What does ruin the valves more: dirt particles or not enough oiling ? Simple: if there is NO oil-water-film at all, valves might stuck or not (titanium or bronze valves do not stuck !). If you water them or oil them again, they will move again. If you try to turn them very hard instead, you might ruin them. But remember, the valve action cannot be compared to a simple engines spinning, where even just a little amount of oil is necessary to preserve the spindle from wear. LITTLE AMOUNT OF OIL.
BUT: foreign particles as aggressive dust, food particles, acidic particles, all combined, contribute a lot to valve damage. The tolerances between valve casing & rotor are minimal, but still, some particles might be squeezed in between. Then the valves come slow in action. Understood now ? I don’t think so, as too many do not want to understand. But it is very funny for me to observe, that as soon as I touch the "change your attitude, change your habit" topic, all come with many arguments of EXCUSE. Yes, these are mostly arguments of EXCUSE for ones own failure. Is it so difficult to accept it, if one points to the right point on you, to your weak point ??? I once had a colleague, who had difficulties with the c#2 (2nd space from top, whatever horn he blew. And I showed him, that the c#2 was there on all these horns. He simply NEVER adjusted the slides as they should be. But when he did not sound well with the c#2, he had this common excuse: "Sorry, the c#2 does not speak very well on this horn." These kind of excuses are not acceptable as they are just used to camouflage the players failure, his or her inability or unwillingness to change a certain attitude. Yesterday we played Puccini´s "Manon Lescaut", this wonderful lyric & dramatic master piece, and my young colleague wondered after the performance, "why do you sometimes play the written forte as forte & sometimes just as a mere solo piano" ? I answered to him, that one has to listen to the other voices in the orchestra, understand the importance of ones own part or its accompanying character plus listen to the singers, to adapt the dynamic level as well as the emphasis on the notes. He has never got to play these many little show or song or parade pieces for horn & piano. His teacher (very well known) never worked on such (silly, in his opinion) pieces to develop the right feeling for taste, nor has his teacher told him to get some information about the stories of the most popular operas. My colleague got this message now & will try to acquire the missing things now. This was only to illustrate what I said above. He also became upset when I first told him about things I miss with his musical education, but he has understood now the difference between my playing & his playing, and he must match with me, otherwise a further cooperation would become difficult. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Graeme Evans Sent: Monday, July 28, 2003 10:41 AM To: The Horn List Subject: Re: [Hornlist] RE: Horn Testing and Oiling - the Pope Hans wrote: >Pack a tooth cleaning >pack into your horn case. This will prevent valve wear in most cases. It >is more important than oiling the horn every week. and then: > Oooops. Typical plucking the words. I never said that clean mouth & > teeth "will prevent valve wear more than oiling", but it has a lot to do > with "sticking valves" - I repeat: STICKING VALVES, SLOWING VALVES. ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!! ! Cheers, Graeme Evans (Principal Horn, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) +61 3 9318 0690(H), +61 419 880371(B), +61 3 93180893(Fax) E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/hans.pizka%40t-online.de _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
