Posts made by BigDub

One other thing that I remembered happening on Easter Sunday, second service. For the Hallelujah Chorus, they invite anyone who has ever sang it to come up front and join in singing it. Nobody turns around and stares at me when I start to play, usually.
This time there were two little girls who came up with Mom ( I am guessing ), and I was so tickled when they turned around as if they heard the ice cream truck coming down the street, biggest smiles on their faces. They probably couldn’t see me in the back of the crowded platform when they first came up, so when I started in it was a total surprise to them. As I said, the grownups are too proper, and, well, grown up to turn and stare. I bet it was all they could do not to. I'm glad I get to stand behind the bell, rather than in front of it........just saying.

@stumac said in A little humour:

When I started work in 1956 at 17 my pay was 25 cents per hour, 3 months later I turned 18 and my pay doubled.

Regards, Stuart.

In 1956 my Dad's Uncle Mangnus ( very Norwegian ) would give us boys 50 cents just for visiting he and Aunt Olga in Brooklyn. They had no kids. This brought them tremendous joy.

@barliman2001 said in Easter Services:

@BigDub I once had a spate of piccs... starting off with an old Selmer, then changing to a Besson Kanstul, then adding a Stomvi Elite, then a Votruba Pro... another, younger Selmer... and then I happened upon a Scherzer high G. And that one very soon told me that for me and my kind of playing, A/Bb picc was simply wasted effort. All the Baroque pieces that I was playing on A picc suddenly became much more manageable when I switched to the Scherzer high G... no more sharps anywhere... and then I got my claws on an old Selmer high G out of the estate of Maurice André... and that was one revelation. It beat the Scherzer and all the other piccs by such a margin that I sold every single one of them.

So it sounds like it’s two thumbs up for the high G trumpet over the Piccolo. Pretty amazing stuff that you are playing the same horn Maurice Andre used!
My thoughts are I will never find myself in a scenario where I will truly need any of these specialty horns. Never say never, though. I have found the C to be useful for me more often than I even imagined. A flugelhorn may be something I would enjoy.
I really get confused with how many steps a particular instrument would have to transpose from concert pitch. I am glad when I do arrange music for my Brass Group I don’t have to think that through. The program does it automatically. Very helpful.

@Kehaulani said in A little humour:

@BigDub said in A little humour:

@Kehaulani
A whopping $1.75 an hour, mind you.

I can believe it, because I used to make 85 cents an hour and that was as a sophomore in college.

Well, yes, Uncle K, but you are so much older.....

@Newell-Post said in Easter Services:

@BigDub Piccolo trumpet is a harsh mistress. It seems like you should get a whole additional octave out of the deal for free. But unless you are a real master, you mostly just lose the lower octave and get tinny sound. Resist the call of the dark side. Borrow one if you must before investing.

Nobody’s talking about buying anything here....I only would try borrowing someone else’s, and that doesn’t seem likely. Like Patrick was saying, most people like to use a Trumpet in D. My use of the C Trumpet was availability mostly, and the part was written for C trumpet as well ( not that I couldn’t re write it ) but, yeah, I have heard a lot of similar comments about the piccolo trumpets. I have tried one, once, at Dillons. It was a Schilke so I think it might have practically played itself for me. I did find it not so uncomfortable. I don’t think the intonation would be very good on one of the piccolos I have seen on EBay for $99.95 with free white gloves and hard case.

@Dr-GO said in Easter Services:

My Easter gig went fairly well but certainly not flawless. The prelude "Let the Trumpet Sound" is written on 4 pages. As I transitioned from page 1 to 2, the left margin of page 2 was covered by page 1, so there was about 3 measures of improv until I could get page 1 out of the way. From that point on, things went rather well.
I had an almost identical situation like that myself for our postlude. I had the three pieces of music, each being two pages, all together and thought I had them in order ready to go. My second page for the postlude, E-luded me. I think looked through every last one of the sheets before I could find it. We were already playing. This made the second trumpet player more nervous than he already was. Sorry about that. No one should suffer for my disorganization!

@trickg said in Easter Services:

@BigDub said in Easter Services:

I feel very good about how things went for me as well. I knew my endurance was going to be tested to a high degree so in anticipation I was doing "two a days" practice sessions for the week or more leading up to Easter. It was just enough to help me through some high passages ( for me, anyway ) on the Hallelujah Chorus, Christ The Lord is Risen Today ( descant on C, two verses ) and the first part in Grand Choeur Dialogue. All of these then repeated in a second service as well. At one point, I reminded myself to breathe, breathe, breathe, and I am glad I did that. It really helped me relax as well. Also I was mindful the whole time who this was for, and it wasn’t me for sure!

