Posts made by Bob Pixley

@Tobylou8 said in How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?:

Richmond VA. I took a pic of one of those Southern FP7 engines years ago In Alabama.

I'm playing Christmas carols with a small group at a local arts center this Saturday night, and then playing eight performances of a Living Christmas Tree at a large local church the weekend before Christmas, not to mention all the rehearsals for it.

@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

I've been hitting Schlossberg pretty heavy lately and it's doing me some noticeable good. That said, I also work some melodic and technical solo music into my practice sessions for some real world simulation. For intonation stability, I find that playing regularly with good bands/ensembles does the most good. Ensemble tuning is situational, and depends on the other instruments and the music/chords being played - you have to know your instrument, listen, and compensate while playing. I've always said that the best way to insure you're playing out of tune is to have a tuner on your stand and watch it as you play with a group.

Higher, faster, louder... lol

Earlier, I posted my trumpet that's "the one". I'll follow it up with my cornet that's "the one". I have another that's a close second, but this is my favourite. 1994 Bach Strad 184, large bore with the gold brass bell option and "Bach Stradivarius Deluxe" engraving. Beautiful tone, plays well, and looks nice, too. I recently bought an old Connstellation 5-CW cornet mouthpiece and this little cornet really sings with it. The Conn mouthpiece is in the size range of a Bach 1-1/2C, but has a larger throat and different backbore - it really seems suited to the 184 (and me) for general cornet playing, but brass band demands a different mouthpiece, of course.

Many years ago I played 3rd trumpet in a local semi-pro symphony orchestra that hosted some well-known artists, such as Maurice Andre, Victor Borge, Doc Severinsen, the Canadian Brass, Yo-Yo Ma, Yehudi Menuhin, and Benny Goodman. I've also played in a brass band which featured a few famous guest artists, including Philip Smith and James Watson. Toured the eastern U.S. for about 20 years with a band playing various events (while holding down a day job), and recorded 4 CDs along the way with that group. I've also recorded music used on a couple Ken Burns PBS specials, and performed on Eb cornet in a movie that wasn't very good and went straight to DVD...lol

However, I'm not a professional musician...more of a useful hack who's been pretty lucky.

When comparing the extremes between cornet and trumpet, the differences are obvious, such as comparing a bright trumpet with a lead mouthpiece to a dark cornet with a brass band mouthpiece. The closer those two extremes come together, the less the differences become. Throw the player into the mix, and it can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference in sound.

I've found the Conn 80A "cornet" to be sort of a mid-ground hybrid, neither fish nor fowl. It fits into a lot of playing opportunities, but not into highly specialized extremes.

@Tobylou8 said in The One:
...You can't have too many horns and it is nice to pull them out for others to play and watch them drool!

I like to watch people drool as much as anyone else, but I've come to the realization that I DO have too many horns. I only play a few of them regularly, and when I do play one of the others (that has no sentimental or rarity value), I always think "why am I keeping this one?". To that end, I sold 3 last year and haven't missed them in the least. I believe a few more may be ripe for the picking, too.

I have a 1976 Bach Strad, ML 43 that is a terrific trumpet. I've owned it since the early 1980s, and although I've bought (and sold) many other trumpets since then, the Bach has always been my "go to" trumpet. Great sound and intonation, even scale, plays easily.

@Dr-Mark

No video link...

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

When we play in ensembles which include strings, either orchestral or guitar, we often end up playing in a zillion sharps. This may be why:
http://www.jaegerbrass.com/Blo/Entries/2019/11/difference-between-string-and-wind-instruments.html

When I was learning to play the keyed bugle, all the keys but one (the last one before the bell flare) were normally closed. When you pressed any key but that one, it raised the pitch of the instrument. How much it (or a combination of keys) raised the pitch depended on how far it was from the bell flare - the farther away, the higher the note. That one lone open key lowered any note 1/2 step when you closed it. It took a bit of getting used to, that pressing a key raised the pitch instead of lowering it.

How about some crazy klezmer jazz? Anyone here ever heard of Raymond Scott?

@Comeback said in Mute Musings:

...The cup mute was my major disappointment. I had been using this old slightly misshapen black and white cup mute that came to me with some ratty black fabric glued to the inside of the cup portion. One of our numbers has the entire trumpet section playing cup muted harmonized parts. My sound simply disappeared with this old cup mute in my bell, along with the balance in our section. I’ll be using a standard red and white H&B cup mute going forward, I get much more volume when using it...
Jim

You can't go wrong with the H&B fiber cup mute. I see a lot of Wick adjustable cup mutes being used as the modern "standard", but to my ears, the H&B has the classic cup mute sound.

@Kehaulani said in What Is Your Favorite Version of the National Anthem?:

No offense here . . . I was in the A.F., LOL.

I also guess this post is a big aside, but . . . The Marines, Marine Riflemen first and foremost, were a different animal, altogether.

Except for the "President's Own" Marine band of course. They are a professional band and receive a bare minimum of military training in conduct, military etiquette, uniform regulations, etc.

You can never go wrong with the Marine band!

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

Pure class...

Well, Jeff has a way of making just about any instrument sound good.