Posts made by GeorgeB

@Kehaulani
I gave it a try and nothing much changed, but maybe I have to spend more time on it.
The good new is that a lot of my homework paid off at last night's practice. What I discovered after we played the piece all the way through was that the second two thirds of the piece went quite well for me. So now I can see where I have to focus my efforts and trust in my muscle memory.

I am feeling much better about the whole thing now, and I credit that is due to you guys here who really care about their fellow trumpet playing members. THANKS !!!!

@Kehaulani said in Fast Tempo and old farts:

And don't keep going over stuff you can already play.

Thanks for reminding me, Kahaulani. I do that more often than I should.

Dr. Mark suggested I play those difficult passages for several minutes with my left hand, then play them with the right hand and they should be easier. I am going to give that a try, too.

Thanks everyone who took time to offer their suggestions.

There is practice tonight so we will see how that goes.

@Vulgano-Brother
I practice chromatic scales on a fairly regular basis and at a fairly fast clip. But running into them in an arrangement like this is certainly slowing me down. So to answer your question, yes, this could be adding to my problem.

@Kehaulani
Thanks. Some good suggestions there. The festival is the 2nd week in April and we only practice once a week and already two have been canceled due to storms. The conductor is a good egg, so if enough of us are having trouble he just might make a change. We've played the James Bond trilogy several times in the past 4 or 5 months. It has some tough parts, too, but I really didn't have much trouble learning it.

@fels
Thanks for the advice. It's the traditional type of march so probably 120+ but any march gives me trouble. I'm playing 1st, along with two others, and there are 3 playing 2nd/or 3rd.
I find the two bar intro tricky on the arrangement ( key of G ) we are using. First bar descending goes : G natural, F sharp, E natural, E flat, D natural, C Sharp, C natural, B natural. Second bar ascending/descending, all natural notes goes : A, B, C, A, then jumps up to D natural in the third bar. Should probably be easy, but my brain just doesn't work as fast as it once did.

@Kehaulani said in Fast Tempo and old farts:

You're an amateur, civic band and you have gradeable competitions? Man, am I against that. BTAIM -- I have a couple of question, George.

1.) Could you have played that piece at the given tempo when you were younger, or not even then?
2.) How far, rehearsal-wise, are you into this piece?
3.) What part do you play in concert band?

Hi, Kehaulani. Yeah, I'm a recreational player and not crazy about gradable competitions either.
To answer your questions:

(1) I never played marches in my younger years but I could play pretty fast. I did a lot of 50s/60s popular swing material and really loved it.

(2) Only 3 rehearsals so far. Things are slow because I am not the only older player having trouble. Only played it all the way through once as a band and it wasn't good. But that's not unusual when we start learning to play new material. A slow to medium fast tempo is not a problem. Just the bloody 6/8 warp speed stuff. I have been practicing this piece at home and goes well until I try to speed up the tempo. I have Glaucoma and the small staves on the two pages of Liberty Bell tire my eyes, which leads to playing wrong notes now and then, too.

(3) There are 6 trumpets in the section of which 3 of us play first book, but the more experienced player does lead work: higher range stuff, solos, etc.

So, it's that time of year again when the band starts preparations for the spring music festival competitions. We took gold last years with a march I was able to learn ( Col. Bogey ) and a Disney medley. This year the MD has chosen The Liberty Bell March and The Best Of James Bond medley. No problem with Bond but the march has a faster tempo and more tricky fingering than Col. Bogey seemed to have for me, and man, I am having my troubles with it.
I am now 4 years into my comeback and the one thing I have not been able to regain is the ability to play fast as I did in my teens and twenties. There is a violinist in his 90s who plays for the local community symphony orchestra and speed doesn't seem to bother him. So if that old fart can play fast, why can't this younger 83 year old fart do it, too ?
What am I missing here ? Are there musical exercises to help this situation or is it just a matter of bar by bar repetitions, starting slow and gradually increasing speed, until you nail it. The latter is what I have been doing. It doesn't always work to my satisfaction. I'll still flub some phrases I thought I had down pat.
Or do I just have to face the fact that my lips, fingers, lungs and the brain just have their 83 years old limitations ?

@Dr-GO
No, Doc, in the early stages of my comeback there were some minor things, but mostly I needed advice on finding the right mouthpiece. The Bach 10.5C that I used in my teens and twenties just didn't work for me in my 80s. Too much in the chops had changed, including a full upper denture that I didn't have in my younger playing days.

In my younger playing years I started with some formal training ( a few months at a music conservatory and a year taking lessons from a great local professional trumpeter ) and that formal training stayed with me and got me back in the saddle when I started playing again after a 50 year hiatus.
But age did change things for me and there were a few problems that a local semi-pro friend of mine was able to help me with.

@ButchA

I know what it's like to be forced to play lead. Although we have 5 trumpets, two play 2nd book and three of us play 1st with a more experienced high range player doing lead duties. But he lives an hour and a half drive away and is often a no show when the weather is dirty. That leaves me or a female playing first and she doesn't have the confidence to play lead. In fairness to her, she has only been playing 4 months after a 12 year hiatus and she is still working on her high range. So that leaves me, the old timer whose lips have trouble with Gs, A, and Bs when they are frequent. Fortunately the conductor is a gentleman and I can drop an octave when necessary...which is often. But good for you, Butch. That smaller mp looks like a winner for you.

@ButchA
Hey, buddy, good to hear that smaller mp is working for you, and as you have learned from your friend's attempt at using it, what works for one doesn't mean it will work for someone else.

@Kehaulani

Yeah, I don't know how it got here.

Louis Armstrong with The Oscar Peterson Trio
Playing the ever beautiful ballad: YOU GO TO MY HEAD

youtube.com/watch?v=sPEWJzjj5lo

Since my wife passed 8 years ago, New Year's Eve and Day are just days with memories. I will get together with some musician friends on New Years Day and play some music. Music always helps.

@SSmith1226
A teacher I know was discussing mouthpieces for youngsters with me a while ago. For whatever reason, many trumpet makers include a Bach 7C with their student horns, and for many it works until they start growing and their needs change. This teacher told me he has pretty good results with moving some of them to a 5C, which is somewhere between a 7C and 3C. I'm familiar with the 5C and used it for almost two years during my comeback, but as my range went up the 5 just wasn't a comfortable piece. But honestly, Steve, it is hard to know what would work best for an 8 year old.

@ButchA said in SEASON'S GREETINGS:
Jingle Bell Rock is always fun to play. We (the Shriners Band) play that all the time during Christmas concerts and during a chilly Christmas parade, riding in our float.

Yeah, it was part of a medley we did during our nursing home Christmas tour. They were dancing in their chairs.

@J-Jericho said in SEASON'S GREETINGS:

@ButchA Methinks you're not a stranger to electric guitar. World class licks there, my friend!

He's pretty damn good on the violin, too.