What horn did you use for the Hallelujah Chorus? I keep thinking about getting a pic, but that's about as far as it goes - I've used my D trumpet on the Hallelujah Chorus 7 or 8 times now, and it always seems to get it done ok, whereas I've never felt great about my pic playing on the occasions where I've done it.

I used my Dillon C trumpet, though not a D, still made it a little more manageable than had I used my Bb. A piccolo would have even been nicer, but it seems that people like the D best for the Hallelujah Chorus. I am not accustomed to a piccolo but I would have made it my business to get accustomed to it if one was available. I was able to cleanly hit the D towards the end on both occasions. That would have been an E had I played it on my Bb ( you would know that.....) Thinking about that would have kept me up at night.....I used the C for all the music yesterday. It is surprisingly not a terrible horn now that I know its little intonation differences.

@Kehaulani
Similar but not exactly the same thing as that, I had arranged it in my senior year of high school to have a study hall for my last period ( I doubt they even have those any more ) but anyway, I got very bored with it and to top it off I had a part time job after school, so the sooner I could get there, the sooner I could start making money. A whopping $1.75 an hour, mind you. So I decided to walk confidently by the teacher standing by the exit door, smile at him, say have a nice afternoon, and get in my car and leave.
Not once did anyone ask questions or even look sideways at me. We were not allowed to leave any time we wished. But I figured if I looked casual enough, well, you know. And guess what class I dropped to turn it into study hall? Art. I couldn’t stand it.

I feel very good about how things went for me as well. I knew my endurance was going to be tested to a high degree so in anticipation I was doing "two a days" practice sessions for the week or more leading up to Easter. It was just enough to help me through some high passages ( for me, anyway ) on the Hallelujah Chorus, Christ The Lord is Risen Today ( descant on C, two verses ) and the first part in Grand Choeur Dialogue. All of these then repeated in a second service as well. At one point, I reminded myself to breathe, breathe, breathe, and I am glad I did that. It really helped me relax as well. Also I was mindful the whole time who this was for, and it wasn’t me for sure!

@Kehaulani said in Easter Services:

@Dr-GO said in Easter Services:

You know, what I find that adds stress to these performances is that the vocal chorus requires the performer to repeat the verse, typically four times. That repetitive playing I find fatigues the embouchure more than range fatigue.

What prevents you from giving the performance an arch? Why not play a verse, lay out a verse, etc.?

Agreed. Multiple verse hymns can be really tiring. There are no rests, either. That is what we usually do, Kehaulani, skip verses.

@Dr-GO said in Do you see what I see??:

Do you hear what I hear? Man does the lower brass really shine on this arrangement! Powerful!!!

As eloquently phrased as that was, we still are impatiently waiting for the real truth of the matter...
No rush, though, Tobylou. We will sit here holding our breath till you answer.

@trickg said in Easter Services:

So here's my lineup:

• Hail Thee, Festival Day - arr Joseph Wilcox Jenkins based on Salve Festa Dies by Ralph Vaughn Williams)
• Festival Alleluia - James Chepponis
• Christ is Our Cornerstone - Philp W. J. Stopford
• Mass For the City (only parts of it) - Richard Proulx
• The Earth Is Risen - Gwyneth Walker
• Jesus Christ is Risen Today - arr Jeremy J. Bankson
• Hallelujah Chorus - Handel

Wow - I'm just now realizing how much music this is. Oh well - I seem to be able to get through it ok.

On a side note, this is for 4-piece brass and tympani with organ (a real, well-maintained pipe organ!) and choir that is mostly made up of students from the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory of Music. I've been paid more to play less, but I always come away from this feeling richer for having been there with these fine people.

I'm playing lead on all of it, so there is that middle section from the Hallelujah Chorus where I'm always wondering if I'm going to make it, but I haven't had an issue with it, so here's hoping that it goes ok on Sunday too.

That is a lot of work load there, especially with the Hallelujah Chorus coming at the end. Is this for one service or are there more than one? I don’t have as much but there are two services, and there’s virtually no break between the Hallelujah Chorus and our postlude, Grand Choeur Dialogue. That will be a challenge........everything I am doing tomorrow (Easte) is on the C trumpet. But for two services. That will be the test of endurance for me.

Love it, but what am I supposed to see? One thing could be the strange reed instrument sitting propped on a stand, looks like a cross between a bass flute and a sax?

@Kehaulani said in List of Undergraduate Schools with Well-known Trumpet Programs:

@BigDub said in List of Undergraduate Schools with Well-known Trumpet Programs:

Peabody is in Baltimore, Md. it is the music school part of Johns Hopkins University.

