Posted by tuba dad on March 06, 2001 at 22:39:45:
In Reply to: Testing and evaluating horns posted by TubaJohn on March 06, 2001 at 20:48:13:
Come up with a scoring scale (1=poor...5=incredible) that means something to you, and then keep score of each horn you play. Otherwise, after you play a dozen or more horns, everything will run together in your mind. It is best to have someone there with you, a listener with a good ear, who can record his and your thoughts on paper. This is basically what I did for my son when we went on a 2 day play test binge at Custom Music and Brasswind. By the end of the second day, my son had played 25 different horns. Some he really liked, some he was indifferent about, and some he did not like at all. If we had not been "keeping score" it would have been a futile exercise.
What to listen for? Simple - it's all about the sound. I think that people get too carried away with other considerations like the bore, etc. It all comes down to the sound.