Tag: instruments

In this video, Brett Youens describes the logic behind the system of valves on brass instruments, with the tuba used as an example. www.geocities.com (Transcript) Hi. Let’s look a little more at brass instruments with valves and how they work. This is a tuba, but as we know, it could just as well be a trumpet, or a euphonium, or a French horn, or a flugelhorn; they all work on the same principles. Let’s look today at the logic behind the system of fingerings. If you think about it, there are only two possible states for a valve: either depressed or not. A lot like a human, I guess. So if each of the three valves has two different possibilities – and we have two times two times two – which gives us eight possibilities. The highest note we could play is by not depressing any valve. And a little lower is pressing the baby; a little lower is pressing the daddy, and a little lower is pressing the granddaddy. Now, let’s think about this from the bottom up: If we press everything, then we get the lowest note we could. And a little higher, subtracting the baby, subtracting the daddy, subtracting the granddaddy. So this is just a mirror image of itself. And these two notes, of course, produce – again, aside from tuning issues that don’t concern us here – the same note. Now, think about the following: Every single note that a tuba or a trumpet or a flugelhorn or a French horn or a euphonium ever plays, they play it with one of these eight possibilities. So there’s not much in the …

In this video, Brett Youens describes the two principles on which all valved brass instruments work, with the tuba used as an example. www.geocities.com (Transcript) Hi. Let’s look at brass instruments with valves and how they work. I have a tuba here; it could just as easily be a trumpet, or a French horn, or a flugelhorn, or a euphonium; they all work on the same principle. If I blow into the mouthpiece, then the air travels this path here, and comes out of the bell. Now, if we think about a trumpet, we’ll notice the first principle of the two principles we’ll need to know about how brass instruments work. A trumpet has a very short pathway for the air to flow through, and a tuba has a very long pathway. Trumpets produce very high notes, and tubas produce very low notes. So: The longer the pathway, the lower the note. The longer, the lower. So, if I want to produce a different note, then I’ll need to lengthen my tuba. But, of course, I don’t have time while I’m playing to get out a hammer and a nail and maybe some sort of smelting machine and lengthen my tuba. That’s what the valves are for. By depressing a valve, you make sure that the air takes a detour, thereby lengthening the tuba. So if I press this first valve here, you’ll see that the air takes an extra path. If I press the second — this little baby valve here — then it takes a detour of a shorter length. And if I press the third valve, then it’s this long, winding, granddaddy-of-them-all valve, right? So you …