@Vulgano-Brother Wow! It must be well over fifty years since I last heard them. Thanks for posting! There was an oddball album I bought at the time that had a brilliant assortment of then-contemporary themes (including wry musical humor) using J.S. Bach as a basis. Lost in the shuffle of years; I still think about it from time to time.
I heard this on Sirius XM yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mel+torme+start+all+over+again
@BigDub Never underestimate the age of some TrumpetBoards members.
An understanding of music theory can improve one's howling.
It's a post-1979 Olds, likely manufactured recently. I'll bet that the bell engraving says "Olds", rather than "F. E. Olds & Sons". It looks like a modern Blessing variation made in China, perhaps serviceable, perhaps not. The valve block looks identical to a Blessing cornet that I had several years ago. The valves moved nicely, but one was misaligned. After I corrected that, intonation was still not that good.
Is the trumpet pictured above serviceable and playable? Maybe. My first trumpet was one of the worst musical instruments ever made, and Charles77's is probably much better, but I still developed and improved my skills on it. I upgraded to an intermediate horn after a year when my band director told me to get rid of the one I was playing.
Welcome to TrumpetBoards! You will find knowledgeable members here willing to help you on your challenging and rewarding trumpet journey.
They still arrest and prosecute people around here who are afflicted with sticky fingers…
That should be the norm. When wimpy merchant policy, understaffed and overworked police with abysmal replacement rates, and shoplifting gangs combine, things change.
But I digress. I'll try to redeem myself with this truly Random Meaningless Image:
A month ago this was a Walmart Superstore, but involuntary inventory reduction prompted the decision to close this store and another one in the area. I wouldn't be surprised if those responsible for the inventory reduction aim their activities at Target to a greater degree than they had been doing previously.
Please allow me to suggest that this thread may have passed its expiration date, figuratively speaking. The discussion has narrowed to a repeated difference of opinion expressed by two members, both sides of which have been thoroughly enunciated. When one party goes out of his way to concisely define his opinion and the other party continues to restate his, even after the conversation has reached its end, then we have a problem. If no new information is offered by other members, the reasonable option will be to close this thread.
@SSmith1226 Inspired by your post, I found another interesting essay about Louis Armstrong. Remembering his birthday, August 4, here it is:
https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-louis-armstrong
@J-Jericho said in The 15 Best Miles Davis Quotes:
The one I remember the most is: "My daddy's rich, my mama's good lookin', I've never had a bad day in my life, and I can still play the blues."
I found the actual quote: "My father's rich, my mama's good-lookin', right? ... and I can play the Blues. I've never suffered and don't intend to suffer." Here's the context:
Will you try to better Gunhild Carling by playing them all at once?
@Dale-Proctor My guess is that it's an early Elkhart mouthpiece, which is identical to the preceding Mt. Vernon version. I wonder why it was so noticeably changed after that.
I would substitute Vincent Bach's Hungarian Melodies for one of the above (I have one in particular in mind).
Here's a very nice performance:
In case you want to play along, try this:
For example, a player likes a trumpet that slots tightly, meaning that the horn is designed to respond to input by resonating with the desired pitch with little possible deviation. Ideally, this would make such a trumpet easy to play in tune, thus making it easy to play overall, but due to the inherent flaws in trumpet design, the pitches of some notes would be out of tune unless compensated for by the player, with some effort. Might not this tendency make the instrument harder to play, since the horn allows little variation in pitch?
In contrast, another player likes a trumpet that has wider slots, meaning that more attention must be focused on correct pitch, since the horn does not assist in getting to the expected intonation, but acquiring the desired pitch is actually easier to accomplish, due to its designed flexibility. Wouldn't this trumpet be easier to play overall, because of not having to force a note to be at proper pitch? Hearing the proper pitch is the required skill here, but aren't we supposed to be doing this anyway? Plus, with this setup, bending notes at will would enhance one's ability to play Jazz.
Thoughts/comments/corrections?
