Playing in really unfriendly keys.

[dopey]

Well scales would be where I start.. I had a piece once that was in B major? maybe? it was in on wicked key I remember that.. The way I got used to the key was just through good ol practice.... I slowed it down quite a bit and got used to the pitches and how they sounded. In the end, it was actually one of my favorite pieces.

I'd just play the intervals and such and get them in your head, also check your B natural to make sure its in tune, maybe thats why it doesnt' sound quite right.

[Leland]

Yeah, scales, arpeggios, etc. suck.

They suck, they're annoying, they're boring...

Unless you're like me, when after a couple hundred times my brain goes all funky and they start to make musical sense.

Heck, a lot of Baroque etudes are chock full of arpeggios, and it's called music.

If you start practicing them with the frame of mind that says, "ugh, more scales...", you'll hate 'em. Just focus on sounding good, and the rest will follow.

[winston]

.

[finnbogi]

I'll second the enharmonic thinking. For someone who's used to thinking in flats, Cb major should be a lot easier than B major. You can probably even print the piece in Cb major from that Sibelius site.
When you've learned the piece that way, you can use it to practise the B major...

[gwwilk]

What really got me over the hump wasn't scales. I had to practice something else in order to get to the point where I didn't have to think about the fingerings all of the time. I still need work, but it's coming. The intonation is there, and sharps play is very satisfying when it all works. It seems that Russians like sharps. The second Blazevich book of studies, the second Grigoriev volume, and Vasiliev's Melodious Etudes all have some interesting B-key work along with most other keys. The Rochut Trombone Bordogni series can be read down an octave and is very rewarding musically. It doesn't miss any keys, either! I'm just getting into it at this point.

Happy sharps (and flats)!

Jerry

[tubatooter1940]

You gotta go for it.Sometimes sharp keys will have you holding your
second valve down for so long,you wonder if it will come up when you do
finally release it.I am some times surprised the horn sounds so good with
so many valves down.Keep coming back to the scales and arpeggios that
apply to the chords you are playing in and then,charge right in with a bass
line in that key.It only takes learning a few tunes in these oddball keys to
get a good enough sense of interval to improvise and come up with a hot
bass line.I dreaded having to work in keys like A,D,B,E andG but I was
surprised how quickly I learned them and that some rifs in these sharp
keys lie across the horn pretty good.
Your friendly Fart Man

[Dylan King]

Try getting the written scales out of your head completely and practice the scales by ear. Even in sharp-infested keys the scales fall naturally on the fingers if you don't have a "thinking" hold-up on the notes.

[Kevin Hendrick]

Learn your sharps! It's like eating your spinach. It's good for you and if you add enough cheese, you'll enjoy it too.

So, playing cheesy music makes learning your sharps more fun? Makes sense to me ...

[Chuck(G)]

. Learn your sharps! It's like eating your spinach. It's good for you and if you add enough cheese, you'll enjoy it too.

It's funny in a way--the string players pitch and moan when a score comes by with lots of flats and the brasses grumble when there are sharps. While one could make an argument of sorts for string players not liking flats (moving the fingers backward toward the nut is more uncomfortable), there's no real reason for brass players to complain.

[Kevin Hendrick]

OK, the whole sharp key thing isn't really a problem to me anymore. The problem now is that these notes feel really stuffy on my horn. (and all other rotary BBb horns I've played.) What can be done to open these notes up? A mouthpiece change perhaps?

From your original post:

... on a rotary BBb horn, a lot of these sharp notes (middled B natural, high F# on the staff, etc) sound and feel very stuffy.

Just occurred to me that the notes you mention have 2nd valve in common. You might want to look and see if the valve is going past its properly-aligned position when you close it ... doesn't take much to "fuzz" the sound, and (in my experience) 2nd valve gets more use than the others, thus is more likely to have worn stops. If that's OK, then a mouthpiece change (or alteration) might be in order -- perhaps a slightly-larger throat diameter and/or a more open backbore -- there are folks on this board who have more experience and knowledge in this area than I do, and would be better able to advise you in this regard. They probably also know of other things you could do to improve these notes ... I'm looking forward to reading their posts here.

Hope this helps!

[Chuck(G)]

It's good for you and if you add enough cheese, you'll enjoy it too.

My sister says -

You can make almost anything taste good if you add either enough cheese or chocolate.

Ah, now there's the difference between northern and southern cooking. In my worldview of cuisine, it's garlic that makes real food good...

[Kevin Hendrick]

It's good for you and if you add enough cheese, you'll enjoy it too.

My sister says -

You can make almost anything taste good if you add either enough cheese or chocolate.

Ah, now there's the difference between northern and southern cooking. In my worldview of cuisine, it's garlic that makes real food good...

Hmmm ... chocolate-covered garlic, anyone?