Best posts made by Furcifer

Absolutely not. I've been rehearsing steadily with four different performing groups of at least 12 to 18 people, since at least June of last year, and part of the reason why this was never required for us is quite simply because enough musicians simply refuse. Those masks are dumb and the bell covers are even dumber. I absolutely refuse to put something so stupid on a high quality professional instrument, just as I would refuse to be told what kind of valve oil I must use with it. There is not one single documented case of anyone ever contracting a virus via a wind instrument, in recorded history - and certainly not in the last year. Not even one.

Some who truly believes they are at risk should not be there, period. I really don't blame anyone for making that kind of a choice. I really don't blame anyone for doing anything they truly think they need to do to protect themselves. But I seriously question compliance in violation of one's personal and professional principles - whatever it is. I just can't do it. I won't do it. And nobody can make me. Here's something you CAN believe in: I will still find a way to play with other like-minded professionals who will not compromise their personal integrity either, some other way.

It also says "Easy Play" which we all KNOW is a dirty LIE!!! If playing the trumpet was "easy", who would play saxophone?

Since I just joined and saw this, I thought I'd pile on. I have been volunteering with BAA since its inception. A number of my recurring annual gigs came from those contacts and just the word getting around - in fact, my last gig and another I will be performing at a memorial service this week were a result of such direct contacts. The point is, the more we can accomplish together in serving these missions, the more good things tend to come back our way. I have not found where cynicism about this, regardless of how legitimate, has ever really served to accomplish anything. Thanks to everybody who contributes their time and talent to this endeavor.

If I had to pick one, I'd go with the Cannonball, hands down. The ones I've tried have all been great playing horns for the money - easily better than the other two you listed - and no doubt better for what I do these days. Full disclosure - I'm a local pro, usually playing the Lead book in rock and big jazz ensembles, with a good enough established residual income that I don't have to depend on it to eat healthy meals or put up with Bach snobs, LOL

But speaking of Bach snobs: For better or worse, you can play whatever you want, and I'm certainly the last to suggest that the ubiquitous Bach 180S37 is the "best horn" for anyone - it may very well not be - and it's definitely not the best horn for me, now. But after playing one for over 40 years before I switched to my current Stomvi a few years ago, it's probably the one brand/model out of everything I've seen and played in all that time that nobody could ever "blame" anything on. All the esoteric bull you'll hear about "blending" is much more often more about the actual actual player's sound concept than the horn, and/or just bias because they'll put their preconceived ideas on hot standby as soon as they see you pull "something else" out of your case. The unfortunate reality is that there is still a lot of bias out there among directors and professors against anything outside of "what they know", and all too often, ALL they think they "know" is that Bach was king for many years, and that you still can't hardly go wrong with them now. Many of them aren't even trumpet players. It makes me nauseous to think about it at times, but there's no denying that the 180S37 is still the "safest choice" for students, because students are always potentially at some dogmatic Bach snob's mercy, who only really knows what they've been told by some other Bach snob. It's actually the most common facade to cover the fact that they do not and never will have a good enough ear and/or an objective enough psychology to ever discern anything else for themselves. And I've unfortunately witnessed far too many students advised to sell whatever they have - some were even magnificent-playing collector horns - to get a Bach. It's never the other way around. But that - and the fact that they still don't sound like Bud Herseth - is how we know it's mostly esoteric dogma. 99.99% of them can't pick out the Bach from ten similar models in a blind test, but they depend on parroting the opinion of that 0.01% to keep anyone else from finding out. And I've also seen students treated as somehow "less serious" until they complied. Yamaha and various others have made serious inroads and accomplished a great deal to help break that down, but it is still a refuge for those who are quite relieved to have it as such.

Good advice in these other comments, too - it's always best to spend your money on lessons and work with a teacher who can help you identify your true playing goals, the models of horns that will help optimize what you do well and better facilitate improvement in weaker areas, help you realize and consider all your current and future playing commitments - including the NEXT schools you are likely to attend in your area - and probably help you find more value for your money in the long run, whatever your budget is.

Kehaulani nailed it - and since "The Goal Note Approach" by Shelton Berg was mentioned - and in reference to the question about "patterns" and "riffs", I knew Shelley, I took improvisation from him before he put it all in that book, and he emphasizes up front that the more successful jazz solo is usually 'a COMBINATION of 'licks' and 'lines'". Repeated licks can build tension, and/or create a melodic basis for the "line" to embellish.

Meanwhile, "The Goal Note Approach" is about focusing on how chord tones resolve (how they have always resolved in the Common Practice Period), as opposed to, say, thinking in terms of "scales" or invoking the needless complexity of 'modality' in music that is, in fact, "Tonal, not modal".

Those who have referred so much to "melody" are, in effect, saying the same thing, because "tonality" and incorporating chord-tone resolution is exactly how a "melody" functions.

Shelley once showed us transcriptions of two Sonny Rollins solos on the same song, played TEN YEARS apart, and Sonny played the SAME turnaround on the 8th chorus in both solos, LOL So the point of that is that you will always be much more likely to "improvise" with elements you have practiced, than suddenly find yourself blessed by the spirit and muse of Dizzy and play something you've never actually played before. Not to say that it never happens, but you probably shouldn't depend on it, LOL

Another thing he always said was "Listen MORE than you play".