Posted by Randy Mac Iver on March 20, 2001 at 17:14:29:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Chronic Slide-Pull-emia! posted by Rick Denney on March 20, 2001 at 11:41:57:
Rick,
I doubt that you are tone deaf, but I must agree that there are alot of things at play when one blows into a tuba. I must also say that the experiments that Dr. Young has done do not factor in many of the real world annoyances that most players deal with such as playing conditions and the mirriad of other variables that happen dependent on certain circumstances to obtain a more consistant result. When I was in college my techer would coach me to move the first valve slide in a similar fashion to what the original poster has said. I also recall seeing the Empire brass on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and Sam P. moved the slides alot too. I was a double major (Tuba and voice) and the more vocal lessons I received the better my playing and intonation,(without moving slides) got. I would have to say that the last thread that you answered my post got me reading and listening to alot of books and tapes. One book that I found very interesting was " Chaos - Making A New Science by James Gleick. This book in particular has set my mind a spinning! There was one catch phrase that really hit home with me and I feel can be applied to many things and in this instance seems just as good as any explanations I have come accross. It is a case of,"Sensative dependencies on initial conditions". Meaning that the sensative dependencies,ie. (the player, conditions and mind set) have culminated in a result that was not expected of the initial conditions,(ie. a horn that was thought to be able to play in tune). I may be wrong but it sure sounds cool. I also think that a player settles in to a tuning with what ever group he plays with to the point where you are not neccessarily playing in tune so much as playing out of tune in a unison fashion.
Thanks Rick, for getting me to dust of the cob webs in my mind. Now the wind mills are rolling again.
Randy Mac Iver