Best posts made by Bob Pixley

@GeorgeB said in Favorite Cornet:

I love my 1962 Conn Victor 5A

Nice 5A!

I used to have a cat who was fine with me practicing in the same room, as long as it didn't get too loud. The cat I owned before her would take off running the second he heard a case latch pop open. Sort of the same reaction I get with most people...lol

How about this one - 1976 Olds Ambassador Eb/D trumpet. Pretty rare for a good reason...it isn’t a very good instrument...lol

I have 3 Conn trumpets. A 22B New York Symphony, a 22B Victor, and a 6B Victor. They are nice instruments, but I usually play an old Bach Strad.

Man, I was at a jazz festival years ago and stayed at the same hotel as a lot of the performers. Late on Saturday night, a jam session erupted in the lobby, and went on for hours. Brian Lynch was one of the group, and I sat down there right in front and drank it all in till about 3 in the morning. That guy was phenomenal !

BTW, here it is all cleaned up, remaining lacquer removed, and polished. Conn 5A Victor, a great cornet.

The graphics illustrate the amount of tubing before and after the valve block, not the physical distance (as the crow flies) of the valve block from the mouthpiece and bell flare.

You can see by pushing the valve block forward on the Selmer, the bell tail is much longer than a standard trumpet bell. Also, the tuning slide position is still close to the "standard" distance from the bell flare, but is much closer to the valve block. If you measure the length of the tubing from the receiver to the valve block and the valve block to the end of the bell flare, you'll end up with the 3rd example (but not as drastic) - more tubing after the valve block than before it.

I was never required to know every scale & arpeggio and be able to play them two octaves. I do know most of them, but can’t reliably play much above a D above the staff. That said, I wasn’t a music major and don’t play lead trumpet in a big band, am not a jazzer or commercial player, so a D is just fine for my casual trumpet playing. In other words, I don’t really care that I can’t do it. I did audition for the 3rd trumpet chair in a semi-pro symphony orchestra many years ago, and other than some excerpts, a melodic solo, and some sight reading, the only scale I was asked to play was a two-octave chromatic scale, which was easy enough to crank out.

@Kehaulani

The engraving is the stock Bach pattern, done by Sherry Huntley, who was the Bach engraver, but she did it for me independently after I bought the instrument because I couldn’t find a dealer willing to do the special order for me. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Here’s an old pic of it right after I received it back from her.

If the mouthpiece is properly silver plated (or gold over silver), I doubt there's any lead exposure danger. Playing on a raw brass mouthpiece, or one with a lot of plating loss may be another thing, though.

@Dr-Mark said in Its Been an Age Long Requirement But How Many Can Do It?:

@Bob-Pixley said in Its Been an Age Long Requirement But How Many Can Do It?:

I was never required to know every scale & arpeggio and be able to play them two octaves. I do know most of them, but can’t reliably play much above a D above the staff.

I was required in the early 1970's in West Virginia, Dr-GO was required while in high school in Ohio, and most All-State requirements says "know all twelve major scales two octaves and arpeggios. Sounds like you have a new mountain to climb. All twelve major scales two octaves with their arpeggios. Now you poopoo an idea because you can't do it? What in the world is wrong with you? No wait! You're the fox in the grape orchard that jumped and jumped and couldn't reach the ripest grapes. Upon realizing he couldn't reach the grapes, the fox said to himself, "oh, the grapes were probably sour anyway"
You can't do what a high school trumpet player is required to know if they try out for All-State. On a side note, why the hell do you even comment if its something you are not interested in? Here's your words; " I don’t really care that I can’t do it." Then why comment unless you wish to be a turd stirrer?

You asked, how many can do it? I replied that I can’t, and I seriously doubt that the majority of trumpet players can. Sounds like you’re a bit stressed, my talented friend. I can still play rings around most high school players, BTW. I’d love to be able to play into the stratosphere, but it ain’t going to happen at this late age. There’s a lot more to playing than scales (which I do practice often) and high notes that many of us never see in a piece of written music.

@Dr-GO said in Professional musicians on this board question:

Another position. I am a union member for the American Federation of Musicians. I am a member of the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Physicians. So do either of these memberships acknowledge that I am a Professional Musician or a Professional Physician.

I'm also a member of the AMA, but the "M" in mine stands for Motorcyclist...lol

Praying for your speedy recovery.

I played in a community band when I was making a comeback after laying off the trumpet for 7 or 8 years. It was good experience and a place to get my chops back. It is one of those bands with no admission requirements, just show up and play, so there was a wide variety of skill levels. Lots of nice people, and fun most of the time. When it was good, it could be really good, and when it was bad, it could be very bad. It all depended on who showed up at any given time. As for politics, there was little of that going on that I knew about.

I started out on last chair 3rd, and over the course of a few years moved up to 1st chair solo. After a couple years on 1st, I auditioned for the local semi-pro symphony and won the 3rd chair spot, so I resigned from the concert band at that time. I spent about 5 seasons with them, but the politics was horrendous and most of the trumpet parts were boring (when I even had a part).

I've also played in a few local big bands and a brass band, but those were by invitation only, so the skill level of the players was reasonably high. Some bands just for the fun of it, and some for fun plus a little cash. I was in too many groups at one time, though, and it became a real drag. The brass band degraded into playing nothing much but pops concerts, and I resigned my 2nd part spot and went on the sub list. Now I regularly play in only one group (a large church orchestra), and sub in a few others when needed. That's enough...

@barliman2001 said in Community Band:

@Kehaulani But that is what is happening with Coronation Brass - every single year! And somehow, it works!

It works because the musicians are good enough to pull it off and fresh enough to make it work. What if the music was passed out 3 hours in advance and the group rehearsed it from then until 15 minutes before the concert? That's the type of lip abuse I was talking about - casual musicians being rehearsed to death right up to the time of the concert. If the music isn't ready to go the day of the concert, one more rehearsal that close to the performance will probably do more harm than good.

Higher, faster, louder... lol

Sorry to hear that, Butch. I lost my Mom in 2001 and my Dad in 2011, so I can empathize. Luckily, my two brothers, my sister, and I all get along fine and there were no problems settling the estate. Hope your sister does the right thing.

The 4 books I use most of the time for working on various playing aspects are Arban's, Clarke, Schlossberg, and Brandt.