Posts made by neal085

@Dr-GO Til Bronner is great, and that's a cool story.

@Niner the movie producers didn't want to deal with the mess or the time-consuming reloading of percussion guns, so Uberti (I believe) manufactured a special revolver that looked period accurate, but would shoot modern cartridges. I believe they still manufacture it or similar - an 1851 conversion model called The Man With No Name. Tuco assembling his own piece was a bit disingenuous, but in keeping with his character, and pretty funny. I've always enjoyed that scene, minor historical inaccuracies notwithstanding.

Having now aired all grievances and assessments of movie props, did you like the trumpet music? I cannot find that particular piece anywhere, but have halfway learned to play it by ear.

I was thrilled on Saturday to see a small music shop had opened up about 5 minutes from my house. They even had a Bach Strad and a Yamaha Xeno on the shelf that they allowed me to play with. They're part of a chain that specializes in school band rentals, so I hope they'll actually stick around. Regardless, I've seen a lot more close than open in recent years.

Same with book stores. My 2 favorite Ft. Worth book stores both closed in the last 10 years. And remember baseball card shops? Yeah, all those are gone....

@Trumpetsplus I wish I had an intelligent and factual response to that, but I'll just say I've never thought about it, and it is interesting.

Now I need to go home tonight and spin the Nutcracker on my record player and pay attention to that.

One of my all time favorite soundtracks - the wife and I were just listening to that this weekend.

I believe Ennio Morricone was a trumpet player himself, and he wrote some great trumpet parts in the score. The trumpet in this piece, "The Trio" is my favorite from that whole soundtrack.

Trumpet is at 1:44 and 3:50 on the OST.

And here is the entire glorious scene, which remains one of the all time great pieces of cinema. Trumpet at 4:28 and 6:34.

My trumpet playing tenure is lesser in both duration and accomplishment to many of the players on this forum, but I do enjoy it, and there have been so many times that playing the trumpet has just made my life better. I picked a memory or two from that time that stands out, and invite you to do the same.

Several years ago, my uncle was diagnosed with cancer, and the downhill slope was a quick and slippery one. Within a few months he was under 24/7 care in home and the family was just kind of sitting around watching him slip away before their eyes.

We dropped by one afternoon to check in on him and the family. At that point he was mostly unconscious, and even when conscious, his responses were limited to a hand squeeze or to briefly flutter his eyes. We tried to talk and interact with him for a while, but he was completely unresponsive, and my aunt said he'd been that way for 48 hours with only a few signs of consciousness.

We'd been there for over an hour, and my aunt asked if I'd brought my trumpet. I happened to have it in the car, and she suggested playing a few of his favorite hymns to see if it garnered a response.

I played 3 or 4 of his favorite hymns, and my aunt had tears of joy as he fluttered his eyes, squeezed her hand, and kept trying to smile. He was hearing the music, it made him happy, and he was giving all available effort to let us know. Pretty well got all of us choked up. It was an amazing and humbling experience, and I was grateful that my trumpet could bring joy to my uncle and the family in his waning hours. He died later that week.

In re-reading that, it seems sad, but it really wasn't. The tears shed were happy ones.

Regardless, here's another and happier memory that happened a few years prior to that when my second son was about 2 or so. He was quite ambulatory, but wasn't really talking much. I was practicing the ole horn one morning before work, when I heard a small voice crooning monotonously, "woooo-wooooo." I looked down to see my son with a plastic toy trumpet someone had given him, trying to emulate my long tones. It was pretty cute, hilarious and awesome all at once. My wife got a quick photo of it, and it's one of my favorites. Maybe I'll hand that photo to him one day when he's playing trumpet in college or something.

I'm no musical savant, but I'm not a complete hack, either, and I can say that playing trumpet has made my life better a million times over. There's a bit of my trumpet story, what's yours?

Texas sunset yesterday evening.

The trumpet version on Sunday Night Football this last week was great.

And the next video in cue on YouTube was this, which wasn't Freddie Hubbard, but quite wonderful and altogether beguiling.

Been a Hubbard fan for a long time. Here's a good one.

@Dr-Mark I've tried at various times some of the music and warmups from the Hip-Bone website, and have found it to be good and challenging stuff.

When the American West was being settled, a group of people headed out west in a wagon train from the east coast. The trail boss was very inexperienced, and after a while the people realized that they were hopelessly lost. After wandering for weeks, their food supply was dwindling rapidly and winter was settling in.
As they came over the brow of a hill, they laid their eyes on the first person they had seen for days: a little old Jewish man, a Litvak, no less, sitting beneath a tree enjoying a glass of hot tea.
Hopeful, the trail boss approached the man.
"Howdy, old man, can you help us? We're headin' west but we're lost! Our food is gone, and we're starving!"
The old man replied, "Vell, I can see da future. Vait a minute." He held one hand to his brow, lifted the other into the air, and closed his eyes.
"Vait! I'm getting ah vision! Yah! I see! I know vat you gotta do! Go up dis hill und down da udder side. Go through da forest und cross da stream. Den go up da next hill und down to da valley. Dere you vill find ah bacon tree."
"A bacon tree?!!" exclaimed the trail boss.
"Yah! Ah bacon tree. Trust me. For nutting vud I lie to you."
The trail boss shrugged and led the train off in that direction. What did they have to lose?
They followed the old man's directions to the T. They drove their oxen up the hill, down the other side, through the forest, across the stream, up the next hill and down into the valley below.
Nothing. Not a thing - and definitely not a bacon tree!
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, they were attacked by an enormous band Indians. All in the train were massacred except for one survivor, and even he was seriously wounded. When he was able, he agonizingly retraced the train's meanderings until he came to the very tree where they had met the old man. Sure enough, right there under that same tree sat the little old man enjoying a hot glass of tea.
The injured man crawled up to him, panting, and shouted furiously. "What were you thinking! You sent us to our deaths! We followed your instructions to the letter - and NO BACON TREE! Just Indians! Thousands of them! And the rest of the party? THEY'RE ALL DEAD!"
Quite concerned, the old man held his hand to his brow as before, lifted the other into the air, and closed his eyes. "Vait! Ay-yay-yay! Oy gevalt! I made a terrible mistake! It vuzn't a bacon tree! It vuz a ham bush!"

@dupac Se nota que el internet no puede reponer los traductores humanos.

Holy heck, anyone can be a moderator here!

As King Arthur's knights once famously said while searching for the Holy Grail.... "Run away!"

Just kidding. I know Barliman from TM, and can vouch that he is a very experienced trumpet player and all around good egg. Whether boiled or scrambled remains to be seen.

Congrats, Elmar. Happy for you, sir! I know you'll be a great moderator.

Welcome aboard, sir. Good to have you here.

Man, 2 years ago I was at a music store in Dallas trying out several horns, and found a Kanstul that just sang. Favorite horn I tried that day, and I tried some nice ones. Seriously kicked around buying it, but punted. Now I wish I'd have grabbed it. My crystal ball wasn't working that day.

When my friends want to know where the party's at, I tell them to hang out on this thread.

@Dr-Mark

Oh dear. No. It's just the 2 all beef patties. Please, no more talk of sauce, special or otherwise.

@Dr-Mark said in How does He Do It? Are Vise Grips Involved?:

Dimash D8 High Note Live

I would hazard that's one of those things you're either born with, or you're not. I can practice basketball every day the rest of my life, but I'll never be Michael Jordan.