Posts made by Dr GO

@Kehaulani said in Notre-Dame de Paris:

Let's see. A guy who works at Vassar has a machine that can see through things. Hmmm.

Hmmm..... even I can see right through THAT!

@Kehaulani said in Notre-Dame de Paris:

@djeffers78 said in Notre-Dame de Paris:

Even new methods can be made to look ancient

...in front of me was this huge stone carved Mayan Wall Calendar... I reached out and touched it. It was plastic.

Oh My [or Myan] God! The Mayan's were more advanced then we EVER expected. They discovered the formula to AND were able to synthesize polyvinylchloride!

@Newell-Post said in Notre-Dame de Paris:

The wood rafters obviously burned at Notre-Dame de Paris, but from a purely construction point of view, that would be manageable provided the stone vaults did not collapse.

Which compares to the side view of my home:

Also with wood rafters, but packed with smoke detectors... Wounder if this would have helped catch the Notre-Dame fire sooner?

@moshe said in A little humour:

Why do jerks suffer in life?

"Time wounds all heels"

moshe, addicted to puns

AND a heel never toes the line!

@BigDub said in Game of Thrones Thread:

Well, maybe there is a huge void in my life I just didn’t know about.

Oh, you know sir. You fill that huge void with acrylics!

You know, I am a general internist and pediatrician, and practice what I preach to my own patients into my own personal health care. When I turned 40, I started taking aspirin, 325 mg once daily even though at that time there was no evidence that taking it as a preventative was indicated. But when you get the disease, it is just about the most powerful oral medical for coronary artery disease that we have. So why not prevention. Years later we are learning now of the preventative advantages to aspirin. Glad I didn't wait 20 years to find this out!

Then after I had a near death experience about 5 years ago (from a lung attack) I realized I was overweight and heading into my 60's with those odds against me. I began practicing what I preached and started a regimented routine EVERY MORNING that includes an hour of weight lifting that focuses on chest and abdominal muscles, and 40 minutes of an elliptical work out (to Latin Jazz no less), and have lost 30 lb, managed to keep it off for 5 years now, AND am doing well into my 60's. What is even more amazing is the abdominal and chest work out routine I designed has REALLY improved my trumpet playing dynamics as well!

So YES. Exercise has been very very good to me.

@administrator said in Triple by-pass reocvery:

@Dr-GO You can't be saying that exercise is good!

I know!!! Sometimes the truth hurts.

@moshe said in Great Idea!:

Thank you for creating this Web site.

I m slowly dying of Congestive Heart Failure,
too weak to play trumpet anymore.

moshe

Moshe,

I am slowly dying of my Personality Trait (which is no longer a disorder since the publication of DSM-IV I am proud to say)

This Trait has helped me become a better trumpet player and has given me the desire to play even more. And blogs such as this further assists me as well in achieving that quest.

@administrator said in A little humour:

Well, as the song goes:

"I was gonna practice my horn, but then I got high!"

(Note: I am NOT recommending this!)

Ahhhhh, but if you play high right, you can continue to practice for quit awhile thereafter!

@administrator said in RIP Trumpet "Master":

I'm curious if Robin (Rowuk) is aware of this site's existence.

Yes. I know for a fact he does, and he on occasion circulates onto this site to observe the discussion.

@pss said in What the heck!?:

@Kehaulani : it's like circular breathing...:

Perhaps a different version of circular breathing. I, for one, practice only safe sax circular breathing.

@moshe said in RIP Trumpet "Master":

10 years ago Wilmer Wise threatened me with physical violence because I dared to defend famous mouthpiece maker Vincent Bach that Wilmer Wise said was a racist.,
moshe

Moshe, you are not alone.

To me, Wilmer Wise was also very unkind, unprofessional and he had anger for me long after I shared on TM my knowledge of the ethics of a jazz great as to performance characteristics in the last years of the particular performer's life. Wilmer unceremoniously blasted me on my revelation, even though I knew the individual that produced the audio and video evidence of this jazz great that was vital in support of this student's thesis that was subsequently awarded with a PhD by the Department of Music at The Ohio State University. Wilmer marked me with anger thereafter, to contest anything I would post on his Thread, as a result of my knowing and Wilmer not wanting to accept this truth.

My choice was to no longer post on his Threads. Would I have been banned had I not stopped posting? Possibly as he was highly honored on TM. What I do know is I still held respect for Wilmer Wise, for the person he was and for the influence he made to others more important than me, and for the inspiration and life he lead. I even PM'd Wilmer after this event with my interest to assist him to help fund and hopefully change an event that was severely impacting on his life that I found out about after reading an article published in the American Federation of Musician's Trade Journal. He chose not to respond, but my concern and heart still went out to him. I did let him know this, but again no response.

So I am glad you chose to work on not holding a grudge about the matter. Holding grudges only brings us to a darker space, and the more grudges we hold, the darker life gets for us. I am sorry Wilmer held a grudge against you and me, but I hope with all my heart, Wilmer is now in a much better place.

