It is sobering that in this high-tech world where even your washing machine is computerized, an unknown event for one person can take down an entire community that evolved over a lengthy period of time.

@dale-proctor Ya gotta love those zip ties.

I have one friend who loves to tinker with mouthpieces but, of course, he doesn't have a machine lathe or the right tools to do a professional job. He always buys a certain type of older mouthpiece whenever he can find one. (Always the same basic model.) Then he chucks them up in a big drill, clamps it down to the workbench, and then goes after it with drill bits to open up the throat a little and various grades of emery cloth to change the rim or whatever.

I do not recommend this. Among other things, he winds up taking off most of the silver plating leaving a raw brass mouthpiece. He will get one that he thinks is perfect for a while, but after a few weeks he's on to a new experiment. If he ever did find the perfect configuration, he could never replicate it.

Just buy used mouthpieces online and try different ones. It's fairly cheap that way and if you ever find the perfect one, you can buy more.

@trumpetlearner What program did you use to create that graphic? It's very good.

@shifty My problem with all of these methods is that I like to take all of the slides out several times per year for a thorough cleaning. Sure, you can re-do any of them. But the cleaning thing is also my problem with triggers. You have to unscrew the hardware for cleaning.

At 5:58.... 49 years ago I decided to become a professional architect instead of a professional cornetist. I'm not a famous architect. I never built the Empire State Building. Nobody outside of a few local areas ever heard of me. But it was the right decision for me.

Thanks for posting this, Dale. It is worth watching to the end, with or without the Carnival of Venice.

@dr-go Maybe it was March Fourth (or forth).

Why have I kept having dreams about marching band for the past month? I haven't played in a real marching band in 40 years. Sometimes it is the usual dream kinds of things where the sheet music in the lyre is for the wrong show or the horn has no mouthpiece. Other times everything is perfectly normal. Weird. I don't get it.

Yeah, teenagers in bars playing a song about a creep using "candy" and "pictures" to entice young girls into his limo. What could possibly go wrong with that? But my teenage party band played it too, LOL. Everybody loved the vibe and nobody listened to the lyrics. Great song to play for New Years Eve parties.

@kehaulani Just joking around, dude.