Posts made by flugelgirl

My guilty pleasure lately has been the Dave Koz Christmas album. I went to see the show live, and it was super fun! First time I ever saw the horn players out play the guitarist! Rick Braun is an amazing player!

@georgeb I LOVE Willie singing Jazz!! His phrasing is so nice!

Still no live music here, but no one I know is sick, so at least that is good. I’m currently doing a virtual recording with a group I wouldn’t normally play with just to ease some of the boredom. I also have an adorable new trumpet student - daughter of a college friend. She’s doing very well considering she’s never sat next to another trumpet player! I do think it’s harder to improve as a beginner without hearing those frequencies right next to you! Looking forward to teaching this one in person once we get back to normal.

Josh Landress would be a good bet.

Here’s one I took for work - that’s our mascot, Primo! Head tech made him out of old mutes and woodwind mouthpieces and caps. I’ve started taking yearly holiday photos of him

I’ve had to get proficient enough to play test what I work on - my best (outside the trumpet/cornet/flugel family, of course!) is French horn, worst is trombone. I can’t buzz loose enough for bass bone or tuba at all! Trombones are fairly simple creatures and can be diagnosed without a play test, but if I need one I hand it to my boss since he is a trombonist. He can also handle a bit of tuba, but if it’s a higher end tuba I have friends I can call. Here’s the latest to leave my bench - a Conn bass trumpet. I’ve had 7 or 8 bass trumpets cross my bench in the last two years, and they’re harder for me to play than euph. They’re much harder to center for me!

Many times even as a soloist, you have lines that are meant to be part of the ensemble. Always helps to identify these before you get there! As a sight reading sub, you have to do a fair bit of figuring out how the lead player is going to interpret the line, or as a lead how to best interpret the line so the band can follow you. This becomes particularly important when the band has never met you and you’re reading down the gig!
@GeorgeB I was fortunate to have teachers who taught me what I needed to know to navigate the professional world, and also the tons of sight reading experience I got in the Navy. There were so many times I got handed a book at the last minute because someone else got sick or something, and always in the back of my mind I was thinking “ Okay, but you guys are just training me not to need you anymore...”

It’s good to have these habits when you practice. Do it long enough, and you won’t have to think about it anymore! Well over 50% of my gigs are sight reading - in most cases the set is already up when I get there, and there’s not much time to do more than set up my horns and leaf through the titles before I play. Those early good habits like identifying musical phrases, repeats, codes, etc kick into high gear! One of my college teachers used to say that when he sightread he just saw groups of patterns - that really hit me one day when I remembered what he said and realized that I’d been doing it that way too. I was so extra fortunate to have private teachers early on that taught me great habits!
Wow, I sure miss gigs.......️

@Dale-Proctor just between the paddles, not on the rotors themselves - more like springs on a trigger mechanism. When you said rotor springs it brought clockwork rotor springs to mind - those things are so weird! Key change rotors on some of the old Conn trumpets actually have a spring inside the rotor casing, on top of the spindle.

@Dale-Proctor said in Books about Trumpets:

@Dr-GO said in Books about Trumpets:

@IrishTrumpeter said in [Books about Trumpets](/post/13816

Guess that would exclude trumpets with rotary valves.

Rotary valve trumpets have springs, too - they just aren’t inside the valve case.

Some do, some are strung like French horn rotors, some have mechanical linkage without springs. Depends on age/ manufacturer

One of the other things that may have changed during your time off from playing with a group is your endurance. Endurance when playing on our own is easier - when playing with a group we’re doing a whole lot of work adjusting the the intonation of others, and in this case others who may not have had the best personal practice habits during the time off.I find it’s more tiring to play with beginner or amateur groups than with pros because of the intonation problems.

