Re: What note is a "pedal exactly"?
Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:24 pm
I never was confused about this matter by being a native English speaker, so for me the pedal term isn’t an absolute as related to the bass clef, but it is an absolute as related to an instrument of a specific pitch.
The pedal range on any given instrument is from the open 1st partial and downwards.
Claude Gordon in one of his method books for trumpet advocates the range down towards the 3rd open pedal.
There are discussions whether the 1st pedal range consists of real notes, or if these notes are mental constructions by the human ear, which deduces them from the overtone patterns created by the player’s embouchure and air. I don’t really care as long as they work musically.
The 2nd pedal range isn’t made up of real notes, but of notes which get some resonance from the instrument’s tubing. On trumpets I have had a sixth within that range. On trombones a major third or a fourth. On tuba I am not really sure, whether I have had the open second pedal on my Eb basses. I have played that Eb on my Conn 26K sousaphone, but fingered 1+3 within the 2nd series of privileged (fake) notes starting on open Ab.
Notes from the 1st pedal range can be used meaningfully on euphonium, bass trombone, and tuba also in ensemble contexts. I have heard jazz soloists use notes from the 2nd pedal range.
KIaus
The pedal range on any given instrument is from the open 1st partial and downwards.
Claude Gordon in one of his method books for trumpet advocates the range down towards the 3rd open pedal.
There are discussions whether the 1st pedal range consists of real notes, or if these notes are mental constructions by the human ear, which deduces them from the overtone patterns created by the player’s embouchure and air. I don’t really care as long as they work musically.
The 2nd pedal range isn’t made up of real notes, but of notes which get some resonance from the instrument’s tubing. On trumpets I have had a sixth within that range. On trombones a major third or a fourth. On tuba I am not really sure, whether I have had the open second pedal on my Eb basses. I have played that Eb on my Conn 26K sousaphone, but fingered 1+3 within the 2nd series of privileged (fake) notes starting on open Ab.
Notes from the 1st pedal range can be used meaningfully on euphonium, bass trombone, and tuba also in ensemble contexts. I have heard jazz soloists use notes from the 2nd pedal range.
KIaus