2 posts tagged “concert”
I found a horn to borrow, from an alum of my school who's now living and teaching up in Beverly, MA. The trip to retrieve it was more strange than I'd have liked, but it's in my possession for the next 3 days and I don't have to worry about Monday's concert.
One thing does worry me, though: It's a really good horn. My soprano is a Super Action 80 Series II from 1992, and it is starting to show it's age - in fact, that's why it's not functional to begin with. It's interesting that there are a lot of horns that play great for 40, even 50 years, but it seems that the more recent models tend not to have quite the same longevity. It's almost certain that after going through the full overhaul as it needs to, my II will play well for another 5 or 6 years. The question is, does it play well enough now to justify the $500 overhaul, or an investment in the horn equal to 27.8% of the purchase price? The horn I'm borrowing is a Series III, and it's much more recent (circa 2004), with much better mechanics and ergonomics, and in general it just responds better. I like the core tone of my soprano, but having to wrestle with the keywork on occasion is not nice.
Maybe i'll just sell some stuff around my apartment, get the repair, and put all this off for another couple years. Or maybe this will drive me nuts for the next 6 months and I'll take out another student loan to replace it.
Just come to the damned concert.
It's still on, and I'm still set to perform. Only I now have no horn to play. In rehearsal today I felt that my horn just wasn't right. Notes were weirdly out of tune, some weren't speaking, some made awkward gurgles and jumps. The first cause that pops into mind when these problems come up is a leak somewhere on the instrument.
For non-musicians, it goes like this: on a saxophone, the tone is produced by a standing wave that vibrates through the body of the instrument. In order to modulate the pitch of this wave, the player opens and closes keys on the body and bell of the instrument to shorten it (raise the pitch) or lengthen it (lower the pitch). When we say there is a leak, it means that somewhere, one of these keys is not closing and/or sealing completely, and thus the wave is disrupted.
Upon taking it to Rayburn's and having Danny drop a leak light down the bell, it turns out virtually every. single. key. is leaking. In total, there were 8 keys that were not leaking...out of 23. Not good. The pads on the keys are 14 years old and have deteriorated past any kind of functional use. The fix? A total overhaul of the instrument, a full repad and rebuild, which takes a week and costs $500. When considering that I only paid $1800 for the horn, that amount becomes obscene. Paying a repair bill that is 30% of the value of the instrument is akin to taking your car to the dealership and having them tell you it needs $10,000 in repairs.
I don't have a choice - if I don't fix it, the horn doesn't play worth a dollar - but I'm left desperately searching for a soprano to borrow from someone, somewhere.
Why can't this kind of thing happen in the summer, when I rarely have performances like this?
