Update for everyone: I'll probably be out of hospital some time next week.

This question is one that hits me very directly as it is connected to my permanent condition as an Autistic... We in the Autistic Spectrum tend very much to overemphasize our shortcomings and belittle our capabilities - it's just one of the expressions of how our brain is functioning. I don't say that only we experience this; but most of us are more prone to thinking we are not good enough than Neurotypicals. I'm looking at my own example: I finished my Leaving certificate with best marks, being third in a class of 129; I completed undergraduate university in record time with an MA in history as third of a class of 355. I then completed my PhD in record time - less than a year - coming second in a class of 88. And yet I always sought after becoming better still because being second was already a cause for depression - I was simply unable to put my achievements in relation to what others managed to do. Even when I reached the absolute pinnacle of my chosen profession and was awarded a Professorship in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, I was not content. I could not strive for more, but there was that nagging thought I was not good enough... it ended with a divorce and deep depression; several years of therapy which did not help me at all because the therapists did not recognize the root of the problem, i.e. my Autism (and please forget everything about Rain Man and similar movies: There are such people about, but they are at most one % of the Spectrum). Only when one clever psychiatrist, at the goading of my wife, took the trouble of testing me for Autism did I suddenly receive the master key to everything that had ever happened in my life, and to my own mind. Since then, I have found the key to compromise and happiness; and now, I am not driven any more to try and reach unattainable goals, but am content to be what I am, and - in music - to be a good player within my own comfort zone. I still try to do as well as I can; but I now accept my own limitations while still trying to improve. And I am happy that way.

Hope you could make some sense out of this.

Well, after mourning TM and my hard-earned status as fortissimo user, I'm here.

Whether you are celebrating Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Diwali, or the 12th Week of Halloween, or Birthday or Wedding Anniversary or Happy 9th Divorce, my Season's Greetings to you. May all of you enjoy the best of health, the best of food, the best of company, and the best of trumpets!

At this point, I think I just have to chip in with the story of how I got hooked into big bands... 1993... I was a fairly competent amateur player with lots of experience in brass bands and wind bands, some orchestral stuff and already a vast repertoire of church stuff. No jazz experience whatsoever. Then, one Saturday morning, I got a phone call... a very Bavarian, very bearded voice at the other end...
"I've heard you're a trumpet player." -
"Yes?" -
"We are a big band." -
"Yes?" -
" You have a red shirt?" -
"Yeees??" -
"Free this afternoon?" -
"Yyeees?" -
"Be at the Saint Florian Restaurant at three." CLICK.

Spoof or truth? Well, the place was not too far away, so I collected everything I thought I might need... rotary Bb, rotary C and picc, black jacket and bow tie... (my usual church gig outfit) and went there.

In my innocence, I thought it might be just a short gig, with probably a third or fourth trumpet awol, possibly an hour's sight-reading of easy stuff, cash in and get out... "otherwise you don't hire a guy you don't know anything about four hours before a gig"...

What I found...

an Austrian wedding, and the band scheduled to play for the afternoon coffee break, then provide dinner music and continue to play for the dancing until dawn... the guy who had gone awol was the 1st trumpet, and they expected me to fully replace him for a whopping 16 hours or so... with a repertoire I had never seen or played before... I had to come clean about my big band experience so far, so trumpet #3 stepped up and I filled his place and managed to muddle through somehow... interestingly enough, they did not throw me out afterwards with catcalls and rotten eggs, but invited me in as full replacement for the now promoted #3. I stayed with that outfit for a full eleven years, playing another 196 weddings with them, 40-50 balls, and smaller gigs, numerous... have never been without a big band ever since.

@BigDub In a local paper: "The inventor of Autocorrect just pissed away. He was an anthole. Restaurant in pieces."

@bigdub Sir Thomas Beecham is best remembered for this incident... He loved to mingle with the audience in Covent Garden during the interval. One day a guy rushed into him and without apology, asked him where the loo was. Sir Thomas told him to follow a certain passage, adding, "The first door is labelled "Ladies". Don't go in there. The second door is labelled "Gentlemen". Go in there nevertheless."

Two trumpet players in Rome, in the only caffè possible!
barliman2001, left, and ssmith1226, right.

