I had another rehearsal last night for a July 4 patriotic concert. About a 2 hour rehearsal, and I was a little spent by the end, having barely touched a horn for the last 14 months. I used my new Curry 3C on the old Bach 184 cornet again, and am really happy with its playability and my endurance on it. If I’d thought about it, I would have had Mark make me one years ago.
I’ve seen something like that in trumpet music, and was told tied notes with staccato markings were to be soft-tongued with enough emphasis to for two distinct notes to be slightly heard.
@trumpetsplus said in Jaeger Brass moving to Germany:
@trumpetsplus I already have the Resonance Enhancers and my special trigger linkage system for additional valves (Quarter tone, Ascending C/D, in tune Bb/C, double bell) plus the range extender third valve slide, I expect to do more of this type of work, and such other custom work as comes up.
I have the resonance enhancers on both my Bb Strads, the trumpet and cornet. They really do work, and a friend of mine is using them too after borrowing one of my sets and deciding he wanted some. You can see them between the valves on this picture.
Good luck in your new digs. Hope everything works out well for both of you. Do you speak any German?
I’m trying to break the pinky ring habit as we speak, and also paying attention to my posture and breath support while playing. As I’m getting older, I need to stop making things harder than they need to be.
Well, I took my Bach 184 cornet and new mouthpiece to a rehearsal tonight, a large church orchestra that was meeting for the first time in 14 months. We worked on a few things for this coming Sunday, and then concentrated on patriotic music for a July 4 outdoor concert.
I always say the best way to evaluate a new horn or mouthpiece is “in the heat of battle”, and not in your safe place at home. Playing with a group, under a relentless baton will really test the intonation tendencies, crispness of articulation, endurance, range (both high and low), ease of dynamics, and flexibility of tone a mouthpiece produces.
That said, this Curry 3C. cornet mouthpiece is everything I hoped it would be for this type of playing. Yes, it’s early on in the mouthpiece honeymoon phase, but so far, so good. A good first impression is a good thing for me, because a bad first impression just about always results in a mouthpiece I eventually sell, even after giving it weeks of playing - they just never come around.
Anyway, a good time was had by all, the cornet/mouthpiece combo functioned well in a section of about 8 trumpets, and I’ll update this again after I gain a bit more experience with it.
I ordered a “custom” Curry 3C. cornet mouthpiece from Mark a few weeks ago and received it today. Just opened the box and took a couple pics for posterity. I’m about to try it out, and I will post my impressions of it in a week or two.
@barliman2001 said in The value of scales:
Trumpet player to antiques dealer: "Can you really tell me the value of scales?" - "Of course. They are not rare - though rarer as they should be. They are usually not in perfect condition - and nobody really, really wants them. No value at all."
They are of great value to fish, though...
@administrator said in The value of scales:
@trumpetsplus said in The value of scales:
I have never practiced scales, although I am proficient in all keys. I play music in all keys. Scales are not music. I know a lot of music and the only example that I can think of of a scale being successfully used in music is the Pas de Deux near the end of Nutcracker ballet.
I'm intrigued to read this. I remember spending countless hours on my 2-octave scales in high school.
I never learned all my scales in high school, and there are a few I’m sure I still don’t know...lol
@georgeb said in Traits that make a great sight reader?:
Well at 85 I wouldn't mind having an app that played the dang trumpet for me. I just play for the applause anyway.
I guess you could buy one of those electronic bugles that plays Taps and use it for military funerals, but there would be no applause...
@bigdub said in Traits that make a great sight reader?:
@dale-proctor said in Traits that make a great sight reader?:
What we really need is an app that just plays the dang trumpet for us...
I know you don’t want that
Of course I was joking, but I don’t want to follow the bouncing ball on an iPad that turns the pages for me, either...
What we really need is an app that just plays the dang trumpet for us...
I’d guess most of us think they’re probably junk and have never owned or played one.
I had an Ambassador that was hopelessly flat for some reason, and I finally resorted to shortening the tuning slide receivers and the slide legs about 1/4” so I could push in a bit more. I would have gone a bit shorter than that, but a brace pad was in the way. I don’t know if I’d do that to a Recording, though...
Here’s a question I’ll throw out there.
How many of you have played a late night gig, concert, rehearsal, etc., and when you get home you’re too wired to go to sleep? It happens to me about every time, and I have to unwind before going to bed. That’s especially difficult if you have a day job and have to get up early the next morning to go to work. About the only time it doesn’t happen is if I have an hour or two drive home from an out of town gig, and then I’ve already unwound by the time I get home.
I don’t think finger position on the valve buttons or in the pinky ring really matters, as long as it feels natural and doesn’t slow you down.
I’ve been told by the local instrument restoration shop that ultrasonic cleaning will often open up all sorts of red rot damage that wasn’t leaking before the cleaning. They warn people about that before accepting older or obviously compromised instruments for ultrasonic cleaning. I can tell you from experience, though, that they are very good at plugging those tiny holes almost invisibly.
@dr-go said in Traits that make a great sight reader?:
Add to the challenge of sight reading that most the parts I get are for C instruments, so in addition to sight reading I am also transposing the notes as I go, and trying to remember to add two sharps to the written key signature.
That’s what C trumpets are for...lol
I’ve found that lots of experience reading unfamiliar music, the ability to look ahead a few bars while playing, familiarity with common rhythms, having scales under your fingers as second nature, and tunnel vision levels of concentration are very helpful traits for sight reading. As far as left brain vs right brain attributes, I have no idea.
