Best posts made by Dr GO

@Curlydoc said in New Categories:

@Dr-GO How about good music for doctors? LOL

This music has a good message (and horns of course) but may be self defeating for we physicians:

By the way, I have transcribed the horn parts for this as I played it with a rock band "The Young Stallions" (composed of medical students non-the less). I was honored that they invited me as their faculty to be their horn section!

Reading the above two comments, I agree with so much that has been stated, and feel that each person's success at achieving a desired range will be a unique path traveled by each and every one posting, but with some commonly shared way stations along this path.

My common experience: "If you wanted to improve your mile time, you wouldn't wake up one morning and decided to gain a minute. It doesn't work that way. Why would instrument playing be any different?" So true. My travels to increasing range came over time with lot's and lot's of practice time, to where I found (for me) to advance and even more importantly, maintain, I HAVE to practice at least an hour a day, with an optimal daily goal of 1.5 hours. This is the only way to develop and maintain muscle (lips, chest, abdomen) to get there. Just working on the horn for that hour and a half, I met my first goal of having a full sounding (strong and hit solidly greater than 95% of the time) C above staff to the F above that one upon graduating college. I needed that full strength and certain F to meet the demands of lead parts I was given in Graduate School. With the above practice time and rehearsing the charts from the band judiciously, I achieved that solid F within 6 months. My "method book" were the charts I used.

I was happy with that range for many years (1970 - 2004) that followed and had no reason to add to it... so didn't.

Then I joined a demanding quintet in 2004. No real "lead playing", but the original charts written by several of the band members were DEMANDING. Not demanding in going higher than G (one note above my solid F) but hanging above staff to about the range of E for over half of the duration of many of the charts. Just working on those tunes, and within months of rehearsing the band, playing two 4 hour gigs a week (on nights I did not practice) developed lip muscle I never intended to achieve. It was not really a conscious work routine, just playing really cool tunes that were highly motivating to play got me to a whole new level.

Fast Forward After about another 6 months of playing with this quintet, the quintet leader was insisting I share the lead part with his jazz orchestra, a position I really no longer aspired to doing after I played lead in Graduate School. But I highly respected this leader and amazingly found that I had a solid A when some of his big band charts had that note written in. Suddenly, I was hitting that note strong and solid at the 95% level. And you know at that point I found out, I could never miss that G below the A anymore. So then I set my goal to double high C so I could octave up from standard charts. Why? Because I wanted to see if I could do it (not that I had to do it).

So I started using the Cat Anderson method, and lip slur exercises in the high range given to me by a friend. Within a year, the double high C was strong at 95%. ANY NOTE below that is now nothing. It is the same feeling I have when weight lifting. Getting to 210 lbs took 2 years, and now I lift 210 every day, and it hurts, but that 180 lbs is like nothing to lift, and it took me a year just to get to that 180 lbs. And oh yes, I lift weights for an hour and a half a day, working on chest and abs and YES during the time I was going for the double high C. I found having such exhalation muscle reserve from this weight lifting routine ALSO had some effect on providing a scaffolding that assisted in supporting the 95% double high C, I learned that with the lower airway support, I could relax the embouchure. Relaxing. That opened up everything.

So now, do I use that high range regularly? Yes but in a different way from lead playing. I use it with nearly every song, I play in a small group ensemble near the climax of the solo, but do this as a quick phrase run and WITH AS LOW VOLUME as I can, to make it sing, not scream. Having this range under my belt has given me confidence to open up an improvisational execution of phrasing that I can do on a whim at any moment I choose it will work well into a solo. It has given me a performance voice that makes my sound unique.

All these years of playing, an working. I achieved confidence, not range, which was NEVER my original goal.

This is why I have created the saying: "Practice makes perfect, but nobody's perfect, so why practice?"
The answer to that question is: One should NEVER settle on perfection, as once you THINK you have achieved perfection, you have shorted yourself at going beyond perfection!

I started this thread with the hopes that the input of the owners of such horns may be helpful for those considering such horns to weight the pros and cons that would help individuals to decide whether or not to purchase these horns.

I can Identify two as an example that fall into this category made in the USA, Monette and Harrelson. If members can identify any more, please add to the list and the discussion. Looking forward to a lot of helpful input.

First, let me start of with generalizations as to this class of horn:

Pros:
Lots of options and input into choosing the horn desired
AND as a result, the owner will have very responsive horn to the player's personal needs

Cons:
They are very expensive
There will be a long waiting time relative to horns produced by a team of technicians

Me thinks Mrs Tree has a bug up her ash!

Challenge accepted and task accomplished. Now back at cha'. This exercise reminded me of a piece in our quintet's song book called "Potter's Clay". Yep, this is what the band throws at me and I have to work with on a daily basis. So give this a try, and oh, by the way, the part is written for C instruments, so your task is to not only play it, but to transpose it as you play. That's the way I play from our song book which NO ONE in the band writes for Bb instruments. Oh yeah, the tempo is at 162. Let me know how it goes:

That Getzen Power Bore in his photo gallery is now mine!!! All mine!! Thanks to Cyber_Shake (old TM Member)

Relaxing and opening the embouchure are key to get the notes below F#. But for me these pedal tones are a piece of cake WITH NO WORK on my 4 valve flugelhorns, as long as I keep my embouchure OPEN. That 4th valve just makes bridging so the pedal tones so much easier, but once that 4th valve is engaged, the fingerings for all the notes change.