A friend of mine, former musical show trumpet player Alexander Gerzenberg, now has decided to throw his vast expertise in all things trumpet in with the Breslmaier company, being part responsible for mouthpiece development. A few days back, he gave me one of his first efforts at hands-on creating screw rim mouthpieces for my birthday. It's quite a story, so I am sharing it with you.
One of the chief products of Breslmaier is creating screw-on rims for existing mouthpieces, and vice versa. Usually, the leftover bits are thrown away for recycling... now Alexander has made it his pastime to root through the throwaways looking for something nice. What he found was a Bach Mt. Vernon 1 1/2 stem and cup, and a Bach Mt. Vernon 1 1/4 rim, both discarded. He cut a thread on both, inserted a slightly tapered distance ring and thus created what might easily be described as a Bach Mt. Vernon 1 1/4 A mouthpiece...
I played it for a full day yesterday, on both my Courtois Balanced and Olds Recording, and it was fabulous... nice control, warm silky smooth sound with optional paint-stripping... definitely a keeper! Thank you, Alexander!

P.S.: Tried it on my Courtois Roger Delmotte D today, a very mouthpiece-sensitive horn, and it was grand on that as well...

Suddenly, after a longish wait, I found "Global Moderator" beside my name... well, quite a few people here know about me from TM, but for all those who don't or who did not really care at the time, here's all about me. I don't have a fancy website - more or less because I'm busy updating my wife's website. But here's everything of interest about me:
I'm a 53-year-old Bavarian (well, German national, but I prefer my local tribe) living in Austria, near Vienna. Married to an opera singer (www.reginaschoerg.com). By trade, I am a historian.
My musical past consisted of children's choir, then the local church choir and finally, after studying voice with several renowned teachers, soloist with the Passau Cathedral Choir and the Dublin Guinness Choir. From age four, I played piano - did not really like it, but was good at it.
Until I accidentally put my hand through a glass door and cut a nerve. Fortunately, the same year I had won my first trumpet in a raffle... went on to Kinneil Band in Scotland (current British National Champions!), then back to Germany. Seven years in Ireland, playing with a number of brass bands and the Greystones Symphony, eventually conducting this orchestra. Since then, Principal Trumpet of the one and only Vienna Klezmer Orchestra (www.klezmerorchester.at) and webmaster for Munich-based Markus Fluhr Big Band (www.bbmf.de).
So far, I have performed on trumpet in twelve different countries and a total of 97 orchestras or bands (usually as a sub). I have been known to pack the car at a moment's notice and drive several days just for one interesting gig...
My finest moment in history? When I walked into a Vienna coffee house and they had a clarinet converted into a table lamp!

Feel free to contact me - I'm sure to answer.

@administrator I seem to remember details about that kid of scam elsewhere here...

Here it is, under the title of Matt Brockman: SCAM:

"
administrator
administrator Global Moderator
Mar 3, 2024, 6:59 PM

It has come to my attention that an unscrupulous sleaze ball is ripping off unsuspecting individuals who are looking to improve their trumpet skills.

This is a PSA: Matt Brockman is a hustler & scammer. His program is not worth 1/10 of what he offers. Please do not purchase anything he is selling.

Please see the following threads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/trumpet/comments/1812yta/matt_brockman_sales_pitch/

https://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=161676&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=549c6012863e691194d4a650fefd2662

@Kehaulani-0 I have my two inclusive Autistic music groups - www.auti-group-web.de and Soundtistics, sponsoring members always welcome!
But there is nothing around even slightly approaching a brass band - the only thing I tried out was a wind band specializing on movie music, called Filmharmonie Wien; but as they rehearse in a location without assured parking, I had to abandon that idea (since my stroke in November 2023 I am dependent on two crutches; and my Autism prevents me from getting public transport, quite apart from the fact that I would need to walk about half a mile with two crutches and a big gig bag...).
All the other bands around are traditional Austrian oompah bands who require a lot of marching and the wearing of traditional Austrian costume - and I have had my fill of that. Quite apart, the usual round of waltz - march - polka tends to get tedious...

