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beth
06-19-2003, 04:07 AM
sorry....the reply button was being wacky...

although alto sax is your main instrument...i will not even attempt to relate it to that in anyway, lol. you mention you play trombone. yay! makes life much easier.
baritone uses the exact same mouthpiece as a trombone...well, same as small bore trombones(student/intermediate bones, jazz bones, and meduim large bores like the Bach 36), so the embrouchure shouldnt be too much of a problem.
but, a word of warning, marching baritone can get really heavy really fast...really. seriously, consider lifting some weights to prepare yourself so you dont die the first day. my friend plays marching baritone in Crossmen drum corps...so i've felt one and heard stories of the pain, lol.
now back to trombone.
baritone has an identical range as the trombone.
heres how the fingerings relate to the slide positions:
1st postion = open
2nd position = 2nd valve
3rd = 1st valve
4th = 12
5th = 23
6th = 13
7th = 123

or...

overtones....(i left out fingerings not commonly used or really out of tune)
Bb, F, Bb, D, F, Bb = open
A, E, A, C#, E, A = 2
Ab, Eb, Ab, C, Eb, Ab = 1
G, D, G, B, (D/open), G = 12
F#, C#, F#, (A#/open), (C#/2), F# = 23
F, C, (F/open), (A/2), (C/1), (F/open) = 13
E, B, (E/2), (G#/1), (B/12), (E/2) = 123

as you can see...the more cumbersome fingerings (13, 123) are only used in the lower register.

also some things to note. an alternate for 12 (in trills or difficult passages) can be 3. and in the fingerings 13, and 123, be sure to slide either the 1st or 3rd valve slide out a little when playing these notes...these pitches are sharp (your horn hopefully will have atleast a 3rd valve slide ring). you see trumpet players make these adjustments alot (they sometimes even have triggers installed).

good luck!

BrianL
06-20-2003, 12:59 AM
Well I got my baritone today and I was surprised by how easy it was for me to catch on. Thanks for the help Beth, reading that just made things a lot easier for me to sort of visualize while playing.

Only problem now is that I'm seriously gonna have to start liftin weights like she said. This sucker weighs a lot more than my trombone and alto ever did!

Merlin26
06-21-2003, 03:10 PM
Here's a trick to help out on the weight of that Baritone. I've marched playing Euphonium quite a few times (and if u think the Baritone is heavy the Eupho is worse :wink: ) - What I found helped heaps was I grabbed my bari sax strap which is one of those the shoulder yoke type straps tightened it as far as it went and then clipped it to the ring on the middle valve ... we didn't have any eupho straps at the band hall so this did the trick quite nicely. Admittedly u gonna get a ribbing bout using a strap but hey it's better then a *Very* sore arm for days later.

Have fun and keep blowing

Merlin26