Re: Re: Re: Re: Teacher wont let me use my new CC horn!!


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Posted by Klaus on August 14, 2001 at 00:53:40:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Teacher wont let me use my new CC horn!! posted by Chuck(G) on August 13, 2001 at 22:45:40:

I might be seeming to tough up a bit on this one.

But I basically find that a band director not allowing a student to upgrade the average standard of any instrumental outfit of his band should be removed. Without notice.

Of course this student shall be able to play this instrument with correct fingerings and with an intonation at least starting out at the level, he had on his previous, school owned, instrument.

And I am not speaking in favour of someone taking a stellar cimbasso into a tuba or trombone section. Neither am I speaking of someone wanting to play the 3rd trumpet part on a Bb piccolo trumpet or the 4th horn part Bb descant horn.

Any CC or BBb biases coming to the forefront: A CC 186 still is a contrabass tuba. Even one of some worthiness.

The decade of the sixties, which appears to have seen the last peak of the US production of large tubas, in my country was still a period, where bands and band players were fighting hard to get decent instruments.

I was started out on Danish made prewar instruments from Schmidt and from I. K. Gottfried. Good instruments, but worn and teared by age. I remember a development made necessary by lack of money, but at the same time vasting lots of money.

The cheapest solution when buying new band instruments was to get Lignatone. A stencil stamping of piston Amati instruments. Having the right looks. And next to nothing when it came to musical functionality. Had a very short lifespan.

The next step upwards were the Dutch Schenkelaars instruments. Musically much better. Presenting some Conn design features. Not really well made. Also with a short lifespan.

When currency regulations allowed it, Besson Westminster and B&H Regent (plus Markis, Stratford, Cambridge, and others from the same Brit factory) entered our band scene. Better in sound, but especially the euphoniums with some very weird intonation patterns. These instruments had the Class B stamping, at best. I remember playing a Westminster small tenor bone. Very effective, but not too refined (matched me quite well).

When I entered a very good brass band in 1966, most of the band played such grade B instruments. Economical growth allowed some band members to buy own instruments. Our very wise bandmaster, Arne Christensen, welcomed that very much. But he did set one condition: We were not allowed to bring private instruments of anything less than Class A into the band. That was the way the development went, and Arne did not want any private instruments to uphold this development. He went extatic when I invested a long summer’s earnings from a slaughterhouse job into my B&H Imperial comp baritone.

It must be remebered, that the best Brit cornets of that era did not have 3rd valve slides, that could be tuned on the fly. So I welcomed the 2xx and 3xx Yamaha student instruments very much, when I started teaching (sadly the first incarnations were also shortlived because of some sad choices of alloys).

Since then the diversity and quality in the brass market has skyrocketed. which must not let us loose our proportions. I still find a YEP 321 or a Weril euph more relevant for a 5th grader than a Prestige or a YEP 641 (my own choice). If for no other reasons then for those of weight.

This is a recount of my own background. What however has made me strongly biased against music teachers standing in the way of their students is an experience a bit too close to me.

A musically very gifted, but personally very irresponsible ww teacher had chosen Austrian and Czech Boehm clarinets and an Italian Orsi student alto sax as his personal weaponery. It hardly came worse.

Hence his personal jealousy towards more ambitious students was constantly errupting. He went mad, when parents to his students had me getting their kids top range instruments at the right price. He could not accept that my being in the business was for the students, whereas he was there for the kickbacks from the dealers. (I never got, nor asked for, kickbacks, but I earned the VIP status referred to in other posts. Serious dealers actually like to sell good instruments to students with ambitions. They might profit less from the first deal, but they have earned themselves loyal customers for a lifetime. I guess that even some Mid-South-20K-basher will agree).

A longish display of personal biases. Summing up too a display of disdain for music teachers hindering the development of their students.

When it comes to brass, I am baptized, soaked, dyed, plated, and wrapped into Eb and Bb. And I still would welcome any CC 186, had I been in the business any more.

Klaus


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