Posted by Klaus on October 03, 2002 at 13:02:41:
In Reply to: Re: Euph Practice Mute posted by Alan Herold on October 03, 2002 at 10:51:30:
My respect for Steven Mead as a musician and as a euphonium player is very, very high, if not to say eternal!
However one should never forget, that Steven Mead is a Boosey & Hawkes clinician, test rider, and endorser. And that to a degree, that he has chosen not to play the best euphonium available on the market. Which is not a Boosey & Hawkes/Besson.
When I was together with Steven Mead in a Copenhagen brass house back in 1998, I had brought my Yamaha Silent Brass euph mute to have the two halves (re-)glued together by one of the techs.
Steven Mead's comment was: "Mine has also come apart".
So he certainly has used the Silent Brass to some extent himself. And the only situation, where his face looked having funny things done to it, was when he played a boogie bass line on the euph while singing the melody in a high tenor voice. That takes some musicianship!
The main fault with the Denis Wick euph practise mute is, that it stretches the octaves considerably in pitch. Something my ears tend to make my embouchure compensate for.
When I warmed up at home before morning job, I had to warm up on the DW practise mute. And I hated to have my first high notes come out flat until I had readjusted my (pre-)hearing-to-embouchure relations.
The Silent Brass is very much better in tune. I anything it compresses the octaves very slightly.
Klaus