Tonight I managed to find a little time to try the bombard out again and this time I decided to try it with a tuner. As I couldn't find my actualy tuner I used an ipad application with a tuner in it.
I found it fairly easy to know when I got the notes 'in tune' as it was fairly easy to feel it vibrate 'right' and my ear is generally good enough to generally know when the note isn't right. I focused on playing the lowest possible note on the bombard - that is with all the holes covered and the key pressed down and the ipad tuner indicated to me that it was an intune Ab... given what we'd been told about the bombards I did not believe this and decided that the ipad must be off so I went and grabbed my flute to see how off it was. It was spot on with the flute - the fault wasn't with the tuner app.
It appears that the chart on the ABC of the Bombarde is correct for our Bombards, and that our Bombards (or at least my one) is in Ab - I'm going to test this theory in more depth on the weekend with other people's bombards
. I have been playing around with the fingering and can confirm that this is the best fingering (for the lowest 8ve at least - I haven't built up the lip muscles to get into the higher register yet) as alternative finger (I was trying different fingering combinations based off recorder and alternative flute fingering etc) do not sound right - it just does not vibrate properly - you can see this in a short video here. In this video I was trying out differnt fingering using a little tune I'd learnt on the recoder - some of the notes sound very off because it's being played in the wrong key and you can really hear how the Eb suddenly looses the stability of the note - that is because I was using the recorder fingering for f# - there is no note with the same fingering on the Bombard - whilst I totally butcher the poor recorder tune (that sticky outty Bb annoys me and as I haven't _seen_ the music for it in about 9 years I really do butcher it badly) it give you a fair idea of how to identify a note that isn't fingered right .
I recorded the video before I tested it with the tuner so it's pitchy -I'm pitchy and I wobble around notes- I was also trying out differnt articulation style.. the first time I attempt the tune I'm hitting my tongue against the reed in a 'ta ta ta' action - I quickly stopped this because the tastebuds on the tip of my tounge were getting stuck in the reed opening and it hurt; I stopped trying with articulation after that.. at some point soon I will look about in books for articulation for double reed instruments.
Are the Bombards in Ab?
Tonight I managed to find a little time to try the bombard out again and this time I decided to try it with a tuner. As I couldn't find my actualy tuner I used an ipad application with a tuner in it.
I found it fairly easy to know when I got the notes 'in tune' as it was fairly easy to feel it vibrate 'right' and my ear is generally good enough to generally know when the note isn't right. I focused on playing the lowest possible note on the bombard - that is with all the holes covered and the key pressed down and the ipad tuner indicated to me that it was an intune Ab... given what we'd been told about the bombards I did not believe this and decided that the ipad must be off so I went and grabbed my flute to see how off it was. It was spot on with the flute - the fault wasn't with the tuner app.
It appears that the chart on the ABC of the Bombarde is correct for our Bombards, and that our Bombards (or at least my one) is in Ab - I'm going to test this theory in more depth on the weekend with other people's bombards
. I have been playing around with the fingering and can confirm that this is the best fingering (for the lowest 8ve at least - I haven't built up the lip muscles to get into the higher register yet) as alternative finger (I was trying different fingering combinations based off recorder and alternative flute fingering etc) do not sound right - it just does not vibrate properly - you can see this in a short video here. In this video I was trying out differnt fingering using a little tune I'd learnt on the recoder - some of the notes sound very off because it's being played in the wrong key and you can really hear how the Eb suddenly looses the stability of the note - that is because I was using the recorder fingering for f# - there is no note with the same fingering on the Bombard - whilst I totally butcher the poor recorder tune (that sticky outty Bb annoys me and as I haven't _seen_ the music for it in about 9 years I really do butcher it badly) it give you a fair idea of how to identify a note that isn't fingered right .
I recorded the video before I tested it with the tuner so it's pitchy -I'm pitchy and I wobble around notes- I was also trying out differnt articulation style.. the first time I attempt the tune I'm hitting my tongue against the reed in a 'ta ta ta' action - I quickly stopped this because the tastebuds on the tip of my tounge were getting stuck in the reed opening and it hurt; I stopped trying with articulation after that.. at some point soon I will look about in books for articulation for double reed instruments.
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