Could swear, I just said that.

Please. No swearing. I just saw yours a little after I posted.......ok, you can swear, just in your own private space, though.....

@Dr-GO said in List of Undergraduate Schools with Well-known Trumpet Programs:

@administrator said in List of Undergraduate Schools with Well-known Trumpet Programs:

Where is Peabody?

This is Sherman:

AND HERE is Peabody:

Peabody is in Baltimore, Md. it is the music school part of Johns Hopkins University. Very good school, I believe. Our lead trumpet player in my band is a graduate Trumpet Major from there.

@flugelgirl said in Easter Services:

@BigDub if you’re on Facebook, search for a page called Connie Rand artist - she’s showcasing a lot of her newer stuff there. The paintings I have were all done when I was in Jr High or younger

I am on Facebook. Thank you for that information!
My art Facebook page is a Wayne R Mathisen

@trickg sorry. I may have had those thoughts in the back of my mind. I truly don’t begrudge anyone who may like something I know little about. I just don’t feel deprived in any way for not having any interest.
No hard feelings, now.

@flugelgirl said in Easter Services:

I’ve played Easter services for lots of different churches over the years on both East and West Coasts, and it really just depends on the specific church what they have wanted in terms of music. Some have been large orchestras, brass quintets/quartets, larger brass ensembles, or solo trumpet and organ. Sometimes they have been thrown-together groups of volunteers with a couple of paid professionals, other times the entire group was made up of pros. Most of the brass quintets and quartets I got to hire and rehearse my own personnel, which was great. I’ve never had a contract for any of them, but never had them try to pay me less, either. Some denominations will try to recruit to their church in hopes they would get next years music for free, but I’ve always had a great comeback for that one! For years I volunteered at an animal shelter, and they desperately needed people on Sunday mornings because everyone else was at church. They can’t say a word when you spend your Sundays volunteering!
This year I’m playing for Lutherans - not sure of the size of the group, but the charts are easy. There will be another trumpet player I don’t know - hopefully he plays well!

By the way, Flugelgirl, am still waiting to see some of your mother's artwork.....I hope I am remembering correctly....you can message me and I will give you my email...

@trickg said in Game of Thrones Thread:

I've never understood why some people have to try to dump on people who enjoy this show by making sure everyone knows that they've never seen a single episode. Ok, whatever. But with that in mind, rather than try to wear that like a badge of honor, why not at least give it a try? It would be like me proudly proclaiming that I've never heard Bud Herseth play Mahler 5 - not even once, or that I haven't listened to even a single recording of Maynard Ferguson. (Not true - just trying to draw a comparison.)

I can tell you that it's some of the best screen entertainment I've ever seen, and I'm a movie guy - that's kind of my thing. The story-line and plot are wonderful, and the production value is stellar. it's like watching a really well made movie, only they don't have to try to shove all character and plot development into a 2-hour block - they have had 10 episodes per season (for the first six seasons - seasons 7 and 8 were/are shorter) to tell a great story full of twists, triumphs, heartbreaks, frights, action, etc.

The plot-lines and story arcs for the characters are superbly done - the good guys don't always win, and the bad guys don't always lose. Sometimes characters you love will get killed off the show by other characters you wish would die - that's just the way the cookie crumbles. There are others characters who were despicable in season 1, but their story arcs have taken them through redemption and they actually become likable as the seasons progress.

I got into the show because I read the books - those were great by themselves, but IMO HBO has done a great job of bringing those books to the screen.
I don’t really make it a practice to dump on people, do I? It’s more a kind of self deprecating type humor, much like my heritage of Norwegian decent. Besides, I don’t have HBO, or whatever network it shows on. So, how backward am I, right?
I honestly don’t have any opinion about the show, so how is that dumping on anyone?
More power to them. Enjoy what you like. I am truly happy for those that enjoy it. I promise I won’t march around their houses with placards or anything like that.

@tjveloce said in Blessing Artist gifted to me:

@BigDub said in Blessing Artist gifted to me:

@tjveloce said in Blessing Artist gifted to me:

@BigDub said in Blessing Artist gifted to me:

I think the case was made by the Hopeless company if I am not mistaken. Or, it’s a Conn Artist's case. Not sure.

Really? Hopeless? That was a brand? Or are you pulling my leg?

-tj

It was a "Hopeless Case". Humor. Pulling your leg, yes.
"Con Artist", that is not a case either..........

Man....I'm dense today. I blame lack of sleep!

-tj
At least you have an excuse. For some it’s a constant. My heart goes out to them........