Posted by Rick Denney on March 07, 2001 at 13:54:42:
In Reply to: Re: Testing and evaluating horns posted by Lew on March 07, 2001 at 08:26:35:
I usually walk in with one or two tunes in my head that I know well. At the Army conference, I played some of Barnes's Yorkshire Ballad on the contrabasses and some Marcello on the F's. I'm intimately familiar with both these tunes, and neither represented technical limitations that would distract me from making music. In addition to everything else, I demand that a horn give me the thrill of making music. I want that WOW response.
When I tried Matt's Beuscher creation, I had just spent time with a 6/4 Yorkenstein that had really spoken to me. The Beuscher was a wonderful horn, but I was distracted when I played it. Had I been serious about such instruments, I would have had to approach the order in a different way. I played lots of horns at that conference, but I only felt musical on three. One was the Willson F, and another was that big York. And the third was my York Master which I had brought in for trying out mouthpieces. So, that's something I would add to the list--put your current horn in the mix. Make sure that the ones you like among the new ones are better than the one you are already playing.
Rick "who realizes also that some love affairs take time to develop" Denney