Re: Re: Re: Re: 5th valve question, too


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Posted by Mark on July 21, 2002 at 16:20:06:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: 5th valve question, too posted by Tuba Freak on July 21, 2002 at 08:48:22:

Tuba Freak:

I'm with Jay below; The pedal F can be effective, but it has to really be perfect in context; You may have to use an extremely different embouchure in order to get it to work. I knew a guy who could pound that pedal F out like some kinda circus freak. He had an upstream embouchure in that range - top lip ON the top rim, bottom lip doing all the work. I tried for a while, but couldn't get that note (or any note for that matter) to go. I was convinced that it is like one of those born-with-it abilities. Several years later I was playing around and accidentally got one to sound. After (literally) a couple months of trying to get it to happen on command, it started to. Maybe 1 in every 10 attempts. A couple months later, and I've got it to 10/10, but with mixed quality of attack. On a good day I can rumble on down to an Eb or D (yes, 9 spaces below the staff) You gotta be holy-cow relaxed. If you try to figure out how it happened, you'll never get it. Like AJ said - listening will eventually teach the chops what to do. Don't try and figure out how.

TRY THIS: Make a "wav" file on you PC using the cheapo windows sound recorder. After making the file of a regular low F (4 ledger lines), select "decrease speed" from the Effects menu. This drops it one octave. Once you get the sound of that in your ear, work at recreating that. It really does sound just like that! You may need to play along with a fixed pitch F, from a keyboard or whatever to find the pitch for your chops. It will take a while before it even starts to sound like an actual "pitch".

To address the difference tone Experiment:
Using a sine wave generator, make a monaural recording of two tones a perfect fifth apart(NOT a tempered fifth) such that you hear the phantom (difference) an octave below the root. TRY 200 and 300 Hz.
Now make a STEREO recording of the very same two, placing the "root" alone in the left channel. Put the "fifth" in the right channel.

Now play those recordings over headphones. The mono recording will give you the difference tone, the stereo one will not. This is because the difference tone is created by the inner ear. When the two tones are sounded in seperate ears, the brain does not process the tones as a composite.

'Hope this helps. If anyone out there wants to create an MP3 or Wav file of the experiment, please post it here. Everyone should have the chance to experience it. . . (and I don't have a sine wave generator handy to offer at the moment).

Mark "feel free to try this at home" Mazak


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