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(HiC) wrote in message om...
(DrBoom) wrote in message om...

Yeah, trying telling that to the brass section standing behind you when
you're a sax player. "Down", "mezzo-piano", "soft", etc. are not in most
lip-flappers' vocabularies. Lotta deef sax players and orchestral woodwind
players out there...

Yeah, yeah, and "in tune" isn't in most reed slobberers' vocab....
;-)

Three words: trombone, french horn. :P

Seriously, I'm a trumpet player & I can sympathize. This should be
taken into consideration by band leaders, who might try alternate
seating configurations. The fact is, a lot of charts call for
blastissimo, the loud 'n high brass is what makes the sound.

"Blastissimo" -- great word! I played low brass for a few years,
and we called tuba/baritone version a "blatt". It turns out that
the combination of over-the-shoulder marching tuba and deep
mouthpiece is one of the loudest devices this side of nuclear
weapons testing.

Besides
rearranging the seating, this is a good argument for having the
trumpet section stand, to get those ahead of them out of the direct
line of fire.

It helps a little, but not that much. What they need to do is issue
Dizzy Gillespie trumpets to keep innocent bystanders out of the
line of fire.

I always hate being in front of the drummer for the same reason. I
can't believe anyone can play drums for any length of time & retain
their hearing. When in the service, I always wore earplugs when
marching. It makes your own playing sound weird but it saves your
hearing.

Anyone who thinks a rock band is the loudest thing going has never
played in a drum & bugle corps. The "stage" volume levels are insane,
and it's not like you can turn down the monitor sends. OTOH, there's
nothing quite like being in the middle of a really tight 100+ piece
band doing a good arrangement of "Firebird" at triple blastissimo.

Former band geek,
-DrBoom