My routine is simple, and balanced: 1 hour in the morning playing technical stuff and 1 hour in the afternoon playing the songs I love. And, like Dr. Mark, I have my 5 horns on stands in my music room and throughout the day I'll pop in and pick one up and blow something.
Though I have all the needed mutes, cup, straight etc., I'm not a fan of using them, with the exception of my old dented Harmon Wow Wow that I like to use for certain ballads. Our band occasionally calls for a straight mute or a plunger ( the rubber toilet variety available at any hardware store ) but not too often and that suits me just fine.
@Dr-Mark
The highlight of the year was playing with our band at our local Remembrance Day ceremonies. My dad was in the First World War and I have relatives, mostly gone now, who served in WW2, so remembering is important to me.
Aside from all the comments, I thought it was a fun post. Thanks, Dr.Mark.
And I did learn a few things, too...
@SSmith1226
I really loved that video. Movie musicals were a big part of my growing up years and I can truly say that I saw probably 98% of the movies that featured those dances. Thanks for the memories, Steve.
Good video and I agree with it completely. When you practice at 5 am like I do you better play softly.
Also, that long tone exercise of playing pp to ff to pp is one I have been doing daily since my comeback in 2016, and from the compliments I get on my tone I would say the exercise works.
Being a Canadian, I will just say this: you are not alone, my American friends. I have heard Canada's National Anthem mangled more times than I can count.
BTW, that little girl's version of SSB was truly precious.
I've always liked to watch Sergei because, for one thing, no mater how low or high he plays it's as if there is no effort whatever. And talk about a frown embouchure...
Wow, just listening to that tired me out. Mendez was really special, wasn't he.
Fantastic. I loved it. Thanks.
@ButchA
Great job, Butch.
You sent me a really nice backing track for If I Loved You. I'm surprised you didn't use it here.
Take care , buddy.
Interesting video.
The band I play with does about a 50/50 mix of indoor and outdoor concerts, so we brass players are pretty aware of how we have to play, given the circumstances, but the conductor sometimes has to remind us on occasion, especially when playing smaller halls in local nursing homes.
@Dr-Mark
Interesting to hear that, Dr.Mark. According to the professional player that taught me back in 1953, the 10.5C was a popular mouthpiece with orchestra trumpet players during that era, though not necessarily so with some of the lead players who preferred a very shallow cup. For the kind of playing I was doing back then ( part of a 5 man combo doing weddings, private functions and a whole lot of teen dances ) the 10.5C seemed to be the perfect piece for me, because there were weddings when that mp got me through many a 3 hour gig. And like I said in my post, I still like to play it every now and then.
I have always admired, enjoyed, and often marveled at, Rafael's amazing playing. And though my first music professor told me to use the largest mouthpiece possible, the pro player I later took lessons from played a Bach 10.5 C and felt it would be better suitable to me. I took his advice and played one quite successfully for 12 years before quitting in 1965. I was often criticized by other trumpet players for using a small mouthpiece while most of them were using 1.5 to 3 Bachs. But I stubbornly stuck to the 10.5C and when I later learned that Rafael Mendez always used a 10.5C I felt so much better about my decision. If it was good enough for Mended it was bloody well good enough for me. I'd be still using one today but my old chops had changed 50 years later and the smaller mp just didn't work anymore. But every once in a while I dig out my old faded gold rimmed Bach 10.5C and play a few easy tunes just for old times's sake.
@Kehaulani said in Håkan Hardenberger: How To Anticipate Pitch And Breathe:
@Dr-GO said in Håkan Hardenberger: How To Anticipate Pitch And Breathe:
But my first sax teacher, Sadao Watanabe, would give me a Charlie Parker transcription, have me play it faster and aster until I couldn't keep up and then he would be shouting, "You're fig up, you're fing up! Didn't really help.
I can relate to that situation.
@Kehaulani said in Håkan Hardenberger: How To Anticipate Pitch And Breathe:
Interesting. A spin-off is when he's singing along loudly. That would drive me crazy.
My first teacher, a professor of music at the conservatory where I first studied, sang as I was trying to play and it absolutely drove me nuts. That and a few other nasty things he pulled drove me to leave the conservatory and take lessons from a professional trumpet player. It was the right move for me at the time, but I would have learned more about theory if I had stayed with the conservatory. But I was a teenager and in too much of a rush as many of us are at the stage in our life.
@Comeback said in How to Listen to Classical Music: Expression and Emotion:
Thanks! The video provided me insight into what the conductors of my community band try to extract from us as we play certain works.
Yeah, same here.
@Dr-Mark
I was hoping you'd throw another one of those videos at us. It's hard to take it all in with one viewing so it's great to have them here so we can come back when we're in the mood for gaining a little more knowledge about music, the one thing here most of us have in common. Thanks, Dr. Mark for taking the time.
So now I know what a Fugue is, and probably why Bach's work was so interesting.