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This fall I will be starting my first year of collegiate marching band and will need to provide my own lyre. I have never used a sousaphone lyre before and thus, when shown a box of many different used models at Rayburn Music, I knew I was in over my head. I bought two different styles, but how do I know which is best/correct one?

Biggs wrote:This fall I will be starting my first year of collegiate marching band and will need to provide my own lyre. I have never used a sousaphone lyre before and thus, when shown a box of many different used models at Rayburn Music, I knew I was in over my head. I bought two different styles, but how do I know which is best/correct one?

It is very difficult to find an off-the-shelf lyre that will work for a given person on a sousaphone. Each person has a particular arrangement of the gooseneck and bits to get a comfortable (relatively) position, and no lyre will be perfect.

I would suggest getting a universal straight lyre with a long shaft, and then bend it and trim it for length after you have figured out how to wear the instrument most comfortably for you.

Rick "who was required to memorize music for marching band back in the day" Denney

Interesting. I will continue to look for the longest available model then. I usually memorized my sousaphone music in high school, but now that I am going to have access to a *nice* sousaphone (i.e. one where the bell and the body are from the same instrument, one that has a square rather than round lyre hole, one with valve stems that approach vertical, etc.) I may as well take advantage of the lyre/folip setup.

Are you going to die without a lyre? I always held my music with my left hand, if the neck and bits fit and don't move, this is a good option. If you're going to be disciplined in some way (and I can't see why you would) then I guess I'd go with Mr. Denney's approach.

I was also required to memorize, and I'm sure you will be too.

Hahaha... I used to do the left hand method myself... What made that fun was when the gooseneck and bits and such started coming loose from blowing that bad boy too hard. Sousies are such GREAT weapons!! Best of luck in your lyring endeavors!

I recently went through this lyre business for my helicon.

Starting with a straight stem was a good idea because I needed to get the music the right distance and right vertical position to fit with my trifocal glasses... sure do like to see the black spots out there.

I finally put in two bends, neither at 90 degrees. I knicked the inside of each bend location, heated it up, slid it into the vise and hammered the stem into shape. A reasonably easy project.

John

bloke wrote: When twisting sideways, do not twist by holding on to the lyre part. You will greatly weaken it, if not completely break it off.

You probably shouldn't do ANY twisting while the lyre is on the horn. I've seen the lyre holder 'pop off' from doing this. It's best to take the horn and lyre to a work area where there is a vise and a small crescent wrench and use a little trial and error to make the lyre fit.

When all else fails (and sometimes long before that) a TROMBONE lyre will often work Clamp it to the first bit downstream from the mouthpiece. Distance and alignment are always perfect....no bending needed.

Here is an approach I have used when starting with a straight lyre: I make trial bends with a piece of coat hanger wire of the same length. When I like the position of the coat hanger wire, I then use that as a template to bend up the real lyre, using a vise.

Allen Walker