The reason a saxophone is considered a woodwind is because the way it is played is very similar to the clarinet. It is made of brass, and is the only woodwind that has never been made of wood. It has a single reed mouthpiece. It is made of a long, bent tube with holes in it, which are covered by pads called keys. The player operates the keys, opening and closing them, determining the pitch. The saxophone has three parts: the body, the neck and the mouthpiece. Soprano saxophones are straight, whereas deeper-toned saxophones have a bent crook and an upturned bell.

Since saxophones and clarinets are similar, many clarinetists, in their spare time, also play the saxophone. There are at least six different types of saxophones in use today, the most popular being the alto sax. The smallest of the saxophone family is the soprano, which is only 16″ long. But the biggest is the contra bass, being 6-1/2 feet tall. The saxophone is used more in jazz and military bands than in orchestras, though it is included in some classical music.

The marching mellophone is used in place of the horn for marching as it is a bell-front instrument, so that the sound goes in the direction that the player is facing. This is especially important in drum corps and marching bands, since the audience is typically standing or sitting on only one side of the band. There are also marching B♭ horns with a bell front configuration; mellophones also are usually constructed with a smaller bore for louder volume than marching horns. Marching B♭ Horns do use a horn mouthpiece and have a much more horn-like sound, but are much more difficult to play on the field.

Another factor in the greater use of mellophones is the notorious difficulty of playing a concert horn consistently well, even in a seated concert setting. The mellophone and other alto range instruments with a cup mouthpiece are better suited to the physical demands of playing while marching.

Trombones have been around for over 600 years. The original design of the trombone came from an Old English instrument called the sackbut( Really its the sackbut). The word sackbut  came from the French words saquer, meaning  to pull, and bouter, meaning to push.  The Italian word for sackbut is the word trompone so that’s were we  got the word. In the beginning there were four different kinds of trombones used. There was a soprono, an alto, a tenor and a bass. Today the symphony orchestra usually has two tenor and one bass trombone.

The trombone is the only modern orchestral brass instrument that could play all the notes of the chromatic scale from the beginning. But they weren’t in early orchestras. Composers thought they were only for solemn music. When composers write music for the trombone they usually write it for three trombones to play at a time and they usually play the harmony.

At one time in the 19th century trombones had valves like other brass instruments. But that style didn’t last.The trombone sounds as written which is different from other brass instruments. This is true because it sounds the note as written in the music. It is the brass instrument that uses the glissando  the most. It is a long brass tube that is folded back on itself sort of like a paper clip. The mouthpiece of a trombone is pretty large and is cup-shaped. You play the trombone by sliding tubing back and forth to make the tube longer or shorter. This changes the sound.

A trombone has seven positions. To make other pitches the player changes his lip shape. When he squeezes or loosens his lips this changes the sound. A trombone can also do a glissando, which is where the player goes up to a note or down from a note, playing all the notes in between by just moving the slide.

The Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps was created in the fall of 1970 by Jerry Seawright with a nucleus of percussion and color guard members from the existing Drum & Bell Corps. The Blue Devils toured on a National level for the first time in 1973 and gained Associate membership in Drum Corps International by placing 23rd at the DCI Championships in Whitewater, WI. In 1974 the Corps earned a full DCI membership by their 9th place finish at the DCI Championships in Ithaca, NY. In 1975 the Corps placed 3rd, and in 1976 won their first Drum Corps International Championship. Since 1975 the Blue Devils have never placed out of the top five at Championship and have won the DCI World Championship title in 1976, ’77, ’79, ’80, ’82, ’86, ’94, ’96, ’97, ’99. ’03 and 2007. Adding to their impressive record setting DCI world championships, The Blue Devils in 2005 won the prestigious World Music Contest in Kerkrade, Holland. Along with the world championships, the Blue Devils Winter Guard won the Winter Guard International Championship in 1995, in 1996 with a record score of 99.45, 1997 and again in 1998.

