieces. Take a mouthpiece and “pop” it against the palm of your hand as in the photos. Turn it over and over and pop both sides repeatedly. I like mouthpieces that pop an octave apart the best. If it is far off an octave one way or another I tend to not like it on the horn. It has something to do with the relative cubic volume of each side of the mouthpiece (cup relative to backbore).
The other trick is the “high C trick.” On some horns if you play written C on the third space on the F horn and slowly put down the first valve, when it is down ½ ways a C an octave higher will magically pop out. You play the written note but the harmonic is also solidly there. On some horns it quite in tune and projects pretty well, and on some it is there but somewhat out of tune, and on yet other brands nothing unusual happens besides the original half valved note. I tend to like horns better that will do the high C trick. It has to do with the wrap and the exact placement of the first valve in the air column.
While entertaining, what either trick really means in a larger sense I don’t know. But again, they do mean something, check them out.
