Making a horn sound “smaller”

[sirisobhakya]

This is somewhat a “just for fun and my curiosity” question, but based on a real situation.

I have been invited to play in a brass quintet. The songs to be played are arranged for typical tenor trombone, so as high as G and A above the staff. But I currently only have a bass trombone, an orchestral cannon with a toilet bowl (Yamaha Yeo) mouthpiece. High notes are attainable but strained, and the thing that I am worried the most is that the sound would be too large for the ensemble.

A new mouthpiece is not out of the question: I am considering buying a new 3G-ish size mouthpiece to donate to my high school band anyway. But I can only buy it after the only practice session (on this Wednesday) left before the concert (this Saturday), so I will have no familiarization period at all.

So… is there any way to make the horn sound smaller, preferably without changing the mouthpiece? Or what will you do if you are in the same situation?

[Burgerbob]

Most of it is mindset. But I wouldn't play quintet trombone parts on a bass in general, that's just asking for suffering.

[GabrielRice]

I wouldn't play a bass in a brass quintet either, but you can help yourself with a smaller mouthpiece. I keep the rim the same, so Doug Elliott's system is perfect for these occasions. What I would recommend is an LB113 with I or J cup.

[GabrielRice]

Rereading...concert this Saturday? All you can do is mindset.

[hyperbolica]

Depending on your chops, the only hope is going to be a 2g or smaller mpiece. You'll be lucky if the high notes don't go all kazoo on you, or intonation isn't wonky flat. It's a tough situation to be put in. If you can make it work on a Yeo, you've got a great set of chops.

The other danger is that the trombone stops sounding like the middle ground and begins to get lost in any high tuba or low F horn lines. So how this works for you may depend on the repertoire.

One thing you can do to help rescue the situation is to keep articulations light and tight, and back off the note so the sustain drops away, and keep volume levels down where possible.

My choice for quintet bone is usually a brightish 525 that has the effect mostly of 3rd trumpet. That avoids getting lost in or trampling the french horn. The only times I've played bass bone in quintet would be as a poor-man's tuba.

[Richard3rd]

Borrow a horn that is more suited to quintet.

[sirisobhakya]

Rereading...concert this Saturday? All you can do is mindset.

Saturday 25 October, not yesterday (time zone difference ). But still, only 1 rehearsal session left…

Thank you so much for all the recommendations Borrowing a horn is quite difficult for me (not as many horns around in my country). I think I would get a new mouthpiece, maybe 2G or 3G, and do the best I can. Let’s see how that goes.

[harrisonreed]

Bass trombone should only be used if covering the tuba parts. People say a trombone is a trombone, they're all in Bb, but that just isn't true. If anything, the bass trombone is the largest departure from what a trombone usually sounds like, if you're considering the different flavors of tenor and even alto.

[Matt K]

The obvious answers seem to be precluded here due to the circumstance. I'd personally swap out the bell first, then mouthpiece. A tenor bell and tenor mouthpiece on a bass slide would be fine. But again, I'm assuming that these are not feasible.

Practically speaking, I would treat this performance as a substitute instrument, which is basically is. This is a bass trombone filling the part of a tenor trombone, no different than if a tenor saxophone had to substitute for a french horn part, or a trumpet for an oboe part, etc. Will most of it work? Sure! (Probably). But I would personally not hesitate to change octaves for anything that didn't sound good. The audience will almost certainly be totally unaware unless they are a trombone player and even then... they probably won't care. I'd rather listen to something sound good that isn't the exact original than something that sounds not good, but is feverishly in compliance with the original.