Having to play in too many sharps?

Trumpetsplus

When we play in ensembles which include strings, either orchestral or guitar, we often end up playing in a zillion sharps. This may be why:
http://www.jaegerbrass.com/Blo/Entries/2019/11/difference-between-string-and-wind-instruments.html

Kehaulani

Although I can play violin, I've never thought of it that way. Violins are tuned sharp-keyed friendly.

Most of my sharp-key playing has been in pop bands and I have interpreted their preference for sharp keys not because they are thinking of adding notes up, but because, for the guitars, sharp keys are easier to play in.

@Kehaulani said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

for the guitars, sharp keys are easier to play in.

Yes, in my decades of experience with guitar players, these are easier keys for them to play in. Wanna piss off a guitar player? Tell them the song is in Eb (insert evil laugh).

Kehaulani

Trumpets and saxes also transpose into ungodly sharp keys in pop music. Playing in B can be a lot of fun. . . not.

@Kehaulani said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

Playing in B can be a lot of fun. . . not.

What do you mean? All you have to do is keep the second valve down (except for Bb to and then mess around with valves 1 & 3 until you create something.

Bob Pixley

@Trumpetsplus said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

When we play in ensembles which include strings, either orchestral or guitar, we often end up playing in a zillion sharps. This may be why:
http://www.jaegerbrass.com/Blo/Entries/2019/11/difference-between-string-and-wind-instruments.html

When I was learning to play the keyed bugle, all the keys but one (the last one before the bell flare) were normally closed. When you pressed any key but that one, it raised the pitch of the instrument. How much it (or a combination of keys) raised the pitch depended on how far it was from the bell flare - the farther away, the higher the note. That one lone open key lowered any note 1/2 step when you closed it. It took a bit of getting used to, that pressing a key raised the pitch instead of lowering it.

barliman2001

I just joined a new orchestra who are doing Music from Animation Movies for their next programme. Conductor and arranger is a Church musician without any clue as to how to arrange for brass... the "mildest" piece has five sharps... ugh!

Kehaulani

@Dr-Mark said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

All you have to do is keep the second valve down (except for Bb to and then mess around with valves 1 & 3 until you create something.

Doesn't have anything to do with mutes, rather "cheating" on fingering. One day Don Jacoby was sitting in with the North Texas One O'clock Band that had an ungodly modulation into a complex key. Everybody discreetly had an eye out for Jake to hear how he improvised in this "bad" key.

When it came time for Jake's solo, he reached across and pulled the tuning slide out so that the horn went into an easier key, played the solo, then put the slide back into its original position, LOL. Street smarts trumped the "correct" but more difficult way of playing.

stumac

Playing a lot in Church many years ago from the old "Hymns Ancient and Modern" most seemed to be in concert E, 6 sharps for Bb trumpet, the reason I bought a C, after changing to The Australian Hymn Book most had been dropped to Eb, much easier to sight transpose to F. Regards, Stuart.

GeorgeB

Sharps : baaaad ! Flats: gooood !

Seriously , though, I don't mind things up to the key of A, but once I have to remember four or more sharps the going gets tough and I make errors. Yet give me a piece of music in Db and no problem at all.

Trumpetsplus

@GeorgeB QED

Tobylou8

I've played in Church bands so long now that sharps don't even register. Leader of the group got on a B minor jag for a while! I told the arranger of our charts that C# didn't bother me at all anymore. He started writing in Db!! LOL

GeorgeB

@Trumpetsplus said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB QED

Sorry, Ivan, my ignorance is probably going to show here: What Is QED?

Kehaulani

@GeorgeB said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@Trumpetsplus said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB QED

Sorry, Ivan, my ignorance is probably going to show here: What Is QED?

Check google.

barliman2001

@GeorgeB said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@Trumpetsplus said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB QED

Sorry, Ivan, my ignorance is probably going to show here: What Is QED?

Originally, it's Latin and the abbreviation for Quod Erat Demonstrandum, meaning, "what was intended to be demonstrated". The abbreviation was first used in mathematics.

Dr GO

@barliman2001 said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@Trumpetsplus said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB QED

Sorry, Ivan, my ignorance is probably going to show here: What Is QED?

Originally, it's Latin and the abbreviation for Quod Erat Demonstrandum, meaning, "what was intended to be demonstrated". The abbreviation was first used in mathematics.

"So it is proved" is another interpretation of QED. And Barliman, quid pro quo if you agree, yes?

GeorgeB

Anyhow, I got what Ivan was saying...

Trumpetsplus

@Dr-GO What can I say? There was no quid pro quo!

barliman2001

@Dr-GO said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@barliman2001 said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@Trumpetsplus said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB QED

Sorry, Ivan, my ignorance is probably going to show here: What Is QED?

Originally, it's Latin and the abbreviation for Quod Erat Demonstrandum, meaning, "what was intended to be demonstrated". The abbreviation was first used in mathematics.

"So it is proved" is another interpretation of QED. And Barliman, quid pro quo if you agree, yes?

Of course.

J. Jericho

My wife once worked for a Canadian company whose motto was "QED". When she asked, the answer was "Quite Easily Done".