5 Areas Where Most Trumpet Players Go Wrong- #4 Tone

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Tone is like barbecue sauce in Texas. Everyone has their own opinion. Some listeners prefer the sound coming out of the bell of Miles Davis. Others prefer the trumpet tone of Arturo Sandoval while others prefer the tone produced by Al Hurt. To each his/her own. There is one thing that we all agree upon is that our sound or tone, is all we have to give our listeners. The listener doesn’t care what horn or mouthpiece you are playing on. Their only way to evaluate your tone is what they hear, like it or not. So how can anyone…

Revisiting Room Sound Insulation Ideas

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From time to time we receive material from our readers which needs to be included on our site and this issue includes a fine example of contributing thoughts and helpful information from our good friend Bailey Chauner from Seattle, Washington. In previous posts we have addressed the importance of sound insulating your practice area in order to make life more pleasant for your family and neighbors. I think you will find Bailey’s ideas to be very helpful and for that reason we have included his contribution today. The Science of Soundproofing: Simple Tips for the Trumpeter’s Home Whether you’re a…

Product Report- Wind Wynder

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Our last post introduced many of you to something I ran across on the web a couple weeks ago and wanted more information about. Once mine arrived, I decided to immediately attach it to my music stand and begin using it every day. I will describe the unit itself a little later in this post but testing under fire was my first thought. It went with me to Church that next Sunday and worked as advertised. Each page turn was positive without any hang-ups. Its size makes it very easy to hide from the audience which was important. My accompanist…

So… You Would Like To Double?

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So… You Would Like To Double? When musician speak of doubling, they are not speaking of playing bridge. Doubling, as most of you know is the act of playing more than one instrument. For a woodwind player, this is much easier for the mouthpiece, read and fingering are much the same among the woodwinds. Obviously the flute is one exception. For trumpet players we have a similar situation in that the mouthpiece and fingering among the members of the trumpet/flugel horn/cornet family are again very similar. But what I will be addressing here is the possibility of doubling on trombone;…

The Best $19.97 You Will Ever Spend!

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With all of the advertising on the Internet and television it is hard to believe that such a small amount of money could make such a difference in your trumpet playing. For $19.97 you can send for vacuum cleaners, power drills, combat flash lights and a dozen other miraculous products which will totally change your life. So why is this $19.97 product so different? The answer to that question is defined below. TRUMPET LESSONS ON LINE “Improve Your Trumpet Playing Today” Testimonials “I am an 80 year old come back player after a long layoff. Your videos and information is…

Patriotic Transposition Study

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Transposition sometimes is required for trumpet players. It most often occurs while playing in an orchestral setting but can surface in other venues such as reading out of a Fake Book, transposing from a hymnal or working with bad singers. To a younger player this can be a shock and for that reason I have included this study which uses a melody everyone should be familiar with and in a range most players will feel comfortable. Remember to use your eyes first and if your melody goes astray, your ears will guide you. Eyes first! Ears second! Patriotic Transposition Study

Starting Over…..again. Part 5

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“VB70G. Sound Blankets Producers Choice* did as advertised”. After a simple installation of 5 heavy duty hooks, all I had to do was hang the blanket over the window. After checking the sound level at the curb, in front of our home, we decided that the amount of transferred trumpet sound had been reduced by 90% which I feel is adequate for my taste as well as my neighbors. This sound blanket comes with one side white in color and the other black which worked for me very well. The Texas Summer sun will be warming the front of our…

Starting Over…..again. Part 4

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While still continuing to find a workable solution to my noise problem in our new house, it dawned on me to search the internet for remedies. Within seconds I had many suggestions as to how to deaden the sound transfer traveling through my large front windows. These choices ranged from foam to cotton, from fiberglass to cardboard and as I deciphered each claim, I narrowed my choices down to one constant fact; cotton seemed to be the best at deadening my sound. Before I shelled out an exorbitant amount of currency, I first had to be convinced that a cotton…

Starting Over…..again. Part 3

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We succeeded with the practice mute in lowering the dbs. transferred to the outside of my house. Unfortunately, I hate playing with one stuck in my bell so we must move on to another alternative. One highly recommended piece of equipment is the sE Electronics Reflexion Filter PRO Portable Vocal Booth which isolates your sound using a wrap-around partition with acoustical foam. After studying this product, I thought that I might be able to improve on the original design and out came some of the moving boxes currently lying around my garage floor. After about an hour, I was able…

Starting Over…..again. Part 2

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The problem I am currently facing is that the room I am now practicing in does not contain the noise (volume) at which I practice. As mentioned in our first post on this subject, the large windows are wonderful for viewing my front yard but fall far short for containing my practicing which became evident from a comment my new neighbor made when we first moved in. My first thought was to rummage through our still packed boxes to find my practice mutes. Nothing does more for reducing the sound in a small room than a good practice mute. And…