Posted by anon on February 09, 2001 at 09:37:55:
In Reply to: Re: "Gee, your instrument sounds nice" posted by Rick Denney on February 08, 2001 at 22:56:53:
How about complementing him/her on the warmth and sweetness he/she is able to get out of the different equipment. It takes an amazing player to go from two horns as different as an alex and a yorkbrunner in the span of a week and still sound great on both. That attribute is something that is intrinsic to the player and has absolutely nothing to do with the choice of instrument. Most lesser players might sound marginally different on the two different horns but would never sound great on either.
The instrument merely amplifies what is already there. Are we so caught up in the equipment game that we've forgotton what needs to sit behind them? It might be 'the player *and* the horn' but an amazing horn will still sound bad in the hands of a rank amateur. A peice of crap student horn can sing and dance around in circles in the hands of a pro. 99% of us have absolutely no qualifications to be able to pass judgement on what horns are good and which are bad. Often times great horns are passed off as 'unresponsive' and having a 'stuffy' low register by folks that haven't learned how to blow yet. My non-scientifically trained mind tells me that when others sound good it is because they *are* good and that most of us would be better served practicing rather than blaming equipment.
thanks for hearing me out :)