Personal Experience: Harrelson

Cons:
Expensive $$$$
Heavy, VERY Heavy
#7 bell Splits Soulo Hat Mute (But it still maintains it's muted sound)

Pros:
The most easiest blowing horn I have ever experienced AND highly accurate at slotting with #4 leadpipe; #7 bell

The SWE technology that uses caste bell and tuning slide turns Harrelson manufactures on his own machine tools results in uniform brass thickness at the bends (traditional bends results in a thicker inner turn; thinner outer turn). Maintaining this uniform thickness minimizes energy loss of the projected sound wave as it transfers down the horn.

With #4 leadpipe; #7 bell has highly controllable sound range that can provide almost a flugelhorn tone with soft attacks, on the darker side with routine play, but can open up with projected accuracy that cuts through ANYTHING when focusing more air through the horn.

Comes with cool finger button options

AND you can have optional art added to the horn. I chose a tuning slide symbol that puts my two professions together; the bop musician's sixteenth note; serving as the serpent's staff that symbolizes the medical profession:

Never mind, think I may have found the answer to the above question:

My take on long tones: As a trumpet player; As a physician that taught muscle physiology for 27 years at a medical school.

As a trumpet player. I studied for several years under Eugene Blee, the longest running Principle Trumpet player for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He was the individual that drilled into me the importance of warming up with long tones. He taught me this skill in the 1970's. I still use this today, almost 50 years later. I use his exact routine before I start ANY rehearsal or performance when time is under my control. Why? Because I have been very successful when playing for an audience for these 50 yeaars. The RARE times I have not been able to use his warm up because I have arrived late at a performance, I fatigue early into the performance. So for me, those long tones are essential to get warmed up so to make it through even the most demanding performance.

As a physician teaching muscle physiology. Long tones gets the muscle fibers to align to a performance strength demand while gently providing blood flow to the muscle fibers. That stretch coordination is vital to keep the motor units to function optimally as a group in series that will minimize fatigue. Blood flow is essential, not only to get oxygen into the muscles to allow as much aerobic combustion with optimal ATP production (the bottom line fuel source for muscle [ATP is NOT only the racer's edge... also the Trumpet player's edge]) . THEN there is the exhaust. Once this oxygen burns, phosphate bonds are transferred and consumed, carbon by-products begin to form. The most stress causing carbon by-product is lactic acid. Lactic acid is removed and eliminated by the liver, but you got to get it out of the muscle and delivered to the liver to prevent a back up in the muscle AND for the liver to convert that lactic acid back to glucose to recycle that fuel source BACK to the muscle (This is called the Cori Cycle). That is the second essential component of blood flow, it gets the lactic acid out.

So putting it all together: Long tones improve blood flow to muscle that is being recruited for performance. The blood flow gets oxygen in and toxic by-products as a consequence of this oxygen delivery out. So if we are using long tones EFFECTIVELY this process WILL optimize performance.

@mdwilliams said in Tom Green:

@Dr-GO has seen mine before! Tom has done an Olds Super for me in satin silver plate, it's a beautiful horn!

And yes, here it is:

How do you feel about vibrato?

A bit shaky!

@GeorgeB said in Opinions on Valve Oils?:

@flugelgirl
...sample pack makes good sense.

...sounds pretty slick to me!

@J-Jericho said in Trumpets Made ONLY by Their Maker:

@Dr-GO How do you like the Saturn water keys?

They're out of this world.

They perform rings around others.

Seriously: Amazingly easy to use, and release large volume spittle with amazing control and accuracy. They seem indestructible and are very easy to clean.

I too like to keep piece with the neighbors. Now when I am rehearsing in my music room, no problem as it is in our lower level (below ground level) AND I have special soundproofing materials in the room's walls and ceiling (so I can play when my third shift working wife is sleeping).

If I should ever decide to play outside (usually with my outdoor speakers with my Sonos system) I insert a Harmon mute and play at the level of the speakers. I have never in the 5 years I have done this, had complaints from my neighbors.

AND when I go on vacations in hotels or cruise ships, I ALWAYS use my Yamaha silent mute (or a hand towel over my mouthpiece) and have NEVER had a complaint in all the decades I have practiced with these methods.

Warm up: Part 2

So Eugene Blee taught me 2 components of warming up. You just read the Part 1, Long Tone component, Then he taught me Part 2, which immediately follows. So once you have those motor units primed and optimized, it is next important to start the muscle groups functioning in that optimal configuration before that start up muscle memory is lost. So Eugene taught me to work through a chromatic sequence of lip slurs that again is part of my warm up routine. This gets the now optimized muscle fibers to begin to glide in a highly coordinated manner to train the muscle to function now with optimal control.

You know until I became an academic physician, I did not understand the process... it just worked for me. Since by PhD training as a bioinorganic chemist, my MD training as a physician and by trumpet training from Eugene Blee, I now understand the process and the genius behind Eugene. Thanks so much Mr. Blee for giving me this special gift.

A general philosophy I try to instil into learners that I work with, I recommend not to practice until you get it right, but rather to practice until you cannot get it wrong.

@administrator said in I have decided on a Superhorn!!:

I have made a decision. I found a horn on TrumpetHerald marketplace that I would consider a rather rare & valuable trumpet. It is an Olds Super Recording, ~1941, completely restored by Charlie Melk.

Da ja vu all over again. My Olds Super Recording was restored by Charlie Melk. I do love the horn. Wait to you see how easy this horn is to play. It will spoil you in making you feel you have to work harder on other horns (unless of course the other horn would be a Harrelson).