I´m too feebly educated in chemistry to actually shed light on this, so this post should rather be taken as a nudge to knowledgeable forum members to maybe chime in and help me out. To my knowledge, silver tarnishes faster with rising sulfur percentage in air, because it´s sulfur that forms silver s...

I´m not sure I´d worry too much about absolute pitch fluctuations at practising booths due to temperature change. Maybe that´s because I´m among those lucky persons who do NOT have perfect absolute pitch and hopefully a decent relative one. - You´ll have to adjust to absolute pitch variations wherev...

Nice and relevant selection of testing literature. In my opinion You demonstrated that these are definitely no cheap pieces of junk. (And at over 8000 € they better not be, either) To MY ear the larger horn worked better both on the Faust excerpt as well as the Bierzelt-Funk :cheers: So what´s YOUR ...

Follow-up on that rowing-thing: The water rower I ordered arrived last week. (wooden frame, plastic vessel with water and a rotating paddle wheel in it, your rowing energy will be dissipated by the water´s flow resistance). First impressions: Great machine, and immediate positive effects: After the ...

I´ll offer the German proverb "Ohne Ziel kein Weg" (in English: "There´ll be no path if there´s no aim) as a VERY short paraphrase to Bloke´s concept. Playing what you´re good at isn´t practising, it´s having fun (which, although ineffective for improvement, is still a great idea ´cau...

You forgot to mention that ermine upholstery on the inside.
Looks good in hard cases, too. You only need about 300 of those critters.

In the early 90s, I had this videotape (yeah, I´m THAT old) of a Roger Bobo masterclass at Riva Del Garda, Italy. It had been produced and broadcast by ARTE, a French/German coproduced culture TV channel. Young Heiko Triebener was among the post-grad-participants, as well as two very promising and V...

Being on the heavier side of life myself, here´s what I experienced. Others have commented to that effect already, and what You state hints you´re aware of that as well. Anything that might facilitate diaphragm action should be embraced. Abdominal tissue and organs need to move in order to let the d...

I own two piston-valved instruments. One was about 3 years old when bought a long time ago. From day one I gave it some blue juice every few weeks and never have to worry. The other one is brand new and has been consuming valve oil as if it were draft beer, beginning on day 1. When I return to it af...

As to accidentals in certain movements: Whether or not those "belong" in certain places seems a rather arduous discussion to me. And this sort of rhymes with what Bloke mentioned about the scientific approach to music THAT old: - Nobody but Bach himself can tell how many versions of each p...

Unfortunately I´m not in a position to provide inside on specs that may or may not lead to this phenomenon. That immensely flat F happens to be a problem of my Willson 6405, though, and of other specimen of that exact type of horn to the point that it was referred to as the "Willie-F" by t...

I´m pretty sure I own what I need. - 5/4 BBb with 5 valves for concert band literature and full-size band polka-ing. Built like a tank and harder to blow than others, but EXTREMELY grateful to some extra effort. This one makes conductors in the audience smile, a lot. - 2- to 3/4-ish BBb M-W 2011 FA,...

I use a shoulder strap on each of my horns, adjusted to work best in sitting rather than standing position. That way both my hands are free to move slides, grab the pencil for on-the-fly notes or take a sip of water. This provides comfort as well as a feeling of safety: I can just let go of the horn...

The wooden finger / knuckle rests you´ll find scrolling further down make A LOT more sense to me. I´m using something to that effect on my Willson and am in preparation for another one on the Adams. I might add: Figuring out the shape that will suit YOU and then carving a NICE piece of wood to make ...

I´m using a single shoulder strap slung around my right shoulder to solve the issue Rick Denney is describing. For this to do any good on my Willson, the top line of that strap crosses from the right shoulder underneath my chin to a pipe on the inner left of the tuba´s body. That serves two function...

One of my favorite subjects to share with musical buddies... Every practise session of mine will cover scale work and some etudes that I´ve known for ages: When I break out the Kopprasch, I realize I may look at the notes, but don´t actually read them. I play old tunes from memory, a lot, and might ...

I totally agree with the notion that Taco ingredients will contribute an integral part to a well-balanced, healthy diet. Same goes with taco shells, provided you prepare those from scratch using flour (doesn´t really matter which kind, but I guess corn will be the original), water and maybe a pinch ...

Very easy: So What ?!? Embrace it. Slides don´t need grease, they need a lubrication that will keep them mobile and provide a seal to prevent air from leaking out. Back in pre-industrial times (and for quite a while into mass production) when tolerances were wide, grease (deer serbium) was the best ...

I consider my horns to be the equivalent of the motorbikes or fancy stereos others keep and cherish: A joy in my life that is nobody else´s business and doesn´t really need justification. That being said, I still can offer the reasons why I bought and keep each of my current five instruments, as wel...

I doubt that any person in this thread takes issue with other people´s choice of gear. Everybody has their personal reason for that choice. Problems arise if those preferences do not line up with an increasing populace´s "modus operandi". It is quite customary, NOWADAYS, to receive eMail w...