Posted by Jim Andrada on August 31, 2001 at 23:25:06:
In Reply to: Re: CC 2 feet shorter??? posted by Greg Crider on August 31, 2001 at 10:10:09:
Actually, I think that when you use any valve you're changing the key of the horn.
i.e. using the 1st valve on a BBb makes it sort of an AAb "natural" horn.
And as you get to higher partials, voila, the series of partials get close enough that you can get close to chromatic scales with only a couple of valves (or none at all if you can really play high enough) a la our (French) horn playing friends who routinely play quite high in the the series due to small mouthpieces, small cylindrical bore, abrupt bell flare, etc etc etc. Or like the concertinas that are in two keys so the juxtaposition of the two diatonic scales yields a more or less chromatic instrument
I think what strikes me is that we all have a tendency to confuse ourselves because we mix up the simple fundamentals of what's going on (i.e. thinking of valves as being equivalent to letting us have a bunch of different natural horns all in one) with the vast number of complex details of how slide lengths etc, have been tweaked (2nd order optimization???) to make it easier to achieve some particular effect or other such as being nearly in tune in the lower register given the valve combinations that people normally use.
Hence, for example, we tend to think of compensation as some magic and terribly complex thing when it's just sort of the equivalent of the genie of the tuba simultaneously pulling a bunch of slides for us automatically. Of course, there are differences because of routing complexities and stuffiness etc, but it's basically SIMPLE! If it weren't I couldn't handle it.
IMHO