Beautiful, Kendall can you develop an ear implant next to help with pitch; the hearodyne triplelobe. Then all the troubles will be fixed until the next one (at least mine, hehe)... I though id share this too: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125385794 Nathan
--- On Thu, 4/1/10, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [Hornlist] NEW FRENCH HORN MOUTHPIECE RIM To: [email protected], [email protected] Date: Thursday, April 1, 2010, 8:18 AM The French horn mouthpiece rim is probably-maybe the most important piece of equipment we have. Since our lips are producing the sound, given a steady, athletic airstream, it is the most intimate connection between the French horn player and instrument. Traditionally, rims are made of metal or plastic. Metal rims are usually brass or nickel silver, and are left simply polished or plated with either silver or gold, though chrome and bright nickel have also been used with some success. A variety of plastics have been used, including PS, PP, PDV, PA, PC, the most popular now being LEXAN™, (PRT). Rims come in countless shapes and contours: round, cushion, oval, reverse peak, flat, wide, medium, narrow and on and on and on! Most players experiment constantly, frequently or now and again to find the “perfect” rim which will give them a great sound, ease of flexibility and range, quick, predictable and consistent response, and endurance. It seems that many never find exactly what they want because of compromises in these traditional designs. A wide rounded rim may be easy to play and give good endurance but has a dull sound or difficult flexibility. A narrow flat or reverse peak rim may open up the sound and quicken response but cuts down on endurance. Silver plating pits after a while with constant use (depending on body chemistry, etc.) and has to be re-plated, usually changing the feel of the rim since it is hard to judge and control the amount of plating applied to duplicate the original completely. Gold plating feels more slippery and perhaps helps flexibility but it wears off even quicker than silver and also has to be replaced. Some French horn players are allergic to metals (or in my own case, it’s allergic to me) and use plastic. Plastic rims feel sticky compared to plated or bare metal ones. There are millions of mouthpiece stories, most with bad endings, so I’m not going on and on about this. Perhaps the folks here will want to “chime in” later with their own experiences. The “perfect” rim would give the player a lively sound, quick response, flawless flexibility and technique in changing registers small clam percentages, and, most importantly, ENDURANCE! I don’t know about you, but I hate practicing! But I have to do my “daily routine” in order to build and keep the strength and skill I need to play in public. I haven’t practiced since last August as I had nothing scheduled to play since I’m semi-retired from performing. I have engagements coming up so now I have to get in shape. It will take me, using my genuine LAWSON B23G 695 LEXAN™ rim, about a week to 10 days of gradually increasing the length my daily practice sessions to get to what I call “a two hour lip.” Once achieved, my “two hour lip” gives me the confidence to go “into battle” and play my best! Yes, I do watch TV when I do my “horn aerobics and weight training,” which are Farkas type warm ups, long tones, scales, arpeggios, Kopprasch (from freaking memory), etc. but I have seen enough reruns of CSI, Law and Order and Looney Tunes (not to mention Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and the Three Stooges) and I am sick of the news channels like Fox and CNN with all of their crappy political posturing and LA car chases. I don’t like sports except Formula One racing, which is rarely on, so I’m probably stuck listening to myself doing the same old stuff, over and over, lengthening the session, every friggin' day! BAH! What if all of this could be avoided? I’ve wondered about that for years watching reruns and news. You probably have too. I HAVE FOUND THE ANSWER! INTRODUCING: THE WATER RIM! The WATER RIM is my latest product development at Lawson Horns. Modern technology and materials coupled with my own lust for knowledge have made it all possible. Please allow me to describe and explain this revolutionary new piece of miracle equipment for the French horn player, be they serious or not. It is constructed by attaching a .001” thick round “pillow” or “envelope” of MYLAR™ (boPET) to a traditional LEXAN™ plastic screw rim that is cut down to a flat or contoured surface (with or without retaining surfaces on its edges) from .119” to .478” wide at the thread joint with the cup. This “pillow” can be made to any cubic specification thus creating different sizes and feels and different shapes achieved by the width, contour and retaining surfaces of the screw base. The “pillow” is attached securely to the base using