Having to play in too many sharps?
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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.htmlIvan Hunter
Player, Designer, Builder, Writer, Teacher, Repairer
Jaeger Trumpets
Convener of Trumpet4Fun Trumpet Saturdays -
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.
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@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).
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Trumpets and saxes also transpose into ungodly sharp keys in pop music. Playing in B can be a lot of fun. . . not.
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@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. -
@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.htmlWhen 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.
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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!
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@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.
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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.
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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.
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@GeorgeB QED
Ivan Hunter
Player, Designer, Builder, Writer, Teacher, Repairer
Jaeger Trumpets
Convener of Trumpet4Fun Trumpet Saturdays -
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
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@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?
1960s King Super 20 Silversonic, 1940 Olds Recording, 1942 Buescher True Tone 400 ,1999 Conn Vintage One Bb trumpet, A 1952 Selmer Paris, A 2020 Getzen 400 and a Manchester Brass ACB custom pro Bb trumpet, a 1962 Conn Victor 5A Cornet.
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@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.
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@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.
Courtois Balanced
Courtois D
Olds Recording
Buescher Aristocrat
Gaudet C
Selmer G
Courtois 154 Flugelhorn
Besson International Bb cornet
Courtois Bb cornet
B&H Sovereign Soprano Cornet
B&H Sovereign trombone
Willy Garreis trombone
Weltklang Euph -
@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?
Allora Pocket Trumpet 2014
Harrelson Summit 2017
Kanstul 1526 2012
Getzen Power Bore 1961
Getzen Eterna 4-Valve Fulgelhorn 1974
Martin Committee 1946
Olds Super Recording 1940
Olds Recording (LA) 1953
Olds Recording (Fullerton) 1967
Olds Ambassador 1965 -
Anyhow, I got what Ivan was saying...
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@Dr-GO What can I say? There was no quid pro quo!
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@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.
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My wife once worked for a Canadian company whose motto was "QED". When she asked, the answer was "Quite Easily Done".
