The soprano plays great. I did mess around with the position of the G key. The left hand upper octave stuff on this horn is a little different--for one thing, the octave key closes a small tone hole above the usual C. It brings the upper C# more in tune. I thought that maybe I wasn't pressing the octave key down all the way sometimes, allowing the C# to go waaaaaaaaaaaaay sharp--like most of the way to D. In fiddling with the horn and a tuner and paying attention to what my left hand was doing, I realized that touching the G key was allowing the secondary octave key to open a little bit (there's already a little movement when you push the octave key--gotta get Lopes to check that). Opening the G octave pip sends the C# waaaaaaaaaaaaay sharp. The solution is to maybe not rest my finger on that key at all (easier said than done), but I also bent the G key down closer to the body a little more so it's not right in the natural curve of my hand.
So…there may be some secondary horn work coming up after all the pads settle and I can get back over there to Lopes' house. We'll see. I played it some more Sunday night, and after getting a couple of good reeds happening, the horn is feeling really good.
Anyway…
I got shut out of my Sunday AM church gig. I guess we all did--it was just a kid's choir with piano accompaniment. Boo.
Sunday night, I was back on the job at my PM church gig. Good to be back! I did a lot of warming up on flute, so I felt good on both horns. I might actually have a couple of days to play my horns before I have to learn something special for an upcoming Yacht Rock gig!
