Best posts made by barliman2001

@Newell-Post sethoflagos is under immense pressure at the moment. He will return as soon as he's ready. But he's alive and well.

Well, at least you need massive amounts of air moving through the trumpet to use spitballs.

@stumac said in Wanna hear/see somethings exceptiona/l?:

Among the best tap dancing I have seen, great playing by all, BUT if I had come in cold during any of the long solos I would not have a clue what tune they were playing. All scrambled egg music. ( perhaps I am showing my age).

Regards, Stuart.

Not scrambled egg music, because with scrambled eggs, you recognize them and know approximately what's in there. These solos are something like that Chinese food, "Eight Jewels" - looking and smelling nice, but you have no clue whatsoever what's inside. And in some Chinese restaurants, you don't even want to know...

Following an old tradition, scratch brass band CORONATION BRASS will be performing at the annual European Folklore Festival in the brewery town of Bitburg, Germany. It's a varied, four day festival with everything from Georgian youth dance groups to Dutch jazz bands, from the dance group of a Swedish old peoples' home (the youngest performer is 85!) to local oompah bands and the pipe band (German Dudelsackgruppe from a place fittingl called Dudeldorf)... A few TM and TB members have already played with Coronation Brass (ssmith1226 exclaimed that he would not take part the following year because his liver never recovered from the experience... well, it's a brewery town, isn't it?)

It's a sight reading event - no rehearsal, and you don't get the music beforehand, and have to fill at least three gigs per day with music - and of course, you are always very welcome to sit in with one of the other bands!

The dates: Festival kicks off on Friday, 12 July 2024, and ends with an open air night concert b Coronation Brass the following Monday.

Anyone wanting to know details, see the festival or even to join Coronation Brass (shepherd's crook cornets only!) should contact me IMMEDIATELY, as most seats are already filled...

![13692472_1363935326969037_563871893479750704_n.jpg](/assets/uploads/

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Lots of free drinks and free meals!

@Dr-GO said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@barliman2001 said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@Trumpetsplus said in Having to play in too many sharps?:

@GeorgeB QED

Sorry, Ivan, my ignorance is probably going to show here: What Is QED?

Originally, it's Latin and the abbreviation for Quod Erat Demonstrandum, meaning, "what was intended to be demonstrated". The abbreviation was first used in mathematics.

"So it is proved" is another interpretation of QED. And Barliman, quid pro quo if you agree, yes?

Of course.

@J-Jericho I have his e-mail address.

Air is needed to play trumpet - as I just found out when a spitball got stuck.

I can play that solo as well ...
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only five octaves down and twenty times slower!

It's that special time of the year again, and I am heading north with a small party from Brass Band Vienna to join Coronation Brass for their umpteenth participation in the European Folklore Festival in Bitburg, Germany... four days with four gigs each, no music beforehand, it's sit down and play... sight-reading old favourites and the whole time-honoured cheeseboard, with a few older test pieces thrown in for good measure... this year, the line-up of participations has more brass-related interest: Several big bands, a New Orleans-style brass band, couple of oompah outfits and the local ruffians who have evolved into a large wind orchestra of some quality... Anyone in the area from 12 July onwards should head there and get their ears full of brass playing of all sorts... meet Coronation Brass and have a few free beers with them - Bitburg, after all, is a small town next to a big, big brewery... they say the brewery employs more people than are living in the town...

Ok, this is a post I've long considered where to put... there is so much in it (yet not in depth). Let it rest here, and see what comes of it.

Yesterday, we played a concert, "Musc from Animated Movies". Choir, kids, choir, small smphonic orchestra, combo. Titles ranged from "When you wish upon a star" to "Happy", with excursions into Shrek, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jungle Book and the like. Venue, a large, somewhat unorthodox school hall: One central hall three storeys high, with two large open staircases doubling as seating leading down, and an additional wing with seating. Seating all over, up to the top (with the audience being on two balconies, as it were).

