condensation:
Blowing water out of an instrument with a strong noisy gust of air is counterproductive. It just blows the water around past the exit hole. To successfully empty water, the air should be slow and gentle and just enough to break the surface tension around the edge of the hole so that ...

Yeah, both the guitar finger-squeek and breathing thru the tuba grates on me. Also, when any brass player has condensation burbling in their main tuning slide when they play, and don't empty the water key or slide often enough 🤢 😒


The way and moment to dump the condensation matters too: I once ...

Next to highly praised French Horns with all possible valve layouts Finke did a lot of things you would expect to be invented by Dr. Seuss (only with a strictly straight appearance). I once saw a baroque style trombone (sackbut) with a F-attachment

Some 20 years ago I saw a "gig bag with benfits" for saxophones in a catalogue. Zippers on the side and a clever opening top allowed playing the saxophone inside the bag for practicing. I guess it could also safe time when arriving too late for a gig

When I started playing tuba (after many years on trombone) my first teacher was female and many years later I had some female tuba students between 9 and 60 years old. But it never occured to me publishing pictures of them (neither I do with my male students). Over 20 years of tuba teaching about 1 ...

Pencils are Russian space technology so they should float around. I never found a Russian space pencil so I mark the notes needing attention with a big black Edding. All playing problems solved

From playing I loved the valves of my Besson 981 which I played for 25 years. After a few weeks of breaking in they worked smoothly and reliable in all conditions and made playing with all sorts of slow/half valve technique easy. Only minor wish would have been larger buttons but I never bothered to ...

Let it have a good overhaul, maybe it will be a bit over 500 bucks. But then you're rewarded with an ultra-cool little horn in a solid playing condition which you can use more often without being afraid of falling apart. No full shiny-new restauration, keep the patina but get it technically sound ...

Bass trombone mp in a baritone sax? 😀 I read about someone sticking a tuba mp in a bass sax for the lols but couldn't find a video.

well, reverse inventing. The saxophone was invented by accident when a frustrated Adolphe Sax put the bass clarinet mouthpiece onto an ophicleide after his work on ...

On my Eastman EBE 853 (front-action compensated Eb) I had to cut off 1/2" from the third valve bow to make it playable. On the other hand it wasn't long enough to pull it out making it two whole steps like I'm used to from some of my other horns

This year I started in January planning the program for the Christmas concert with my singer

I would take it as a real compliment. It means that your playing the right notes in musical way with the right feel, helped by a good setup of your knobs. You were audible in a positive way but not obstrusive, only the bit more to be recognized and appreciated

My experience with it is not the best. I'm using Finale for nearly 20 years now and I didn't try writing something down in MS but after downloading some sheet music of others for free I felt like publishing some of my arrangements there.
Importing the XML files was straightforward and looked ok ...

I got it from a friend some years ago, after their kids stopped playing with Lego. I also have a rabbit with an accordeon (which I also play), so it may have been some bigger choice which animal plays what

Years ago lego made this miced recording tuba

For a friend having problems to get the power into his horn a repair guy put some thick wire around the ornamental groove between cup and shank and it made a big difference. He's still playing it after years this way.

I would like to compare the influence of the rims on my Blokepieces. There is a ...

One of my horns has interchangeable pistons, well, almost.
When I bought my Courtois 166 Saxhorn Basse (3+2 pistons) second hand from a dealer in France it arrived in the condition showed in the pictures of his webpage. And it played as expected, except when using 4th valve. There (and only there ...

I made an interesting experience with MP weight some years ago when playing the Nirschl 4/4 C (which became later the Besson 995): Playing a Bruno Tilz MP on my Besson Eb back then I picked another Tilz for the C, but with a bigger cup. They were made with same outside dimensions so the bigger MP ...

They are nice to play. Aim-shoot-hit and a big sound for the smallish looking horn. I played one of these (GDR made) about 30 years ago for a while, only with a different slide for the 5th valve, giving 2 whole steps. It was from a music school and they didn't want to sell

Hmmm, when I (as a German) see the optics (English style lettering and a nazi rune looking blitz) of this "brand name" which are veeery opposite to what Sturm&Drang describes originally (the romantic period in the early 19th century!) I would never consider this touching my lips