The Mello Zone

In the United States nearly every horn player will encounter marching horns and mellophones, both of which are often not favorite instruments of horn players. As in the classic joke:

Q: How do you play a mellophone in tune?
A: You can't!

I first encountered the mellophone in F alto in high school in the late 1970s, as I was given a "classic" mellophone by a family friend, the one pictured at right. This type of mellophone was used fairly widely in the United States from before the turn of the century until before WWII. Featuring piston valves and fingered with the right hand, this instrument is an octave shorter than a standard single F horn and was generally used to play horn parts in amateur groups. While it is easier to play, it lacks some of the poetry of tone we associate with the horn. It is built to use a mouthpiece sized between that of a trumpet and trombone with a cornet shank.

I did not march with a mellophone in high school or college, as Emporia High School, the Kansas Lions Band, and Emporia State University all marched standard French horns, which was not uncommon at that time. But being interested in horn history I even then started becoming familiar with other alto range brass instruments, including the mellophone and alto (tenor) horn.

Fast forward to the years I played in the Nashville Symphony. I also helped with horn sectionals at McGavock High School, and about 1994 they were in the process of buying new instruments. Besides the mellophones the directors where looking at I had them also get a Yamaha B-flat marching horn on trial. I did a playing test of all the different instruments. To my mind the B-flat marching horn was the best, but the directors chose the best of the mellophones. It is an instrument pitched in B-flat built to use a horn mouthpiece; the music for this instrument would be in F but fingered with B-flat horn fingerings, just like "thumb down" on a double horn. One is pictured at left.

When I left Nashville to start teaching full time at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY, life was good in a sense as they have no football team or marching band! I only had to talk about mellophones with the students in horn methods classes.

Fast forward again to 2007 and teaching full time at Arizona State. For the first six years of my tenure here they used B-flat marching horns in the marching band. However, people in high places wanted change in the athletic bands. As a part of that change a decision was made to replace the old marching horns (mostly purchased in the 1980s) with brand new mellophones, part of a large purchase of instruments and uniforms funded by an anonymous donor. The first one I tested is below. It is in F alto just like the classic mellophone at the top of the page, but it is built in a different shape and uses a more trumpet-like mouthpiece with a trumpet shank (although a smaller horn mouthpiece works well with an adapter).

Initially I was not very happy about this turn of events. But it did get me thinking out of the box. Most horn students today in the USA will play mellophone for a while somewhere. The way the mellophone is taught and used is a part of the "horn problem;" if it were taught better it could be a part of the solution to the issue of there just not being enough good horn players around at the high school level.

The result was that during the summer and fall of 2007 I became very well acquainted with the mellophone. It is an ideal time to get to know the mellophone better, as the fact that DCI groups recently switched to standard band instruments has been a big boost to mellophones. They had long lagged behind other brass instruments, but now there is in fact a "renaissance" in progress with real development money and effort going into improved instruments and mouthpieces. Starting that summer I wrote not only a number of posts in my blog, the Horn Notes Blog, but also wrote a book, the first of its kind on the mellophone, A Mello Catechism; A Guide to the World of Mellophones and Marching Horns.

A Mello Catechism: A Guide to the World of Mellophones and Marching Horns

A slightly irreverent but highly practical tome on all things mellophone. Includes information on mellophone history, mouthpiece choices, tone quality, intonation, coping with marching, and much more. 30 pages.

Available from Horn Notes Edition.

A review is posted in The Middle Horn Leader web site, the online magazine on the mellophone.

I hope you will purchase this book. In it I cover the broad range of topics that impact mellophone players with the goal that it be taught better and be something that drives growth in numbers of alto range brass players.

Since the completion of this project I have surprised myself and have actually continued to play mellophone fairly regularly in the praise band at my church, emulating the style of the classic jazz mellophone recordings from the 50s and 60s. For me it functions much like the high F side on a descant or triple horn, and as the lone brass instrument in the group a mellophone played with a small tenor horn mouthpiece fits the texture of the music very well. Sort of a low Flugelhorn that I am not likely to chip notes on.

In the process of writing the book I started posting about the mellophone in my Horn Notes Blog. There are quite a number of posts there which I believe will be of continued interest among mellophone players and band directors that go beyond the contents of the book. To see the full series, check the category "Mellophone."

A few frequently asked questions are:

What mouthpiece should I use?
My favorite mouthpiece as of this moment in a competitive marching band or drum corps situation would be the Curry 1HTF. It has an inner diameter closely related to that of horn mouthpieces and will fit the chops of horn players well. For someone coming to the mellophone from the trumpet a Curry 3TF would be a good choice. But, as noted earlier, a smaller horn mouthpiece such as a Yamaha 30C4 works pretty well with an adapter. And never ever use a trumpet mouthpiece on a mellophone, it gives a poor result.

Why is it hard to play the mellophone in tune?
There is a long answer to this but the short version is it has a lot to do with the instruments. To my knowledge no mellophone has ever been produced with great intonation and rarely it seems even as good an intonation as the average student model trumpet or baritone. Either they are dreadfully flat around E at the top of the staff or goofy in the low range or both. It is my hope that with the current drum corps use of mellophones that money will actually be put into development and that a mellophone with great intonation will finally be produced.

Any other resources on the mellophone besides your book?
There is not much out there! But check out the links below, I really appreciate the recent work of The Mellocast, which I have appeared on a number of times, and The Middle Horn Leader. These are great resources.

And, again, be sure to check out the book! There is much in the book not covered online.

Above all I hope that these writings help encourage horn students as they traverse the "mellophone jungle" and maybe even inspire a few more mellophone players to switch over to the horn for concert season. We need more horn players! Instead of being a part of the problem it is my hope as a horn professor that the mellophone will be better taught and will become more horn friendly in the coming years.

Keep checking the Horn Notes Blog for more topics relating to the horn player and the mellophone.

Mellophone Links--the best on the web!

• The MelloCast A weekly podcast and resource
• Al's Mellophone Page All things mellophone
• The Middle Horn Leader The online magazine on the mellophone, with articles, reviews, much more.
• Stan Kenton Orchestra Mellophoniums by Noel Wedder and Scooter Pirtle, a classic article