Best posts made by Dr GO

@Doc-Wannabe said in Copper is cool!:

@Dr-GO That's a great concept. What era and region did you perform? I'd love it if there was a need for a P&W horn band. Interest seems to be spotty in our church.

This band played from 2001 to 2005. We were essentially the House Band at a Cincinnati Club called Simone's. That band was even featured in Delta Airlines flight magazine titled: "Queen City Jazz". We also played frequently at Pachia's in Dayton, and had an every Sunday Gig at the United Methodist Church on Salem Avenue in Dayton where we were scripted to play Hymnal pieces linked to the sermon, but had the freedom to inject a classic jazz tune from the Real Books that had a connection to the sermon content.

I lost the article but this is the photo used for the "Queen City Jazz" article in SkyMagazine:

@moshe said in Triple by-pass reocvery:

I had triple-bypass heart surgery right after Christmas, 2011... I remember that the hospital forced me to do breathing exercises that I hated.

But forcing air against trumpet resistance is quite different.

I would say that buzzing a mouthpiece would be OK since it is no different from the recommended breathing exercises,
but playing an actual trumpet would be too much strain while body is trying to heal.

moshe

I would agree that the soreness to the sternum is to be your guide. But I would not be afraid to use the trumpet as you can control and gauge the resistance. Actually buzzing a mouthpiece can increase resistance as opposed to letting in open into a leadpipe where blowing through a fixed opening will relax the expiration of air.

Here is an excerpt from a cardiology brochure the discusses home care recommendations:

While I appreciate personal experience, ignoring actual studies that demonstrate respiratory function can enhance rehabilitation is important. I do agree with Moshe, let soreness be your guide as to how much trumpet playing can be done, but playing the horn as soon as you can, will provide benefit to the road to recovery.

@trickg said in Welcome to TrumpetBoards!:

I've been digging this new board lately - some really good stuff on here, and it's cool to see the same screen names and avatars. I don't know who created this board in light of TM's demise, but I see this as sort of the new and improved TM. Let's hope that it becomes a place that newcomers to the world of the online trumpet forum can find and easily learn to navigate.

Agreed Patrick and somehow we have to convince our friend TrumpetMD to join. I have tried but he has yet taken the bait. Maybe if you too do a little nudging!

Congratulations from this end as well. The D# and the Ab and especially the A above that D# in the upper range are particularly challenging, as I find any high range combination including the second valve as a little tricky for slotting. When you are up in that range, the slotting gets tighter so you can tend to glide to another "false tonic" unless you are solid on the note. Can't do much to make that D# or Ab easier, but for the A, using the false fingering third valve only really helps to lock that A into place.

@trickg said in How many measures on a tank of air?:

Another way to think about it is like a vocal tune - sing through the lines and find where you would breathe normally if you were singing lyrics.

THIS is key. Music is about phrasing. So phase the notes as you would speak the passage. When I learn a tune, I will always read the words over the notes if included in the music for the most accurate phrasing, pauses and breathing. When you do this a lot, you know the standard musical notations of whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth notes sometimes just cannot "map out" as accurately the phrasing to which the spoken line was meant to express.

@neal085 said in TM Refugee - Late to the Party.:
Is Kenny G still considered the best jazz artist of all time?

I agree with tmd's answer (no) but I do know Kenny G holds the Guinness Book of Records for holding the longest note, I believe for 59 minutes.

AND word on the street is Kenny G is making a tribute album to Monk calling it:
Straight, No Changes.

As for me, my request for Kenny G would be to play "Long Ago and Far Away"

OK: Discuss

The Olds Ambassador is considered a "student" horn. So with that said, of out of my other Olds "professional" horns, Super Recording, Recordings (LA and Fullerton), my Ambassador is my favorite of the group.

Will I argue that the Ambassador is not a student horn... No. I believe Olds evolved the Ambassador to be just that. The valves feel a bit light in response, the slotting is not as crisp, and the sound not as bright. But all of those characteristics I prefer. The Ambassador is more like my Committe than it is like my other Olds. And that is what I like about this horn. I love the loose slot! It has a darker, smoother sound than my other Olds, and I just gravitate to that sound characteristic. I have less resistance in the upper range with the Ambassador than the Recordings, but I have got to admit, the Super Recording does play itself in the upper range, but again more on the brighter side.

