What's In A PlayTest?
There is a lot more to playtests than these three examples alone. But I feature these three elements because they are heard so rarely. Too often I hear clips intended to impress upon me the ease of playability of a given horn, and I hear lots of ripping bebop lines and blues rock altissimo phrases. These do not put the horn under the kind of scrutiny essential to demonstrating the ease of playability. They do a great job of showcasing the players ability to burn changes and riff. If music is to be featured in a playtest, Bach's Cello Suites would be a better common denominator. They are a demanding workout that all players use, and will readily reveal playability issues. This playtest here is purely clinical. It does not tell you what kind of music I like to play because that is irrelevant. For those of you that do not appreciate this clinical approach, I will be posting another playtest like this one on Tenor, a '22 New Wonder I, in it I will play some of the Cello Suites. For now we can start with this clinical scrutiny.
There is a lot more to playtests than these three examples alone. But I feature these three elements because they are heard so rarely. Too often I hear clips intended to impress upon me the ease of playability of a given horn, and I hear lots of ripping bebop lines and blues rock altissimo phrases. These do not put the horn under the kind of scrutiny essential to demonstrating the ease of playability. They do a great job of showcasing the players ability to burn changes and riff. If music is to be featured in a playtest, Bach's Cello Suites would be a better common denominator. They are a demanding workout that all players use, and will readily reveal playability issues. This playtest here is purely clinical. It does not tell you what kind of music I like to play because that is irrelevant. For those of you that do not appreciate this clinical approach, I will be posting another playtest like this one on Tenor, a '22 New Wonder I, in it I will play some of the Cello Suites. For now we can start with this clinical scrutiny.
