Alphorn players out there?

[BopEuph]

A position in a German band may be opening up soon. Any audition is at least a month out if not longer, and I know a couple dozen polkas on tuba and bass, and own an alphorn, but obviously never put a lot of time on it.

Just a couple questions:

1.) I'm playing with the mouthpiece that came with the horn. The inside rim diameter is slightly smaller than my Warburton 8M. After about a week of daily shedding, I feel like I'm getting around better on it, but wondering if I should go bigger. I'm leaning towards no, because if I don't win the gig, I'd see a $50 mouthpiece as a waste of money during such a weird time.

2.) In double tonguing, unless I really concentrate hard, the "ka" syllable overshoots the note by one partial. Not something I've ever dealt with on a brass instrument. Is this again just dealing with a smaller mouthpiece?

3.) I'm assuming I'm just dumping too much air in the horns if I'm thinking like a tubist. Thoughts?

[Dan Schultz]

My personal choices for Alphorn mouthpieces depend on what range I'm playing in. I normally play the bottom part on Alphorn quartets so I generally stick with a cup size around that of a trombone or euphonium.

I know there are accomplished players out there who can do virtually any range on about any mouthpiece but being mostly a tuba and euphonium player myself... I find it much easier on my tuba chops to stick with what I can do without a lot of woodshedding.

[BopEuph]

When I was a euph player, hitting that high F was easy. Now, not so much. But nailing that fundamental is way easier.

I've thought about going with an adapter and putting a euph mouthpiece in there, but I really do like the tone of the wooden piece. In the last few days, it's gotten much more solid, so I'm thinking I'm just going to stay the course. The audition is probably not going to happen before the retirement, since the company is trying to make sure many health contingencies are in order before they organize any more auditions. So I think I have enough time (especially when getting crash courses in singing and German diction with a vocal coach).

[BopEuph]

Oh, here's a question:

Middle F, A and C are on the sharp side, while the F above the bass clef staff is quite flat. Is that something I just have to accept, or is a mouthpiece switch going to help?

[humBell]

No wisdom to share, but this sounds appealing.

Any recommendations for how/where to get one?

Or traditional literature or repertoire i should also acquire?

[BopEuph]

Any recommendations for how/where to get one?

So alphorns aren't cheap. When I'm making a decision to buy any musical gear, I sit on it for a long time and wait for deals before I pull the trigger. I eventually found an eBay store which was a storefront for an actual maker in Switzerland, and was using it to auction off what I'm guessing was its B-stock (or maybe just some surplus product). I got it 4 years ago for $750 by sniping it. Pretty sure this model went for around $1700. Doesn't have the wicker wrap, but visually, I don't see anything wrong. I wonder if the intonation issues made it B stock, but I'm not a full-timer, so it didn't matter to me. Sadly, I looked at the store about a week ago, and they haven't sold anything in that manner for over a year, and probably closer to 2-3 years.

Or traditional literature or repertoire i should also acquire?

Since I'm not a traditional player, I don't know if there's actual "standards" for the instrument. There's a couple this group plays that they refer to "Alphorn I" or "Alphorn II," which I think II is titled Kaiser Wilhelm...apparently his favorite call. I also know there's a small handful of classical pieces featuring it, including one by Richard Strauss, simply titled "Alphorn."

[bloke]

I like Dan's F-horn/3-rotary-valves thing that inserts into the front end of an alphorn, before the mouthpiece...making it (not just diatonic, but) chromatic.

If I make it up his way, I'd like to play Dan's...I've never played an alphorn, before. I'm thinking it's going to be yet another blows-completely-different type of F (F-ish) tuba, as is the cimbasso.

[BopEuph]

Eliana Burki is an alphorn player from Sweden, who incorporates "jazz" and "funk" into her playing.

To be quite honest, I'm not really impressed with her overly-processed playing (her music videos center more on her looks than her instrument), and her "improvisation" (you can only do so much with the lydian mode), but it looks like she just recently started incorporating a valve cluster. Looks like she's still figuring out what each valve does, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbUrsrEeEiA

https://youtu.be/q1lbDvSGp7I?t=55

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcIyxUaA4Hw

[BopEuph]

To bring it back around:

Oh, here's a question:

Middle F, A and C are on the sharp side, while the F above the bass clef staff is quite flat. Is that something I just have to accept, or is a mouthpiece switch going to help?

Is there something I could get that would fix this? Not that it's a huge deal, and the bandleader and I were joking that mediocre alphorn playing is kind of "accepted" on the gig, but would a mouthpiece switch kinda help fix some intonation issues?

Seems weird that the octave on any resonating instrument would be out of tune with itself, but I'm not that well versed in acoustic theory.

[Mary Ann]

I've played one a few times and found the air supply not that different from a regular horn, and the intonation on the ones I played acceptable. I preferred a horn mouthpiece, but I'm a horn player. But I'm also one of these people who is pretty much equally (in)competent on all brass, with the exception of trumpet which has notes higher than I do.

[Doc]

To bring it back around:

Oh, here's a question:

Middle F, A and C are on the sharp side, while the F above the bass clef staff is quite flat. Is that something I just have to accept, or is a mouthpiece switch going to help?

Is there something I could get that would fix this? Not that it's a huge deal, and the bandleader and I were joking that mediocre alphorn playing is kind of "accepted" on the gig, but would a mouthpiece switch kinda help fix some intonation issues?

Seems weird that the octave on any resonating instrument would be out of tune with itself, but I'm not that well versed in acoustic theory.

Where is the mouthpiece that it came with? The few alphorn makers that exist (a really fine one in Austria just retired) usually supply them with mouthpieces.

[BopEuph]

It is the mouthpiece that came with it. Got lost in the box and almost threw it out, but my landlord found it in the box as it was heading into the garbage.

Actually, I assume that the bore/shank sizes are unique to the maker, so I guess I would have to contact them for a new mouthpiece?

[Doc]

Actually, I assume that the bore/shank sizes are unique to the maker, so I guess I would have to contact them for a new mouthpiece?

Possibly. I have regular contact with three alphorns, but never at the same time, so I don't know how interchangeable they are. Did yours come with both an F or F# shank, nothing, or something different?

[BopEuph]

Just F.

This is the website of the company. I'm not sure which model it was, but it's probably one of the cheaper ones, and it's lacquered, not wrapped: http://www.heimatklang.com/

[humBell]

Thanks for the thread!

I wont' feel too bad hiking with a tuba, but somehow alphorn seems to be the natural instrument in the mountains.

And that is a venue i would like to play...

[BopEuph]

Yeah. The sound of the alphorn carries so well, and it might weigh 7-8 pounds. It's way lighter than it looks! It's definitely the right venue.