the recently introduced NanoLaserSchweisserAtomique from the Swiss company SELVAGGIO-BÉCASSINE-JAEGER, a very expensive but not too complicated to operate machine. It is then injected to capacity with distilled water using a conventional hypodermic needle. For now, the hole is closed using the NanoLaserSchweisserAtomique and the rim is ready to play. This took some practice, since we are dealing with nano technology in the process, and you have to be careful to cover all of your nanos at all times. I will develop and implement a valve, similar to that on a beach ball, but nano sized, so that the firmness is easily adjusted by adding or emptying water by the player as requirements of repertoire being performed may dictate. Either way, all manufacturing processes are done in about a tenth of the time it takes to mill a conventional rim from metal or plastic as the bases are very simple to make, and even simpler (and cheaper), once farmed out to China as they don’t have to be as precise as a whole, properly contoured screw rim. “HOW’S IT PLAY” you ask? “WELL, PLEASE, WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING” I reply. I picked up the horn today (as I mentioned earlier I had not practiced since last August) and played for 6 hours, 37 minutes and 42 seconds straight with a great sound and range from pedal C to F above high C with better flexibility than I have ever had! It felt so good at the start, I did no Farkas warm up, long tones, scales, arpeggios and most importantly KOPPRASCH and played through all the Mozart Concertos (improvising 5 to 10 minute cadenzas up to F’s above high C and ending with a 20 second long lip trill on high C), all the Strauss (both Franz and Richard) concertos and solo pieces, (taking the coda of R. Strauss No. 1 at mm198 to the dotted quarter), the Schumann A and A (twice, straight through without a break) and 1st part to the Konzertstueck, (again, twice in a row), the Villanelle, En Foret, the Beethoven Sonata, the Brahms trio and the Mozart horn quintet, the John Williams horn concerto and my entire collection of screaming Baroque horn concerti (16 in all) on my descant! I did also throw in one Kopprasch, No. 54, at mm144 to the quarter note since my flexibility was so good and the fastest I had ever been able to play that one in the past, even when I was at Curtis, was about mm48. All of this with only a half dozen or so clams, and those were because I didn’t use my air correctly, not because I was tired. And I could have gone on and on but the Grand Prix race ended on TV! Now, I don’t have to practice ever again! Remember, though, that I am a veteran professional with over 40 years experience and 50 years total horn playing on my resume and I was a complete natural and child prodigy on the horn, anyway, so your results may vary, depending on your own abilities and experience. Also, it’s not to say that everyone will have to bypass initial training, study and practice since you’ll still need to know how to read music (maybe even at sight), transpose, use your air, and probably most importantly, get a good lip. But this might speed the lip building process up a bit. As a world class instructor, I’ll find out at KBHC and with my students at UNH. I do believe, though, that this is the definitive answer to every French horn player’s prayers! “WHEN CAN I GET ONE” you ask? Well, I have to make a bunch, which should take a week or two, and price it. That’s the hard part. Should I apply for a patent? Probably not. Big delay due to government bureaucracy and I’m not worried in the least about the jejune, sleazy, popinjays who compete with us, copying our stuff, usually inaccurately so it doesn’t work the same as the real thing. What is it truly worth to play hundreds of times better than what you are doing now? What is it worth to never have to practice. NEVER AGAIN? Hundreds, even thousands or MILLIONS of dollars? Can I really put a dollar value on helping thousands, even millions, of French horn players to play better? Not to mention pissing off the legions of conductors who won’t be able to yell at their horn sections anymore and the music critics who won’t be able write “ This was an excellent concert but the horns missed some notes” again and again. Also, do I make this available to the other brass players allowing them to play even louder than they do now? Here is a chance to stop hoping and start changing for all of us French horn players! Geezs, I might just be a true philanthropist and give it away in order to make the world a better place! Hell, if Prof. I.M. Gestopftmitscheist gets a hold of one of these, he’ll be out of friggin' business! HAHAHA! This is what I have to ponder as well as my next product, which came to me in a dream, whilst fast asleep on a mattress made of memory foam. _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/natkingcoy%40yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
