Posts made by barliman2001

I can only reiterate that purpose-made multifocals are a blessing, especially if you are playing in different settings and different-size orchestras. IMHO, single-strength reading glasses are ok if you are always in the same group, with a fixed distance between you and your music, the conductor not too distant and some rhythm section giving you a beat to follow... but in a large symphony orchestra, with the conductor miles away and some music without stirring beat, things can become complicated... I am currently practising for my April programme with the Filarmonici di Cefalu in Sicily... at least 95 of an orchestra, and the starting piece, Wood Notes by William Grant Still, is a flirring piece of ethereal music, parts of it sounding like a 3/4 measure but written as a 4/4... that's when you really need to look closely at the conductor.

(BTW, a few string seats in the orchestra are still open, so if you know someone, please ask them to look at www.dacapo-travel.eu)

@Trumpetb I think the only way of getting the entertainment monopolies broken is to respectfully find a way round the rules... seven years ago, it was hospitl policy not to allow anyone out after therapy hours. I simply told them that for me, playing music was part of my therapy, and denying me the chance to do so was endangering the overall success of the therapy. I finally threatened to leave that rehab and consult with the national press, and then got my leave of absence. Next day - a holiday - I was out and about gigging the whole day, with most of hospital staff in the audience...

There's one for sale right now, see Classifieds

@Trumpetb This kind of Disney policy is nothing but self-centred dictatorship. Several times I've had my trumpet - even if only a pocket trumpet - with me on cruises, and every time I was invited to sit in with the ship's orchestra. Even during my recent rehab, I had my pocket trumpet with me and was invited to play with the hospital orchestra... seven years ago, during a rehab, I was invited to sit in with the local big band in defiance of hospital rules... th orchestra won, and the hospital changed its rulebook. (See picture; I'm the guy in the black shirt...)
Boycott Disney for being the entertainment monopolists that they try to be...

@Mike-Ansberry-0 Some rotaries have tuning slide triggers.

@thornybob THANK YOU for coming out and being so open about it. Very much appreciated.

Dangerous musical exploit: BANJO JUMPING!

@barliman2001 here shown with my new Brand 1C winter mouthpiece and the Thomann Warm-Up Mute (really excellent as a practice mute does not change resistance too much and does not affect intonation at all. Am using it daily here in rehab, and no one has yet complained in three weeks of use.

AND HERE ARE THE PICS:

A year or two back, I discovered an almost-like-new LA Olds Recording in Votruba's in Vienna. Had been there for quite some time... they were only too happy to take my UMI Benge 7 for it (decent horn, but I somehow never got to grips with it), because the Benge was normal style and the Recording's Balanced style just did not catch on in Vienna... now, it's my main big band axe. Serial # 1018xx, dating it to approximately to 1954... so far, I always played it with a Bach Megatone 1C, but yesterday, I ordered a Swiss Brand Turbo 1 1/2 C in blue transparent plastic. got it today, delivered directly into my room in the rehab clinic - Thomann are great! - and it went from wonderful to spectacular... the new mouthpiece somehow released another half octave in range... and it does sound great, even though it is rather lightweight. And it's so warm on the lips - I am due to play with a local brass group on New Year's Eve, outside, and that mouthpiece was ordered for that purpose - in the hope that Thomann would only deliver it in the New Year, giving me an excuse to back out... great service!
Would love to post a few pics, but my phone is not on speaking terms with my laptop just now...

and of course there is the transposing method of liesering...

The only thing I did at Christmas was to tag round the rehab clinic with the local ruffians (officially "students of logopaedia nd music therapy")... a four-part choir that managed to sing at least nine parts in three different keys, two guitars that had not been tuned to each other, a mouth organ and five recorders... I am really ashamed to have been seen with those...

Any list of "top trumpet players of all time" that does not include Maurice André, Guy Touvron, Carole Dawn Reinhart or Alison Balsom and Tine Thing Helseth is just a list of randomly selected jazz trumpet players.
If you include players most successful outside the US - Dusko Goykovich, Derek Smith-Watkins and Sergey Nakariakov.
If you include those who were perhaps not in the 1A* class of players, but even more influential as motivators or teachers - Adolf Scherbaum, Pierre Thibaud, Timofey Dokshizer and Adolf "Bud" Herseth come to mind.
And if you include those historical figure who made trumpet playing what it is today - Anton Weidinger (inventor of the keyed trumpet), Jean Baptiste Arban and of course Herbert Clarke come up.
That's another fifteen names for you.

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):

@Vulgano-Brother those were violas!!

@administrator I got to hear MF when a young child - badgered my stepfather into driving me to the annual local jazz festival... and many years later I attended a master class by Al Porcino, Stan Kenton's lead trumpet...

@dr-go the doctors here call it an infarctus cerebelli. i had masive vertigo ans explosive vomiting, combined with a slowing of speech and some ataxy of the arms. the emergency doctor attending me did nothing on scene, and I got into hospital two hours after the incident (the fire sevice gad to get me out of the house via a 2nd storey window), and my first exam was a Catscan eight hours later. Even though I described all the symptoms very clearly, they thought I just had post-Corona ear infection, and I got high IV doses of cortisol despite the fact that my right eye is sightless due to glaucoma and the working eye is at risk from same... after four days and a second catscan, they diagnosed the stroke... now I am trying to get transferred from this Austrian hospital to my home clinic near Munich...

Hi there,

please don't be huffed if you want to reach me and can't - I am in hospital after a mild stroke.

@j-jericho As I do have a derby mute, but no derby hat, I think I'll settle for the mute...

Now normally, I am the guy advising others about mutes and stuff. But sometimes, fate throws things across your feet where you are stumped...

I am to play 2nd trumpet in Wood Notes by Willam Grant Still; very interesting composer, very interesting piece.

And several times, the composer calls for "soft hat mute"... now, how is that to be done? I'm not going to wave a trilby before the trumpet, that's for sure!