@Kehaulani-0 Yes to your question, "Did you bring it up?" Yes, I did - several times. First time when they forgot to bring music for me. Second time when they invited me onto flugel. I asked them, "will I be able to hold on to that chair?" and their reply was, "yes, indefinitely, as long as you like." As a result, I had a friend of mine - the composer Philip R. Buttall - make an arrangement of his Eclogue for Flugelhorn (one of my favourite pieces, and one that was composed for me and is dedicated to me) for brass band and presented it to the band, at my own expense.
Not two months later, they shoved me onto repiano (four weeks before a concert, which I greatly resented). I told them I would not like another instance of such behaviour.
As to the new conductor... the former conductor is a professional trumpet player with many years in a renowned German brass band under his belt. When he resigned (and was relegated to Bb bass), I several times told the Committee that the new guy should be someone with brass band experience and that I knew someone who could adequately fill that role. Next thing I knew was the Committee's announcement about the new conductor (the chor guy).
Still, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and even offered my help - I even bought more suitable sheet music and donated it to the band.
Since then - almost year - not single one of these pieces has been even looked at, and my offers of explaining the true nature of brass bands to the new MD were declined... and when I offered to take on the MD's job myself, I was rejected as "not experienced enough."
It's true, I don't have a glittering diploma; but I have been playing in brass bands for over 35 years now and have conducted quite a few, usually with fair success - amongst others, there are two Irish bands that were on the brink of dissolution when I was asked to take over, and they are now alive and kicking. And having attended conducting masterclasses with Roger Payne, Phil McCann and Derek Broadbent might possibly be thought more appropriate for being a brass band conductor than having studied choir leading and recorder at a conservatory...
But then, the band is an official Scouts' band, and both the band president (who took over on flugelhorn) and the new conductor are Scouts... and I never was...

I am pi$$ed off.
Totally.
What happened?
Several years back, I joined a British Brass Band somewhere in Austria (location on request), and was put on Sop. I was very ok with that - until someone else came and wanted to play sop (without any brass band experience). Without being asked, I was put onto 1st baritone. Still was sometimes asked to sub for the sop. But usually was shifted around between both baritones and both euphs, according to rehearsal needs. Then, they returned me to sop. Ok.
A few weeks later, the band held a three-day training camp far off in the mountains (four hours' drive). And somehow, they forgot to take all the sop music. So I was there, without music and without another instrument to revert to. I left the camp.
For another year, I was shifted around, never knowing which instrument I was going to play before the rehearsal. A very unsettling experience - so I left the band.
A year later, they approached me and asked me whether I would like to play flugelhorn (my dream instrument) with them, and assured me that I would be able to hold that seat for as long as I wished. OK. I rejoined.
Three months later, on arrival at a rehearsal. I was told to switch to repiano cornet. Someone else had taken the flugel chair. And for a year or so, I did that job. Reliably.
And only yesterday they sent a message in band WhatsApp group announcing that someone else was taking the repiano chair. Someone without much experience in the brass band world.
No mention of any further role for me in that band.
I am the more pi$$ed off because I brought several good, reliable players into the band, organized fundraising events for them and even sold some of my cornets to band members who only had trumpets, at ridiculous prices (such as a fully restored, silver plated Besson International for € 300), just to get the cornet section properly kitted out...
Seems they want me to leave.
But then, some of them are already hankering after their former oompah band outlay with clarinets, and the new conductor has no brass band experience whatsoever - by training, he is a choir master and does not himself play any brass instrument - and has been putting on big band and film music repertoire...
Unfortunately, the nearest British Brass Band around is some 200 miles away...

Something a bit unusual, but qualifies for Vintage Horn Eye Candy...

Kuhlohorn by Clemens August Glier

(sold into the US, now being played in a Community Band in Vermont)

Welcome in the Club!

For the last few years, my main axe has been a Recording...
combined here with a Swiss Brand Turbo mouthpiece in 1 1/2 C size

Good flugelhorny sound, yes; but he is playing that Kuhlohorn with an inappropriate mouthpiece. They were intended - just as all rotary flugelhorns to this day - to be played with a trumpet mouthpiece. The original Kuhlohorn sound is something like a straight cornet with a proper cornet mouthpiece.

@administrator Indeed it is. The inventor, a pastor Kuhlo, wanted something more mellow in tone than the peashooter trumpets ubiquituous in his day, to better fit in with trombones and helicons (cornets were almost unheard-of in Germany at the time)

@Newell-Post It's the same as with my Garreis tenor trombone - how in all the world got it fitted with a very small and narrow trumpet mouthpiece before sale??