Today the Blue Devils organization encompasses a wide spectrum of programs. The Blue Devils family includes the A, B, & C Drum & Bugle Corps, three Winter Guard Programs and a world- class Twirling Program. In addition the Blue Devils offer a Music School for children aged four to nine and a Wind Symphony with 60 participants. Over 500 young people, ages seven to twenty-one, are currently members of the Blue Devils performing units. Over 6,000 young people, in 1,500 families, have been served by the Blue Devils in its 43 year history

The leader of the brass section is the French horn. But when it was first made nobody used it indoors because it sound harsh. In France the nobility used the horn during hunts and made up special codes to signal each other. It was even used by the night watch to call when there was trouble.

Even though it is called the French horn it first began to be developed in Germany. It was completed as we know it today in France. So that’s why we call it a French horn. Some French horns are really two horns in one. They have two sets of tubing. The player switches between  the two sets of coiled tubing by working a valve with his left thumb. One set of tubing gives a mellow, rich, deep tone. And the other makes a higher, brighter sound.

Once the French horn became part of the orchestra its shape began to change. The tube got longer, the bell was made wider, and it got its crooks and valves. It is the only brass instrument with a funnel-shaped mouthpiece. If all of the tubing were uncoiled it would be over 20 feet long.

The valves of a French horn are rotary valves. When the player pushes down on a valve it pulls a string that opens or closes different valves. French horn players put their right hand inside the bell of the horn to adjust the tone.

Entirely community-funded, the direction of The Blue Devils is guided by a dedicated and unified effort of volunteer parents and a professional teaching staff, who work in close harmony with the young members to create and maintain a proud, responsible, youth organization. All instruments, instruction, and costumes are provided to participants who pay a modest annual participation fee. Its a lot like 1600$.

The program i am in is called the Blue Devils B and it is a feeder corps to the Blue Devils A corps but has made a significant improvement in there playing styly.

If you want to see what the improvment of the BDB please visit my next post.

Jazz was a extremely new thing when it cam out in the early twenties from Harlem where the Jazz kings came to rule like “The Bird” and Loui Armstrong. As jazz was evolving the trend became that more instruments were being introduced like the Sax and Trombone but as time went on further we saw increasing numbers of these numbers. Sax was having a large  part in the evolution of jazz when it was being played by Charlie Parker a jazz legend who had mastered not only the art of jazz but the difficult task of applying that knowledge to the sax.

As time went on the sax acquired a set of music trends that relates to a lager set of music. The sax was getting the fast runs and sometimes support to the brass section. The brass section started to get parts that had lots of hits and power chords as the

sax’s played complicated runs and Sax soil’s. A sax soli is a part in the music where the hole sax section the Alto Soprano Tenor and Bari have a solo where the rest of the band is supporting them as if supporting a soloist. The sax is going to have a permanent spot in jazz culture as it is assimilated with the music it is made for. The sax is my favorite instrument because to me it is the most expressive of all the instruments i play in band. Jazz is also one of the things i love about the sax because it is a kind of music that is new and it is very creative and expressive because of its good feel and loud stature compared to the rest of the musics.

I first learned to play the horn in the same summer that i learned to play the mellophone because hey have the same fingering in the F side of the horn but not the E side. The Horn can be in two keys depending on the position of the button on the thumb which when depressed changes the horn from a F horn to a Eb horn. The use of the button is fore making notes sound more natural on notes that don’t like to sound on the F side of the horn. The horn is really a home in a horn sonnet but is commonly found in a symphonic band and will usually sit on the inside of the arch because the sound will be projected backwards in to the players behind and be spred out over the crowd.

The horn is especialy unique in that one must have there hand in the horn when playing to make the tuning more better and to give the horn its silky smooth flavor that i love. If you couldent tell i dont have my hand in the bell much beacuse i love the loud side of all instrements.

If you want to hear more about the french horn life style please right a comment or just be here because it is just here and i don’t expect much traffic. thank you!!!