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mazzrick · 10-30-2007, 09:23 PM

Dear Ed et al,

I was practicing today and I was working Slavische Fantasie, which I know some of you know, by Carl Hohne. I've played this piece for a while now and I felt like I had at at the best of my abilities. For those of you that don't know it, there's a fast slur-2 tongue-2 section 16th notes at about quarter=160+ and it's fairly cornet-solo-ish and in F major.
So, I wasn't happy enough with how I was playing this fast section and I decided to try an old trick that I'm sure we've all heard of but I'd never actually tried. So I took three coins and placed them on the valve caps and tried again. Of course I had initial problems keeping the coins on the valve caps, but after a few minutes I was able to. Obviously, after a bit, my finger coordination was better and the playing was cleaner... but the surprising thing to me was that the sound was better, more centered, clearer, and richer.

So I started to think about why on earth my sound was affected so evidently when I played with coins on top of the valves. I had noticed before that I could play this fast section better on my rotary trumpet, which has slower valve action and that to me made very little sense.
What I've concluded is that the upstroke of the valve was what was throwing off the centering of the sound. The upstroke is smoother and less jarring on the rotary instrument maybe because the springs are horizontal to the buttons instead of vertically below as on piston trumpets, to explain that phenomenon. I've had a valve alignment done on my piston trumpet recently, so that's not the issue. But when the coins are on the valves, I noticed that my fingers were more deliberate on the upstroke and don't allow the valve to spring upwards haphazardly causing that "boing" type feel that happens if you let the valve flick up. So I started playing with more "delicate" fingers and this whole passage comes off much nicer. However, this whole experience contradicted my previous idea of "banging" the valves down or at least amended it to slamming them down but not letting them slam up.
So I just wanted to share this and also open it to discussion. Is my reasoning logical? Any other explanation for this? For those of you who have great finger technique, does this ring true with you? Is it this delicacy or precision that using the coins is supposed to teach? or is it another point entirely? I guess I never really thought of the outcome of using the coins, just that it was supposed to help. So... thanks and enjoy.

Matt

10-30-2007, 09:23 PM	#1 (permalink)
mazzrick Pianissimo User Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Berlin, Germany Posts: 121	coins on the valves Dear Ed et al, I was practicing today and I was working Slavische Fantasie, which I know some of you know, by Carl Hohne. I've played this piece for a while now and I felt like I had at at the best of my abilities. For those of you that don't know it, there's a fast slur-2 tongue-2 section 16th notes at about quarter=160+ and it's fairly cornet-solo-ish and in F major. So, I wasn't happy enough with how I was playing this fast section and I decided to try an old trick that I'm sure we've all heard of but I'd never actually tried. So I took three coins and placed them on the valve caps and tried again. Of course I had initial problems keeping the coins on the valve caps, but after a few minutes I was able to. Obviously, after a bit, my finger coordination was better and the playing was cleaner... but the surprising thing to me was that the sound was better, more centered, clearer, and richer. So I started to think about why on earth my sound was affected so evidently when I played with coins on top of the valves. I had noticed before that I could play this fast section better on my rotary trumpet, which has slower valve action and that to me made very little sense. What I've concluded is that the upstroke of the valve was what was throwing off the centering of the sound. The upstroke is smoother and less jarring on the rotary instrument maybe because the springs are horizontal to the buttons instead of vertically below as on piston trumpets, to explain that phenomenon. I've had a valve alignment done on my piston trumpet recently, so that's not the issue. But when the coins are on the valves, I noticed that my fingers were more deliberate on the upstroke and don't allow the valve to spring upwards haphazardly causing that "boing" type feel that happens if you let the valve flick up. So I started playing with more "delicate" fingers and this whole passage comes off much nicer. However, this whole experience contradicted my previous idea of "banging" the valves down or at least amended it to slamming them down but not letting them slam up. So I just wanted to share this and also open it to discussion. Is my reasoning logical? Any other explanation for this? For those of you who have great finger technique, does this ring true with you? Is it this delicacy or precision that using the coins is supposed to teach? or is it another point entirely? I guess I never really thought of the outcome of using the coins, just that it was supposed to help. So... thanks and enjoy. Matt