Congrats! I had to look it up, too - looks like your town has about 1000 more people than my hometown! The town I live in now surprisingly has a population of about 81,000. You would never know - my neighbors are on at least an acre apiece and there’s a horse farm across the street. It’s nice living somewhere that feels small but still having all the big city access.
I hope your term as mayor goes well and you are able to do lots of good things for your community! Not easy, even in a small place!

@OldSchoolEuph thanks - always fun to hear the real stories after hearing the rumors

This album has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. It’s also one of the albums that convinced my mother that Jazz isn’t awful

There was another thread recently with a valve oil discussion, but I can’t find it. Anyway, what I have noticed is that Hetman leaves a lot of sticky, yellow buildup - especially in horns that are not cleaned regularly. Yamaha synthetic can turn into a hard green cement when left sitting too long, even in a brand new never used horn. Pretty much any synthetic, even when advertised as odorless has some sort of odor. A player might not notice it as much, but I sure do as a tech, especially since some days I seem to end up bathed in it. I switched to Berp for my personal horns years ago because the smells of most of the others were really bothering my sensitive sinuses, and have loved how it works. I’ve never had a horn in storage freeze up, and I don’t have to oil constantly. I’ve liked it for everything that crosses my bench because I haven’t yet found a horn it doesn’t work on. I still keep the other brands around because if I oil a new horn I’m not going to clean I like to use what it comes with, but I also haven’t found that the Berp reacts badly with most others. If you’re curious and want to try it, they sell a sample pack of the 3 piston viscosities. I find that no matter what brand you use, using a heavy rotor oil in place of slide grease on 1st and 3rd slides works super well. I swear, with as much as I’ve advertised for Berp they should pay me, but they don’t! I’ve been pushing for my work to be a dealer but they haven’t made the order yet. We’re moving to a new location soon, so that’s been the priority at the moment!

I’m a big fan of the Austin Custom brass acrylic tops. Paired with a heavy brass backbore, they play much closer to a metal mouthpiece than anything I’ve tried. I used them for marching/outdoor playing when I was in the Navy and just loved them. Trent has metal allergies and developed these for his needs. He makes any of the tops in acrylic or delrin, and is doing an acrylic rim now as well.
https://www.austincustombrass.biz/mpcs/

We got a bunch of B&S and Schertzer last year and they’ve all been wonderful! We still have a limited amount of B&S left - Challenger II Bb and C, and Exquisite Eb. They’ve all been perfect right out of the box.

@OldSchoolEuph All the Jupiter my shop gets have stainless pistons - have not seen a monel yet. Some have been heavily used loner horns, but have held up well.

B&S is another to consider - quite well made, but don’t generally go for high prices in the American market.
As far as Jupiter XO valves, go, though - I have seen zero issues. We regularly get them new, show demo, and very used, and though I have seen plenty of plating wear primarily from those that have been in the hands of sweaty kids, I have yet to see valve problems from the heavily used. I see hundreds per year now in all conditions, so a pretty good cross section.

I’ve played those 3 models - the Getzen is a pretty decent all around horn, the Lynx is a lighter weight lead horn, and the Yamaha depends on what era it’s from. I used a Lynx for several years for some New Orleans style brass band gigs, and it worked quite well in that setting. A friend had the Canadian Brass model and used it regularly in everything from brass quintet to big bands. The 6335 used to be one of Yamaha’s top level pro models, but now there many more to choose from with the 8335 and 9335 models that are just much better designed, and better players. Of course, condition is a big factor on any of them, especially the Yamaha. Yamahas that have been damaged never really feel the same again in my experience.
For modern horns in the budget category, you might want to take a look at the Jupiters. The XO series are excellent players, and the SQ intermediate models are more of a stripped down pro model than a dressed up student, and play very well. I actually keep one under my bench at work to practice on, and while it’s not as good as my Adams, I could easily gig on it if needed. I’ll include the link for the business I work for, but we currently don’t have any pro horns under $1200. New stock comes in all the time, though - if you ever have any questions about horns we have in stock I’m always happy to answer them!
www.brassandwinds.com