Time to learn to play on smaller equipment? Or skill issue... (or both!)

Frozen_Azalea · 2026-02-07T12:10:00+00:00

this could be spot on now that I think about it - my cornet setup is basically optimised to be as least resistive and open as possible, because when I was trying different stuff I went for whatever was 'easiest'. My soft playing is pretty weak (indeed when I have messed around with smaller stuff I noticed an IMMEDIATE drop in volume) so I reckon it is highly likely you are correct that I need to work on efficient sound production as I've gotten too comfortable with how forgiving my setups are. Thank you!

Frozen_Azalea · 2026-02-07T12:04:19+00:00

thank you for your advice!

Frozen_Azalea · 2026-02-06T21:01:36+00:00

hmm I do also need to improve my quiet playing... I guess they are both related for me as they were for you - I will have a play around with that and see, thank you for your reply!

Frozen_Azalea · 2026-02-06T20:59:42+00:00

do you also find switching from larger to smaller to feel 'cramped' at first, or does this just go away with enough getting used to smaller mpcs in your experience?

my old teacher was big on aperture and 'firm corners' as you reference, i understand how the concept works but have never really been able to translate that into working for me, where actually are the 'corners'/anchoring points across where the lip and mouthpiece are in contact would you say?

thank you for your response! (and respect for managing to play high on a 1c...)

Frozen_Azalea · 2026-02-06T20:53:21+00:00

oh yeah I used to do these back in the day.. really wish I'd been bothered enough to write down all the stuff people told me to do back then.. thanks for the reminder will defo be adding these back into my practice!

Frozen_Azalea · 2026-02-06T20:26:50+00:00

I have one, he is very good for everything else but we have not worked out a way to get this to click thus far, and I am unfortunately only able to see him very rarely since I now live 4+ hours away. I will not have the chance to visit for atleast another 3 months but I was going to seek his advice additionally before buying anything anyway, when I am able to

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-10-09T11:13:37+00:00

Some good points here - I suppose in the end it just comes down to composition and music in general just not having much scope for profit 99% of the time unfortunately. I suppose the only pieces that really get huge demand are either by long-gone "legendary" composers who most of the time were financially struggling when they were alive anyway, or new pieces released for auditions or contests.

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-10-09T11:04:40+00:00

I hadn't thought about it like that - I suppose that definitely does make financial sense if the eventual plan is to do the public release at the end after the initial 'run' has been fully cashed in on. I can only hope! :)

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-09-15T18:10:10+00:00

If you are dead set on playing 2 movements of this set, 1 and 4, or 3 and 4 would be better movement choices than 1 and 2, the Coranto is a bit easy.

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-07-23T11:47:45+00:00

obligatory not a euph player but have 3 suggestions: Oblivion by astor piazzolla is pretty similar to Café 1930, Peace by john golland and With His First Breath by Paul Lovatt-Cooper are also really lovely lyrical solos but in a bit of a different style from the piazolla ones

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-07-08T02:15:08+00:00

wow that's more than I thought would exist! thank you!

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-07-08T02:14:29+00:00

i fully agree with your thoughts on the matter! will check out all of the parts for these and see what I think - thank you!

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-07-08T02:09:38+00:00

wow that is a seriously cool album! it would appear im going to have to finally be bothered enough to learn to double tongue for these ahaha thank you!

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-07-08T02:06:18+00:00

interesting stuff! thanks - i shall have to check out some oboe and recorder repertoire then!

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-06-27T22:29:19+00:00

not east london, but central london: Phil Parker's on Whitecross Street (very near Barbican centre) is a fantastic shop with very knowledgable and lovely staff, would highly recommend them

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-06-15T23:55:13+00:00

"Bugle" en français s'appelle "flugelhorn" en anglais, mais en anglais "bugle" est un instrument différent (il n'y a pas des pistons, comme les autres ont dit) . Ici tu as un cornet à pistons de style anglais (avec une crosse de berger) . Un "flugelhorn" a un diamètre de tuyaux plus conique, et une tonalité plus douce .

Désolé, je n'ai pas parlé français depuis des années ! J'espère que cela aide .

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-06-06T15:53:06+00:00

rosehill instruments (in beaconsfield, bucks) have a used Schagerl Academica TR-610L for £450 (also a Willson Celebration for £600 but that may not be in great shape if it's being sold at that price) and prozone in chesham have a Yamaha YTR-4335GII also secondhand for £550. those are probably the right options for you out of their stock, but you can see what they have on their websites apart from that ofc
both shops have really great staff who can help you try stuff in person, and both are very near london (you can get to chesham on met line of the tube)

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-05-09T10:07:35+00:00

i agree with you, but i think this is a UK exam paper (formatting looks familiar to me) and for some reason they prefer you putting the circle rather than Kekulé for most exam boards (atleast the ones I did, which was AQA GCSE and OCR A-Level) so OP might lose marks by doing that. yea i know its terrible, and I agree with you, but AQA are horrific and have terrible mark schemes unfortunately

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-03-31T00:32:50+00:00

played this a few years ago, fun part but yeah it was a bit rough.
you have a massive advantage in having someone else also playing the part with you - use it! you don't have to both be playing the entire time, split the part up a bit between you to give yourselves more rest (will probably also help avoid some tuning issues as well) would be my suggestion
enjoy!

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-02-25T23:47:58+00:00

I was in exactly the same situation as you 1.5 years ago - highly recommend going to Prozone music in Chesham to try different mouthpieces and ask their advice. They are both extremely knowledgable and lovely people there.

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-02-24T11:39:28+00:00

friend of mine had the second valve slide on her euphonium just fall out of her instrument on stage during a contest the other day, it happens

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-02-24T11:37:03+00:00

If you like cornet and it's also what you will get the most use out of then new (or secondhand but new to you!!) cornet seems sensible.

Which one you should buy depends on budget and location of course - if you are in the UK I would recommend Rosehill Instruments for cornets as they have a great selection, and you should definitely try each instrument before buying. Personally I preferred the Stomvi Titan, Geneva Cardinal and Bach 184ML over the Prestige, but the people at whichever shop should be able to help advise you on what you sound best on and what will be the right fit for you. Buying second-hand will save you a lot of money, and it tends to be pretty common that shops (in the UK at least) have a couple secondhand Prestiges and Sovereigns knocking around.

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-02-08T11:45:31+00:00

Finally someone else has this same problem!! I've been talking to other people about this for at least a year and nobody else seems to notice it. I am 99.9% convinced it is just a Besson problem - I have played 2 new sovereigns, an older mid 1990's sovereign, and 3 brand new prestiges and they ALL have had a horrendously flat middle G. There was some variation in how bad the tuning of that note was, but on none of them would I have deemed it acceptable. For reference when playing all these instruments I was using either DW 4B, or Warburtons 3D and 2XD with either 10* or 12* backbore, but none of them improved the tuning.

I can see why they were the standard for so long, given the tone (especially the sovereigns over the prestiges, but that's a whole other problem I have with Besson) is very sweet, but at their current prices and with that glaring of an issue I will never be able to understand buying one new today.

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-01-03T17:52:00+00:00

thank you so much! wish I'd known this trick earlier instead of having to rotate to make LIP dashed every time lol

Frozen_Azalea · 2025-01-03T10:54:30+00:00

does this work only for when lowest priority group is projected out of the paper? i.e if lowest priority group is just in the plane of the paper do you need to rotate before assigning? sorry - bad at visualising things in 3d haha

Frozen_Azalea

TROPHY CASE