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One of the great discoveries of my cornet-playing days was pulling the tuning slide out until the normal Bb pitching became A. (This works better on a cornet's conical bore than on a trumpet's tubular bore, btw). The first time I sat in with the SOB's (Sons of Blues) in Chicago in '82 or so, I joined a lineup that had the usual blues band instrumentation of guitar, bass, drums, harp, plus tenor and trumpet. When they finally offered me a solo (after 30 minutes of dutifully manufactured 2nd trumpet parts) on an E blues guitar shuffle, I just took off on a Wild Bill Davison/Bix Beiderbecke romp in F, thanks to being tuned a half step flat. The other horn players were amazed, and I got nods of approval from the front guys. I didn't mention my 'capo" to them. When we played in A, I was in Bb--no problem. So I had solos for the rest of the night. However, when we played in C, I made an excuse and went to the restroom. Too bad it won't work the same way by extending the tenor mouthpiece... dave > >> - It sucks on tenor sax. > > that's riiight - but even worse: the much dreaded guitarist-induced BLUES IN > E becomes F sharp for us. > and Db for the alto saxes. > no frets for us, just awkward fingerings... Well, there's always the bar... and I can't stand the tone of the alto model anyway. August Sax should have maculated it already at the drawing desk. ;-) -- Greetings from Sweden Per Boysen www.boysen.se (Swedish) www.looproom.com (international) www.myspace.com/perboysen www.stockholm-athens.com