While visiting my doctor today, I noticed the eye chart hanging on his wall and decided to modify it for our use. I hope you all can read it and for all you jazzers out there, just add a lowered 5th and raised 9th and you will be fine.
Continuing in my limited series of disturbing videos I have selected this gem. YouTube has an ever increasing library of self help videos which strive to inform our world on various subjects. Many of these are very helpful and in some cases, they can be very destructive as in the case of this video- Please read this post completely before trying the above instructions. This could possible be the worst instructional video on the internet! If these instructions are followed as described in the video, I can guarantee that you will have ruined your instrument and for that reason, I…
Fatigue Athletes work to stem off fatigue and in doing so increase their endurance. Trumpet players are similar in that without strong chops or embouchure, a player’s amount of time being able to play music is limited. What I have noticed since beginning to play trombone is that most trumpet players tire much more quickly than do trombone players. I’m not saying that trombone players don’t complain of tired embouchures for they do, but the trumpet embouchure tires more quickly than does the trombone embouchure. Fatigue can be seen not only in the lip muscles but also in the back,…
Equipment failure Fortunately the number of equipment failures can be listed on one hand so solving these issues can be easy to cover. List of possible equipment failures- 1. Valves will stick, period (THIS IS A RECENTLY USED WORD REVIVED FROM OBSQURITY BY YOUR PRESIDENT). The number of times a valve has hung up a trumpet player would be hard to estimate but I’m sure it is in the tens of thousands when you consider the number of trumpet players performing. A stuck or “hung-up” valve can not only produce the wrong note but will also hang on the players…
Distractions As I stated earlier, distraction and the lack of concentration are usually related. The distractions I am going to cover here are the ones that creep into your playing even when you are concentrating to your fullest during a performance. #1. Where did my music go? You have practiced your part and are able to play it perfectly 10 times in a row with no errors. You are concentrating as you have never concentrated before. You are physically on top of your game and suddenly the music blows off the stand with a sudden gust of wind. This is…
In an earlier post, (The Perfect “Free” Mute Bag) I mentioned the benefits of a beautiful bag which could be used to protect your metal mutes. The bag comes from Crown Royal & Company and can be secured free of charge from anyone involved with the sale or distribution of this fine product. Today, I made use of the same bag to solve a situation in a show which required a very somber trumpet rendition of the Marines Hymn. At a very sad and sensitive scene in the show, the trumpet has an almost unaccompanied solo playing the familiar service…
Joseph Jean Baptist Laurent Arban (28 February 1825 – 9 April 1889) was a cornetist, conductor, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet à piston or valved cornet. He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini’s virtuosic technique on the violin and in an (arguably successful) attempt to “prove” the cornet as a true solo instrument, developed extreme virtuosic technique on the instrument.Born in Lyon, France, he studied trumpet with Francois Dauverné at the Paris Conservatoire from 1841 to 1845. He was appointed professor of saxhorn at the École Militaire in 1857, and became professor of cornet at the Paris…
After doing my own tests on this theory, I came to this conclusion- Matching the pitch of both the bell vibrations and the pitch of the air passing through the lead pipe and tuning slide did make a difference in how the instrument sounded and responded. The only problem with the thought that the instrument is more in tune with itself is that any change in the position of the tuning slide will have similar affects on your instrument. I found nothing note worthy in this experiment and would compare the basic sound and response of a Bb trumpet to…
This was a recent post on one of the more active trumpet bulletin boards and caught my inquisitive eye. After careful reading I decided to test the good Doctor’s theory. I will reserve my conclusions until our next post so that you will not be biased in any way when you do your own test. Carefully follow the instructions written by its originator and in our next post, I will give you my take of this new thought. Try it and see if it works. Testing A Possible New Way To Tune A Trumpet I would like TM to participate…
To make sure your valves come back up after you press them down, manufacturers have furnished us with a set of springs which work very well for most of the time. Sometimes we are faced with valves which seem to hang up every so often and it usually happens at the worst time. Hesitant valves can be a real headache as I remember when I was in fifth grade and performing cornet solos with the Moline Boys Choir, of which I was a member. I had two solos to alternately perform in our concerts. It was usually when we had…