I just wanted to send a thank you out to Paul Navarro for all the great information that he gave me about my new(to me) Yamaha 862. I also want to thank Fred Baucom for giving me his email. Paul was kind enough to call me and fill me in on some interesting details about the horn. I am extremely excited about my new 862. I had been playing on an 8D, and this horn blows it out of the water, literally. It has a dark velvety tone throughout the range. It is actually bigger than an 8D(the tuning slide of and 8D is swallowed up by the 862). However, I can play high C's with about 20% of the effort that it took on the 8D. The ability to play legato is much greater with this horn as well. Well, enough ranting about my new horn. By the way, I know I am still in the honeymoon phase, so you don't have to remind me that I will probably soon find its weaknesses. Either way, now for my question.
I have been playing alot more than usual lately as I am preparing for a graduate audition in about 3 weeks. Since I am a high school band director, I usaully have very little time to practice, but over the last month and a half, I have consistently practiced at least 2 hours a day, some times as much as 4 hours. I know that is not much for some of you, but to someone who used to practice 4 hours a month(yes, that is not an exageration), 4 hours a day IS a lot. Anyway, just recently I have developed an annoying problem. Certain notes that I play want to have a secondary buzz in the tone indicating I am not centering the pitch. The peculiar thing is that it is not predictable. Some times I think it is because I am not focusing on the note, others I think I am focusing too much. The notes are in the middle of my range and I am not tired. I am having trouble with 4th line D and Dsharp. They buzz almost like I am flutter tonguing or trilling. I have no problem hitting a Bflat above the staff, but then the D doesn't speak. If I play it on the F side, the problem disappears. If I play it with thumb 3 it is gone. However, 3rd space A does not have this problem. It is not the horn, because it happens on my 8D. It has just been more frequent in the last two days. I am convinced it is me but don't know how to fix it. It comes and goes unexpectedly. I have a concert tomorrow and hope it doesn't come back. Is it mental? My teacher would say I just need to sing the pitch in my head and all will go well(Arnold Jacobs). With my audition coming I worry about it even more. Any help would be greatly appreciated. P.S. I am pretty much against embouchure changes of all kinds, so I hope that is not what anyone thinks it is. Ryan Baldwin [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
