We still have a long way to go.

[Art Hovey]

Closely related: when using Sibelius or Finale the synthesized french horn notes usually burble, and the bass clarinet notes are always late. It does lend a touch of realism, don't you think?

-But they sure do get realistic guitar and drum sounds!

[toobagrowl]

' ever notice how all of the "tuba" samples on keyboards start off with a bad attack or a bad slur?

bloke "prrrraaaaaa"

Could you post a sample of what you are talking about? Is it the burble/gargle attack that some tuba and horn players have or something else? I agree that the 'burble' attack sounds 'amateurish' and 'old school tuba'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YlnUyBkZyc" target="_blank

[P@rick]

' ever notice how all of the "tuba" samples on keyboards start off with a bad attack or a bad slur?

bloke "prrrraaaaaa"

Have you tried practicing more? Play a few notes every day and see whether it improves. Let me know whether it works

[greatk82]

Talk to your private keyboard teacher.

[MartyNeilan]

I have spent years practicing long tones on the piano and it hasn't improved the tone any.

[tokuno]

I have spent years practicing long tones on the piano and it hasn't improved the tone any.

You're using the wrong mouthpiece. When you smack the key, make sure you're hitting it with a mouthpiece that has a sharp rim.

[Kevin Hendrick]

I have spent years practicing long tones on the piano and it hasn't improved the tone any.

You're using the wrong mouthpiece. When you smack the key, make sure you're hitting it with a mouthpiece that has a sharp rim.

Makes sense -- "better sharp than out of tone" ...

[arpthark]

Closely related: when using Sibelius or Finale the synthesized french horn notes usually burble, and the bass clarinet notes are always late. It does lend a touch of realism, don't you think?

-But they sure do get realistic guitar and drum sounds!

Pretty soon the technology will become so realistic that the synthesized tuba will crack notes, miss accidentals, enter three bars early and randomly drop the octave.

[imperialbari]

That saying may have something to do with hearing psychology. When the range ascends humans apparently prefer octaves being slightly stretched rather than being slightly shrunk. It is absolutely disqualifying for a classical soprano or tenor soloist, vocal or instrumental, to sing on the flat side. In another context bloke was bothered by an old recording of a tenor singing on the sharp side. I must say that I was much less bothered.

When Lee Konitz played the lead alto in the Kenton band, he tuned his sax slightly sharp to project beyond what he considered a massive wall of sound. The one protesting that was the lead trumpet, who found himself exposed as being, relatively that is, flat.

A cruel story from my youth, when I followed a certain orchestra very close because my then teacher played there, which earned me cheap tickets. A trumpet audition for one of 3 lead spots had a convincing winner. Only he was from a provincial conservatory and hadn’t studied with any of the section members. They didn’t want him and made the test year before tenure should be considered a pure hell for him. The section order was that whenever the two trumpets played in octaves, the second should play sharp, thereby exposing the new lead as being flat.

He didn’t get tenure, but went to his hometown orchestra and became principal. I since have heard him live doing some excellent solo playing on piccolo trumpet.

For the same reason tuba players playing sharp are absolutely unbearable for an ensemble.

Klaus

PS: I cannot always control my dyslexia, and even if I am no longer so prone to omit words, it still happens. I do proof read before submitting, but cannot see everything immediately. Here I have underscored the editions.

[Elbee]

Bloke, Klaus...What wonderful concise information...Thanks, Loren

[imperialbari]

Glad if I could provide any useful information.

My remarks on sharpish tubas being unbearable in ensembles are not a free ticket to play flat. The effect is that rumbling and undefined sound, which nobody likes either.

All band tubists of course should strive for a uniform intonation in the section. Some band tubists get this all wrong and consider a uniform intonation the end goal no matter whether that intonation is right in the overall band context. The standard shall not be set to what all section members can agree upon, but on what the best ears in the section dictate. These ears do not necessarily sit on the player considering himself the local virtuoso.

bloke has said, that he hates to re-finger any notes for intonation. Jay Bertolet has said that he chooses the fingering needed for the optimal result in any given situation. I am more with Jay Bertolet, as I kind of think in length of tubing like I did on the trombones. And I tend to believe bloke actually has the same approach, only he very deliberately goes for instruments which need this approach to a lesser degree. Two of his main additions to his own tubas are both about avoiding excessive sharpness: the 5th slide trigger on his B&S F tuba and the 6th micro-valve on his mega-phone.

Klaus