Rowuk is doing very well. He has a full life as a Professional Musician, the loss of TM is so minor in regard to his very rich career in music and his other professional life. For Rowuk, I believe TM was his way of volunteering his "love" to the trumpet world. He did not have to do this, but he did as a "tough love" parent. I learned so much from his "tough love" as he was firm with me at times, but I always respected our disagreements, just as I know he had listened to my rare but occasional contradictions of opinion. I respect him so much for this, and even though I still "see" him in other venues, I do miss his sharp wit and highly professional advice. I know he has been scanning TrumpetBoards, and has hinted on one day entering. I trust his excellent wisdom as to the timing if or when he would join this forum.

OldPete,

Moshe brings out an important point regarding advising a trumpet component to rehab. Data and research are helpful and even more the most important information comes from the question: How are you doing?

What rehabilitation has been arranged for you?
Is the sternum pain (surgical site of chest wound) a significant problem?
If this is a problem, what makes it better; what makes it worse?

Please understand that this is an open forum with many readers reviewing our discussion. Patient privacy is ABSOLUTELY paramount. Only post what you think you may want others to experience to keep this on a user friendly learning curve. Any further advice will only come further should you want to update your experience. If you would also to communicate through personal message, I would be glad to advise.

@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.

@Kehaulani said in A great cleaning breakthrough:

I order Roto-Rooter once a year. Works for me.

I have considered having a gastroenterologist to whom I refer my patients perform quarterly endoscopic evaluations of my horns and to perform bovie electrocautery to eliminate any plaques if found within the lumin of the horn. Perhaps I can use my American Federation of Musicians instrument insurance program to reimburse these expenses through a novel ICD-10 coding scheme.

@oldpete said in Triple by-pass reocvery:

...I came home last week [post CABG] and have already been told twice I was pushing it too hard. Slow for me, henceforth! I only play for self-satisfaction nowadays..

So there are many studies reported in the literature as to the best timing of Stage 1 Cardiac rehabilitation. The range is from 11 days to 4 weeks. What I found on reviewing the literature was an interesting Evidence-based randomized study that demonstrated that beginning a respiratory enhanced program to a routine Cardiac rehabilitation actually ENHANCES rehab and outcomes in participants:

So my interpretation of this (even though trumpet playing was not the respiratory intervention chosen) is that any activity that will improve respiratory muscle function, will improve oxygen flow to a newly re-vascularized heart, which in this study was found to increase the exercise capacity by an additional 35% in the respiratory enhanced intervention group compared to the standardized cardiac rehab group.

I would think that these studies would support trumpet playing as soon as 2 weeks post surgery and that trumpet playing may in fact enhance the 12 week post CABG rehab programs that are typically recommended. My only caution is to avoid any valsalva maneuver (grunting down to hit high notes) which may trigger a reflex cardiac arrhythmia. If any palpitations (racing or funny heart beats) or fatigue that is noted while playing, I would then recommend contacting the cardiologist to report these sensations to get direct feedback as to when playing can resume.

@barliman2001 said in Easter Services:

@Dr-GO Over here in Austria, Easter services tend to be a) Catholic and b) orchestral masses.,,,I'm booked into St. Peter's in Vienna

This is so classic, AND so amazing! I wish I could attend. This sounds so inspirational!

In the US we have some non-traditional venues and I experienced a rather interesting "praise" Easter Service where an area church rented out the University of Dayton Arena (where they play the first four NCAA tournament). They filled the arena with over 7,000 people and I was again hired by our AFM to play lead trumpet (there were 3 trumpets) and essentially a "Big Band" section, that was choreographed to a Hard Rock Band, that was choreographed to a very large choral group. The orchestra's book was filled with very contemporary music that sounded like it was written and arranged by Earth, Wind & Fire. It was energetic, highly IT integrated with video's, lights, and yes, mass baptism! This was highly non-traditional, and maximized sensory overload. This was several years ago, and has not been repeated since. There must be a reason for that, and I have my theories.

THEN there was the question as to what to charge. I believe many on this forum may do this for gratis; however, the Union got me this gig and requires a contract and a 10% finder charge. So I looked all over the internet. I found a wide array of charges for Easter Services. The steepest was in NYC; however, I chose a more regional contract that came out of Illinois. I decided to use that fee recommendation, broken down between rehearsal fee, performance fee (fist 3 hours) and travel expenses. Here is the contract to give you an idea as to how this can be put together:

Hope all this is helpful to our readers, as for me, the first time arranging this (Songs and Fees) took a lot of time and research. So for those of our member venturing out for Easter, I am hoping this makes your Hippity a bit easier to Hop... I Hope!

This is the Prelude tune chosen by the Organist.

The Trumpet Shall Sound. Again a C instrument part, with notation as to when the Trumpet is in with the melody, and when the Trumpet comes out to give some melody lines to the Organ. It really adds to the piece as we found in rehearsal to break the song up between Trumpet and Organ Leads.