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Just an assumption but I was wondering if anybody had more concrete information.
Thanks
Thanks
If a tenor MPC naturally tunes to G, then a c-melody MPC should tune to A?
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Concrete is made up of three basic components: water, aggregate (rock, sand, or gravel) and Portland cement. Cement, usually in powder form, acts as a binding agent when mixed with water and aggregates. This combination, or concrete mix, will be poured and harden into the durable material with which we are all familiar. :mrgreen:
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Makes sense, too many conference calls with no coffee leads to brainfarts. Thanks!
Well, considering that the topmost tone holes of a piccolo (about 3 times the length of a C melody mouthpiece) are spaced about 3/8" apart, you're presuming that every single tenor mouthpiece, alto mouthpiece, and C melody mouthpiece has an identical shank length within a couple of mm. There's one tiny problem with that assumption - it isn't true.
Mouthpiece plus neck makes a tiny bit more sense but you're still assuming the neck joint is placed exactly the same for all saxophones. This is not necessarily true. For an example of how much variation can occur, look at baritone necks: from a Conn to a Selmer there's probably 4" difference.
Mouthpiece plus neck makes a tiny bit more sense but you're still assuming the neck joint is placed exactly the same for all saxophones. This is not necessarily true. For an example of how much variation can occur, look at baritone necks: from a Conn to a Selmer there's probably 4" difference.
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A mouthpiece doesn't "naturally tune" to any given pitch depending upon its length. The reason is that the barrel of the mouthpiece is far too short to have a strong enough "natural resonant frequency" to control the reed's vibrations similar to what happens in the body of the saxophone. Basically the pitch can be wherever the player wants it to be determined by the tightness of the embouchure and the "voicing" in the oral cavity.
A story I read somewhere that I believe has some credibility was that during the time Santy Runyon was playing saxophone in groups there were lots of clarinet players taking up the saxophone to cash in on the additional work sax players were getting. With little knowledge or instruction on the saxophone they tended to play the saxophone at the top of its mouthpiece pitch similar to what works on clarinet. The resulting tone is thin and pinched sounding and the upper register is quite sharp. Santy discovered that if the embouchure was loosened so that played pitch on the alto mouthpiece was no higher than A concert the saxophone sounded better and played better in tune. The "mouthpiece pitch" test is really an embouchure tightness test. It has been found that players in styles of music other than classical often play on mouthpiece pitches lower than Santy's prescribed pitches in order to get more volume and higher overtones giving the tone more "edge". Vanessa Hasbrook's thesis on mouthpiece pitch measured jazz players playing Eb concert on their alto mouthpiece, a tritone below the prescribed A concert for classical playing.
Its anyone's guess what pitch works on a C-Melody mouthpiece.
A story I read somewhere that I believe has some credibility was that during the time Santy Runyon was playing saxophone in groups there were lots of clarinet players taking up the saxophone to cash in on the additional work sax players were getting. With little knowledge or instruction on the saxophone they tended to play the saxophone at the top of its mouthpiece pitch similar to what works on clarinet. The resulting tone is thin and pinched sounding and the upper register is quite sharp. Santy discovered that if the embouchure was loosened so that played pitch on the alto mouthpiece was no higher than A concert the saxophone sounded better and played better in tune. The "mouthpiece pitch" test is really an embouchure tightness test. It has been found that players in styles of music other than classical often play on mouthpiece pitches lower than Santy's prescribed pitches in order to get more volume and higher overtones giving the tone more "edge". Vanessa Hasbrook's thesis on mouthpiece pitch measured jazz players playing Eb concert on their alto mouthpiece, a tritone below the prescribed A concert for classical playing.
Its anyone's guess what pitch works on a C-Melody mouthpiece.
Hell, you can play tunes on a mouthpiece by loosening/tightening plus using the hand over the end. So what the heck is the point of thinking it should play a certain pitch? I throw this in the same trash can as 'Reeds won't seal on my mouthpiece.' Like, so what? If it plays to suit you, what makes the difference?
'What makes the difference' They used to say that in Indy when I lived there. At home we said 'What difference does it make'. Anybody from Indy? Do they still say that?
'What makes the difference' They used to say that in Indy when I lived there. At home we said 'What difference does it make'. Anybody from Indy? Do they still say that?
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+1. This is my understanding of it also.
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Very interesting. I mean I agree on the embouchure vs. pitch, if I really want to annoy somebody I play a song just on the MPC itself, sounds more like a dog whistle but it definitely works. But there is also a sweet spot. This question came up (for me) when I turned a broken tenor piece into a c-mel, the tip was frayed, the window was mangled etc. It is a bit shorter now and it plays very nice and the "natural" or relaxed sound is somewhere near a G#. And then I had my brain fart 
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