One staircase had to be kept free as eergency exit, so we placed the stage there. Front to back: Kids, Choir, Combo, Orchestra (with the orchestra well hidden from the audience's view by the choir). Conductor directly in front of the orchestra, conducting the choir via a camera and screen arrangement.
At rehearsal, everyone complaining that they could not hear a thing. Sound going off into Nirvana, so bad you could barely hear yourself.
Performance: Hall filled with 800+ audience (oversold, and some people standing around in the aisles contrary to fire prevention regulations...
And the hall suddenly came alive! One really could hear the whole structure... wonderful. I had a one-brand gig bag with me - Courtois flugel, Courtois C, Courtois Balanced Bb. And that old Balanced Courtois made the day - filling the entire hall without amplification.
Correction: I had the ACB picc with me as well, for "Fairytale" from Shrek, but that was in it's own case... read more there.

An old Austrian farmer - the kind who's still wearing leather trousers every day - gets a talking to by his wife. "You really should start wearing underpants at your age," she says. "It's much warmer and cleaner. I bought you a pair for your first trial." - "Ok" he says and puts them on before setting out for the fields. At midday, he feels the need for some relief and retires behind a hedge, lowering his leathers but forgetting the new underpants. After finishing what he came to do, he grudgingly concedes that his wife was right. "It's much warmer," he says to himself, and, looking behind him,"it's much cleaner, too!"

@rowuk Robin,
as a part-time singing teacher, I've utilized the Circle of Breath many times... it really works. But as I feel it is more or less YOUR CoB, I let you explain it.

@ssmith1226 Happy to have been of assistance.

Living in Austria means that I have some experience of playing outside in cold weather...
several hints as to survive and produce something that is not horrible to hear...

1. Dress warmly, in several layers, keeping care that you remain mobile

2. Outermost layer should be water- and oil-proof.

3. Double gloves are useful - finger gloves with no fingertips, then a nice mitten all over to keep warm during long intervals

4. The Swiss "Brand" turbo mouthpieces are just as warm as Delrin, but produce a nicer sound.
   https://www.thomann.de/gb/cat_GK_blbmbt.html?shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6NCwibGFuZ3VhZ2UiOjJ9&reload=1&manufacturer[]=Brand&gk=BLBMBT&cme=false&filter=true

5. Zip-tie a hand-warmer to the valve block (not a coal-burning one - if they come undone, they will set fire to your gig-bag):

@Kehaulani said in Acoustics... and a bit more:

@ barliman - I've read several of your posts where you write, "orchestra". In the U.S. that means a large ensemble with strings (ELO withstanding). When I worked in Germany, the term orchestra was used for any large instrumental group, with or without strings. Which do you mean? Thanks.

In this case, it was the Vienna Lakeside Symphony Orchestra. Eight first violins, six second violins, three violas, three cellos. Two flutes, two clarinets, one bassoon, one saxophone. Two trumpets, one trombone, one baritone horn, one tuba. Electric bass, drumset, piano.
I think you can call that an orchestra...
In earlier posts, I was referring to the Vienna Klezmer Orchestra which had a large string section as well, in addition to an unholy number of clarinets (nine!! including a bass clarinet), seven flutes including a bass flute, three recorders, a full brass section and four accordions...

On a serious basis: Fighting is another way of expressing interest, even sometimes of feeling within a family. For me at least, the lack of impassioned discussion with all its proliferations means that so far, there is no feeling "I'm at home here". It's like being in the entrance hall of a posh hotel - not even a rock star would seriously misbehave there. The damage is done in the privacy of the room...

@joelf Welcome to TB! You've come to the right place to find company and advice. There are three No-Nos here:

1. No politics
2. No woodwinds
3. No shirking

And there are three Musts:

1. Must check in regularly (even if only once a month) because there's so much new stuff coming in
2. Must always be ready for a joke to be flung around
3. Must always keep track of the number of instruments you have (incurable n+1 syndrome)

Oh, and one final obligation:

HAVE FUN!

I can only counter this with how Maurice André once described trumpet playing to me:
"Playing se trompette is like singing, just wisout a sore throat."

@Mike-Ansberry Try trombonechat.com...

@J-Jericho said in Acoustics... and a bit more:

IMO acoustics at a venue requires a balance of science, art, and experience to be successful. It's impractical to test-fill the space with the anticipated number of warm bodies prior to the performance and to replicate in advance air density, temperature, and humidity.

Well, in one orchestra we had a Red Cross worker, and at every dress rehearsal, the Red Cross provided up to seven hundred woollen blankets to simulate the audience... they usually declared this an "emergency exercise".