What is the Best Trumpet Case? Part 2
Traditional Hard Cases Almost every professional trumpet came packaged in a traditional hard case and most often these were made with wood panels covered with a leather or leather like material. These are considered very strong and protect the instrument from most abusive encounters. Some are designed with extra room…
How To Pick the Best Case for Your Trumpet
Part 1 What are the different kinds of trumpet cases? Most trumpets are purchased with accompanying cases and to the average person, this is adequate. Your instrument is expensive and deserves the best protection possible. But is the case that came with your instrument up to the task? If you…
The Need to Play in an Ensemble
For most of us, the need to play in an ensemble is obvious. During our musical development, we all participated in ensembles, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes because of departmental requirements. Whether in a marching band, a jazz ensemble or a brass quintet, we all had experiences in this area. To…
Trumpet Falls and Doits Made Easy
Recently, we have been seeing more and more questions about falls and doits. More specifically, how are they played? Playing doits (ascending effect) and falls (descending effect) are very easy and I will demonstrate an easy way to get the most out of your fall and doit. The secret to…
Trumpet – Brass or Silver Finish?
Should I get a silver or brass finish on my trumpet? This decision is not the same as deciding on a color for your new car. Color and finish are two different issues when deciding on the surface of your new trumpet. Many people decide on the silver because it…
Revisiting VALVE SLIDE CONVERSION RINGS- THE SOLUTION TO LOW D & C# INTONATION ADJUSTMENTS
I have continued to test and evaluate the merits of this approach to better intonation and have some additional information for my readers. I have been playing every day with the ring inserts and have become convinced that the rings help intonation problems and I’m still fine tuning the lengths…
Musician’s Eye Chart
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.
“One way” to Clean Your Trumpet
In the preceding post, I featured what I considered to be one of the worst instructional videos I had viewed. This can be very risky but, as one of advanced age, I felt my duty to expose this atrocity. Some times such actions can turn around and bite you on…
The Worst Instructional Video On The Internet
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…
How I Practice- Playing Etudes
I try to allot time each day for playing new material and because of the unlimited amount of etudes available today, we will never need to be without material. The internet is one source of quality etude material and no one can use the excuse that they can’t afford to…