Scott Hall's method of making a FALSET BASS HORN - if you can't afford a serpent [Pictures] - created 06-06-2006

Hall, Scott - 06/06/2006.22:23:46
Merritt Island and Orlando, FL U.S.A.

All low brass players know how to "toot" a mouthpiece and play tunes that way within a narrow compass, low to high. Well, if you build one of my falset bass horns to attach to your mouthpiece, you can increase that tooting range to 2.5 octaves and it will be quite fat and loud. Any kid can build one but take note: to play one requires that you actually be a pretty good low brass player already. By the way, I've made two of these for Doug Yeo of the Boston Symphony Orchestra--he uses a small one for warm-up before performances.

Take your trombone mouthpiece and insert it into a 12 inch long piece of 1/2" diameter tubing. This can be any material really: the flexible clear or black vinyl stuff is fine or you could use 1/2" copper pipe. Anything waterproof is okay.

Now, insert that mouthpiece and leadpipe assembly into the small end of ANY short or long horn you have fabricated for this purpose. It can be as short as you want or as long as you want. It can be made in any material. It can look like anything from a ram's horn to a huge, long, convoluted Dr. Seuss style monster horn! It doesn't matter. The only serious issues are A) the horn section must begin at it's small end with at least 3/4" wide inside bore diameter and B) that diameter should remain 3/4" wide OR--better yet--it should flare on out wider and wider as it travels on down toward the bell end. Also, C) you should not be capable of blowing this contraption into the natural harmonic overtone series. If it does that, then start over and make the horn flare wider.

That's all there is to it! A horn like this in the hands of a decent low brass player will yield a range including the fattest, lowest pedal notes on up 2.5 octaves higher--all fully chromatically. There are no fingerholes, slides, nor valves needed although you can install some fingerholes if you like. They will not likely affect pitch but they can change the volume and tone quality of the sound. In all, falset bass horns sound very similar to serpents and basshorns of the 19th century.

What's the science behind all of this? I'm not entirely sure, but I discovered that 12 inches of cylindrical tubing on a mouthpiece allows you to "toot" 2.5 octaves. The horn attached to this tooting device provides amplification and improves tone. Wooden horns are nice because they mellow the tone nicely.

BELOW IS A PLAYING TECHNIQUE TUTORIAL section for you to read so you can get the hang of playing my falset bass horn quickly.

Think about Bb lying in the lower middle of the bass clef staff—the one you tend to start your trombone scale warm up with. Try to blow that Bb note into the falset bass horn. For pitch reference as you first start to play, you’ll probably want to have your trombone sitting nearby for intermittently comparing and checking pitches. When you’ve got that Bb sounding good, go ahead and use only your LIP TENSION to try to go up the Bb major scale: do, re, mi, etc. How? As with any brasswind horn (serpent, bass horn, ophicleide, etc.), it’s basically just a matter of listening, tightening your lip tension, and adjusting your breath pressure.

Once you’re warmed up and you can go up and down that eight note diatonic scale easily, it’s time to try going on down into the deep, deep pedal notes—all the way down to Eb or perhaps even D. Again, just find the notes with your lip and ear. Take note that it is easiest to obtain most of the low pedal notes by DROPPING your lip position to a much lower point within the mouthpiece. You’re going to need to make this shift when you get down to about C. You’ll also need it as you continue on down through all the pedals to Eb and that D (if you can hit it). For very deep notes, start puffing out your cheeks, too.

Regarding chromatic notes: they’re all easily accessible using the same lip-tension adjustment technique. You can play 13 note scales just as easily as 8 notes scales—you can even gliss from note to note and center on microtones. It’s simply a matter of your breath pressure, lip tension, and precision use of your ears.

Now, go ahead and play a tune you know. Playing organized music on the falset bass horn will depend upon your ability to control breath pressure, lip tension, and comes via precision use of your ear. And as you know, the element of timing also comes into it.

Here's a pic of a new falset bass horn I'm making--this is in-progress and all ready for finish (multiple coats of sprayed and sanded black paint). I made this one by sandwiching three layers of marine grade plywood: 1/2" to 3/4" to 1/2". The thicker center layer had its bore cut out prior to lamination (i.e. jigsaw cutting the bore on that layer means that a rectangular bore is easily created through the full length of the horn once it is laminated together). The fingerholes, by the way, were drilled prior to lamination. At the top (not quite visible), there is a 1/2" hole drilled in which to mount the half inch diameter copper leadpipe (using a tenon on the copper pipe made simply of dental floss and soft orthodontic wax).

The above horn is octagon shaped on the outside--this shaping is done after lamination. I simply cut those edges off to make the octagon with the jigsaw blade angled to 45 degrees. And by the way, this is the horn I was emulating in making this one--it's a bass cornett (early serpent) from about 1500 A.D.

Here's a very short MP3 file of the horn.

C'mon, Scott - no dance tune for us?!