Thanks to all for their educational (as always) replies. I've got professional players so I guess the technique isn't an issue. The open string resonance I didn't know about and now I can take that into consideration.
And because I'm using Finale, I can easily change the keys! **Leigh On Mon, Mar 12, 2007, John Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >[I don't understand the "C to E or so" since those are on the sharp side!] > >Hi, Leigh and Christopher. As someone who plays both, allow me to >chime in. Christopher is correct as far as it goes, but those >limitations (or tendencies or whatever you want to call them) apply >to beginners rather than to professionals, with everyone else sitting >somewhere on a continuum between the two end points. > >A better question, Leigh, might be, in what keys do the instruments >SOUND the best. For viola, that means keys in which the open strings >can resonate, and you start losing open strings with the notes C# on >the sharp side and Ab on the flat side, with each additional sharp or >flat taking away one more open string. But in fact, violists can >play with equal facility in ANY keys, and the 19th century composers >forced us to do exactly that! > >Now if I had to choose between 6 sharps and 6 flats, I'd go with 6 >sharps, because Christopher is correct in that in sightreading the >flats force the hand into half position, while the sharps do not. > >As to trombone, there's no theoretical preference for keys, even >taking into account that the instrument's home key is Bb, but note >this: there are no difficult notes or slide positions, but there ARE >difficult combinations of slide positions, especially those involving >5th position (although a good player will use plenty of alternate >positions to reduce those difficult combinations). > >So write in whatever key you want, and leave it up to us to play it!!!! > >John _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
