Re: tuba audio physics - KNOW KNOWS ?


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Posted by Tim Cary on March 10, 2000 at 11:54:45:

In Reply to: tuba audio physics - KNOW KNOWS ? posted by Joe S. on March 10, 2000 at 10:13:17:

When I was in college (the height of the Reagan era), I purchased my second horn from a music performance major at one the Big Ten's premier music schools. As both of us attended college in northern climates (I was in Mt. Pleasant, MI), we were both experienced in cold horns. For me, it always takes longer to get a good sound out of a cold horn, and hard as heck to get in tune. The person I bought the horn from suggested that to warm a horn up quickly, that you should bring a hair dryer with to rehearsal to blast down the bell of the horn (I am NOT kidding, this was his actual advice and he had done it for some time).

Well, I actually only did this once, when I got home after driving back from a gig in January. Even though I always put my horn in the back seat, Winters in Michigan can be harsh, so the horn was plenty cold. To be honest, it did seem to help warm the horn up, and since the horn was warm not as much water condesated. I never brought a hair dryer to a rehearsal or gig, for fear of looking like some type of overly eccentric tuba guy.

My guess on cold horn response has something to do with the physics of metal. When metal is cold, there is some natural contraction, and the brass becommes less supple. As the metal heats, it becomes milder and expands. A good example is the Eiffel Tower, which gets as much as 6" taller on a warm, sunny day due to heat expansion of the structure.



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