Do an image-google on 'collapsible cup' and 'collapsible funnel'. This is the future of Have Horn, Will Travel.
David G On 6/27/2011 4:41 PM, valerie wells wrote: > Steve's made an excellent suggestion with the plastic tubing idea. I seem > to remember reading about a horn player who carried tubing& a mouthpiece in > his car& he would practice lip slurs while he commuted to& from work. If > I recall, he said it was enough to keep his chops in very good shape, so > that he could focus on other technical aspects at home. That would work for > me, because I believe I could do my BE exercises on a plastic tube. > > Okay, now it's time for clever person to invent a plastic travel horn w/ > detachable bell to sell for less than $50. (I'm thinking of the lovely > vuvuzuela's!) Anyone into plastics? There's definitely a need for such a > product. Come on, we need this! > > As for fingering, there are French horn fingering aps for I-phones& > Blackberries. > > Valerie Wells > The Balanced Embouchure Method > http://bebabe.wordpress.com/ > http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/ > > > Message: 9 > Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:47:14 -0700 > From: Steve Haflich<[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Hornlist] > To: The Horn List<[email protected]> > Message-ID:<[email protected]> > > When I need to travel on a NHR trip. I sometimes take along a mouthpiece > and some tubing. Your local aquarium supply (or even a plain pet shop) > will carry flexible plastic tubing in several diameters. This stuff has > negligible weight and rolls nicely into a suitcase. > > I, like you, find it better than practicing on a bare mouthpiece, but it > doesn't really provide a good substitute for a horn, even a valveless > horn, because of several deficiencies: > > - The tubing is too narrow, hence has very high resistance. > > - The cylindrical bore is grossly out of tune, especially on the low > harmonics. The reasons this happens to a cylindrical bore have been > discussed previously. > > The nice feature of this arrangement is that the cylindrical tubing > doesn't couple very well to the atmosphere, and the plastic tubing > absorbs a lot of energy, the the practice setup is nicely soft. I've > played in hotel rooms without problem. > > Another nice feature is that the thumb over the end of the tube works a > little (a _very_ little) like the right hand on a waldhorn. > > I've tried correcting the tuning problem by using two different sizes of > tubing, the smaller nested into the larger. But this provides only a > single step increase in bore, and I didn't find that it helped much. It > did slightly reduce the excessive resistance, but not very much. > > But thinking about this abysmal practice instrument, I have a few ideas > in case anyone else wants to experiment. > > First, try selecting larger diameter aquarium tubing rather than > smaller. If you must, use a rather short segment of small tubing and > nest that into a long segment of wider tubing. Narrow tubing makes the > instrument too resistant to blowing. > > Second, choose an instrument length significantly longer that 12.5-foot > F length. Since the lower partials are out of tune, constructing a > lower instrument will make the harmonics you actually use closer to > being in pitch. I haven't tried this, but perhaps 16-foot C would be > good. > > But here is the real idea that I'd like to throw out in case some horn > atelier has more energy to put into developing a product than I do: > > The quietness, lightness, and cheapness of aquarium tubing is attractive > for making a practice instrument. But the conical bore make the > instrument only marginally playable. I imagine most plastic tubing is > extruded at constant width, but suppose some clever manufacturer could > figure out how to _cast_ similar material into a conical shape similar > to a horn bore, complete with bell. Might be very difficult to > construct, but if it could be done, one would have a very quiet > instrument that could be simply mashed into checked luggage and which > would then return to approximate shape when the suitcase is opened. > > If this could be manufactures and sold for $100, I think there would be > a market for travel practice instruments. > > > -- > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/goldberg%40wccnet.org _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
