| Yeah, if the bracing isn't right the bell isn't going to do what? RESONATE! You said it was just an amplifier and it's not! The bell resonates and if it can't do that it's going to be a dog. What makes a bell resonate? Air! So, if the bell doesn't resonate well, there's going to a lot of back pressure building up. Yeah, you need to lay off of it, but the horn is still going to sound bad.
My reason for harping on this is that some folks want to say that the real variable is the player. That just isn't so as can be seen from the way that the bells on different horns vibrate, the bracing, tuning slides and all of that.
As for low compression being free blowing, I don't agree with that. My Conn director is shot with leaky valves and a tuning slide that can be blown out of the horn. The horn still has pretty much the same resisitance that it always has. What I have noticed is that it doesn't slot worth a hoot any more and it sounds all 'oooophey' like escaping air. That's why I tend to believe that resistance is found in the bell and the bracing for the bell. If that's true, then loss of compression isn't going to affect the resistance all that much.
As for mouthpieces, I haven't found any difference in resistance using mouthpieces IF I have a horn that resonantes well. For me, the size of the mouthpiece and shape of the rim generally matter more than backbore. If a horn has a tough time reaching into the upper register I'll use a tight backbore, but otherwise I don't 'feel' much of a difference.
Just some late night thoughts..................
Bill
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Gabriel is NOT a woodwind player! |