So for student horns, the Ambassador is a solid contender. It is a student horn, but for me, it gives me the performance OVERALL than my other Olds horns. AND if you want to check out a "professional" on this horn, here is the Ambassador played on this recording:

THIS REALLY HAPPENED TO ME:

I had a pre-prostate biopsy appointment with my urologist, Dr. Yohanus, due to elevated PSA levels I had on screening labs.

As most men know, that prostate exam is not very pleasant, and I said as he entered with his gloved finger:
"Whoo!! Yohanus up my butt!

Should never have done that, as he laughed so hard while doing the exam, it was very unpleasant!

My perspective, is bad days and good days happen. When practice routine is regular where physical tone (not sound tone) is maintained, it still happens. And typically it is you, the player that feels it, but others around you don't. So, even after decades (6 for me) of playing, this still happens to me. perhaps one or two days out of the week, to my own expectations, I am a bit off. And after all these decades of playing, I have not come up to recognizing one particular barrier that is responsible for this. And when this happens, I accept it, then move forward to continue playing, but with more concentration and thought to keep me on tract.

Who knows, maybe these "bad days" happen for the better to get us concentrating more on our playing, otherwise we would be taking things for granted and when we become blasé we loose our ability to progress. Reframing these events into a positive prospective helps, I do believe.

What Flugelgirl states makes perfect physiological sense. Each individual has a unique set of dentition and lip muscle size, thickness and displacement that when combined, this all fits to a bare, cold metal mouthpiece in an unique way. The line up with the dental and lip fit is anatomically controlled. We should not fool around with Mother Nature's architecture, and that cold bare metal cup will find it's most comfortable fit to this embouchure gift that Mother Nature has uniquely created for each and everyone of us. SO.... celebrate this gift and play where the cup lands.

@Dr-Mark said in Artist on BOARD:

@BigDub
My favorite artist is Picasso because sometimes my underwear bunches.

This is my expression when MY underwear bunches a bit Munch:

Oh yes. Forgot to mention, I also "tricked" out my Ambassador. Here it is as re-created by me (with the help of Tom Green):

GREAT QUESTION OH GREAT ADMINISTRATOR so after sleeping on it... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... here is my response:

To understand how much sleep YOU need, we first should appreciate: What is the architecture behind sleep?
Sleep is divided into 2 categories, each of which is associated with distinct patterns of central nervous system (CNS) activity:
• REM sleep – This is characterized by muscle atony, episodic REMs, and low-amplitude fast waves on electroencephalography (EEG); dreaming occurs mainly during REM sleep
• Non-REM sleep – This is further subdivided into 4 progressive categories, termed stages 1-4 sleep; the arousal threshold rises with each stage, and stage 4 (delta), characterized by high-amplitude slow waves, is the sleep state from which arousal is most difficult

Sleep architecture follows a pattern of alternating REM (rapid eye movement) and Non-REM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep throughout a typical night in a cycle that repeats itself about every 90 minutes. That 90-minute cycle is fairly stable throughout the night; however, it is the ratio of Non-REM to REM sleep that is vital. Non-REM sleep normally dominates sleep cycles in the early part of the night. And as the clock moves toward daybreak, REM sleep muscles move in. This is significant, because research is most consistent that non-REM sleep is deeper and therefore, more restorative than lighter, dream-infused REM sleep.

A shift from Non-REM to more REM sleep happens as the night progresses. AND due to effects of circadian rhythm, if you hit the sack very late at night, you will tilt more toward less restorative REM sleep. So the reduction in deep, restorative sleep may leave you groggy and blunt-minded the next day. For this reason, there is a mantra that: Every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after midnight.

