Author: Musikat
Date: 2019-10-10 05:50
Hi,
I will be playing Eb with an orchestra and have been loaned one for the month (a couple weeks to practice, two weeks of rehearsals (four days total) and a concert. Until now I have never played an Eb before.
While I am getting better every day and am figuring out the tuning pretty well, I am having a really hard time with altissimo F#. Unfortunately we are playing John Williams Cowboys and there are multiple fast toungued passages on that note. I have days where it works pretty well, but many others where it just grunts, or doesn't speak until the second or third repeated note.
Since it is not my instrument and I have no idea when, if ever, I will play an Eb again (I made it 50 years before I tried it!) I am not interested in trying new mouthpieces or barrels. I have to work with what I have.
The mouthpiece is a Vandoren B44 and I have tried blue box Vandoren 3.5 reeds, cut down Pilgerstorfer Exquisit 2s, and the Behn Aria 4s. Sometimes the cut-down reeds work better and sometimes the Eb reeds work, but it seems to change with the wind and I need to know when I pick it up in the middle of the piece it will speak.
I have also tried a number of alternate fingerings for that note. Right now fingering high G (thumb, octave oxx xxo plus Ab/Eb lever and the RH pinky) seems the most stable, but it isn't always. Is it just a matter of continuing to practice? Any tips?
BTW E is a little unstable, but I am doing pretty well with that note. I use the rh sliver key to get it in tune, since it is flat. Sometimes it jumps to a higher partial, though.
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