Okay here is the Science behind this process: People can skip reading this section and not loose sleep over the fact of understanding the importance of sleep.
Disturbances in the pattern and periodicity of REM and Non-REM sleep are often found when people admit to experiencing sleep disorders. Sleep-wake cycles are governed by a complex group of biologic processes that serve as internal clocks. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, located in the hypothalamus, is thought to be the body’s anatomic timekeeper, responsible for the release of melatonin on a 25-hour cycle. The pineal gland secretes less melatonin when exposed to bright light; therefore, the level of this chemical is lowest during the daytime hours of wakefulness. Multiple neurotransmitters are thought to play a role in sleep. These include serotonin from the dorsal raphe nucleus, norepinephrine contained in neurons with cell bodies in the locus ceruleus, and acetylcholine from the pontine reticular formation. Dopamine, on the other hand, is associated with wakefulness.

So is THE ARNOLD correct:
Sleep needs can vary from person to person. It is a “general” recommendation that healthy adults get an average of 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. HOWEVER, (and this is where THE ARNOLD gets the nod) if you look at supportive studies, there are none that validate this 7-9 hour rule. In fact, a study out of UCSD paints a different story. This study instead supports that the secret to a long life lies in getting just enough sleep, which ends up being about 6.5 hours per night. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3010336/

The study looks at 1.1 million people’s sleep patterns over the course of 6 years, tracking the amount of sleep each subject averaged alongside their longevity. Its major finding: Sleeping as little as 5 hours per night can be better for you than sleeping 8. In analyzing life expectancy from the data demonstrates that 5 hours per night is better for longevity and long-term performance.

Once YOU decide how much time you need to sleep here are How To Sleep – TIps that for better quality sleep.
 Follow a sleep schedule. Try to go to sleep at the same time every night. Having a bedtime routine trains your body to immediately rest as it approaches the designated time of sleep.
 “Winding down is helpful” as our brains remain active when going to bed if exposed to too many stimuli. Getting into a more relaxed state can help you drift into deep sleep. If my Science lecture above did not do it than just email me an I will send you some of my prior medical school lectures… Guaranteed to lull you to sleep!
 Avoid naps – If you want to sleep better at night, make it a point to skip naps during the day. After age 5, naps are no longer necessary].
 White noise – If your sleep is constantly interrupted by loud music (especially REM – pun intended) or barking dog, drown them all out with white noise.

The BEST MOST IMPORTANT part of smoking the Christmas ham is the frequent basting!

This I know so well as I am truly a master baster!

@shifty said in Fickle playing...:

“Some days you get up and put the horn to your chops and it sounds pretty good and you win. Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn wins.” — Dizzy Gillespie

So true. I am still playing on horns that have ages that may challenge my own longevity, such as my 1939 Olds Super Recording (although so far GeorgeB has this one beat!)

Sing the phrases you are playing and experience the breathing you are doing with signing the passage. Do this singing until you achieve this with the required air to make it to end of the phrases that when playing gave you stale air. Do it over and over again and celebrate the efficiency. Once this is achieved, take it back to the horn and now sing the same breathing phrases in through the horn. The horn is an extension of the voice is a key concept here.

@Dr-Mark said in Artist on BOARD:

BigDub sez;
"Maybe. But you're a Dr, Dr Mark. Remember that".

..I'm a scholar and smart... I've got so much more to learn before I can sit in the "smart section" where Dr-GO, my partner in musical crime legitimately sits.

My father was a gypsy... I believe therefore I may be illegitimate.

@Dr-Mark said in Good Instruments For Those Starting To Play:

@Dr-GO said in Good Instruments For Those Starting To Play:

Screw the budget! Get the kid the easiest horn ever built to be the first horn they ever play.... The Harrelson Summit!

---

Hey everyone!
If you go to the New Topics area, you can get adoption papers so Dr-GO can be your parent. Which reminds me, "Hey Dad, I need a Harrelson Summit"

What's "apparent" is that most here on TB are over 18, so adoption won't fly; however, I am open to being the designated administrator of their estate. I do have the license to find such individual to lack mental capacity to make this transition seamlessly easy.

@flugelgirl said in Can Playing with Musicians Out of Tune Give You a Headache?:

Interesting question. I know that if I have to listen to or play with others that are extremely out of tune it gives me a headache, but it’s a tension headache from grinding my teeth. One of the many reasons I repair instead of teach!

Stress triggering tension itself is the most common cause of headache, and flugelgirl, I believe you have identified the most likely reason for this headache response!