Posts made by Newell Post

@smoothoperator True. Harry lived to age 67, which was actually pretty good, given the booze and cigarettes.

@flugelgirl Tell us more, flugelgirl.

@kehaulani

"It is important to point out just how hard the Goodman musicians worked in those days. At the Paramount, the band played five shows a day (later years it became seven or eight), seven days a week. Simultaneously, it was working at the Hotel Pennsylvania from 7 pm to 1:30 am every night but Sunday.... Rehearsals for the Tuesday night Camel Caravan broadcast took place after the gig on Thursday nights until 4am." (From "Trumpet Blues.")

That was early in his career, when he was with Benny Goodman. I'm sure he slowed down later on. And he definitely liked drinking, womanizing, and gambling.

@kehaulani According to some books, he performed up to 6 hours per day, on some days. Who has the time or the chops to practice with that kind of performance schedule?

@trumpetlearner Good observation. You should use as little pressure as possible.

@gloucestre Very nice!

@trumpetlearner When you use the valves in combination, the notes tend to become sharp. This is most pronounced on the 1-2-3 notes of low C# and low F#, but it also happens on other notes. On almost all trumpets, the third valve slide can be extended with the finger ring or trigger to to lengthen the tubing and flatten the note to be in tune. It's sort of like a miniature trombone slide, just for fine tuning purposes. The saddle or trigger on the first slide does the same thing, but you need it much less often on the first valve slide than on the third.

Don't buy any vintage horn if you are a beginner. (Unless an experienced player tells you it is OK.) Leave the antiques to people who have dealt with them for a long time. Get a nice, slightly-used, fairly new, student model Yamaha or Jupiter. I know that isn't very cool, but it will serve you better.
Also, you won't need the first slide saddle or trigger for a long time.

Mine comes with partial deafness on the left side, due to being on a sailboat that was struct by lightning. I went deaf for about 5 minutes when that happened.

I have great difficulty talking on a traditional telephone using the left ear. However, I can hear fairly well using a cell phone on the left side. I think there is something about the difference between an analog signal (traditional phone) and a digital/compressed signal (cell phone). Many compression algorithms cut out some of the intermediate frequencies. I don't know if that makes a difference.

I use a white noise machine when I sleep that seems to help.

@curlydoc Well, I'm sure Henry, Edsel, Walter, and Willy didn't advertise them that way, but yeah...

@j-jericho I think that one might be a "business coupe." Such cars were made for "traveling salesmen." They were 2-seaters with huge trunks for traveling salesmen to carry samples and small inventories.

@j-jericho ...but I don't think any manufacturers included a white "back up" light at that time.

Lots of cars were sold in very basic form, with the expectation that the owner would customize them to their needs. That's how Western Auto got started. (Selling accessories.) Remember Western Auto?

Newer format.

Piano and general music background is very helpful. The things that are different about trumpet are the embouchure (as you noted), tonguing, and breath control. There are different schools of thought about all of those things which you can read about on TrumpetBoards and other places. But we use the tongue and the breath for many things other than playing the trumpet. The embouchure, not so much. The embouchure is therefore both the least intuitive and the thing that requires the greatest muscle development and maintenance.

Yes, Conn/Selmer is a conglomerate that includes Bach plus Steinway pianos and a bunch of other brands. They sell woodwind instruments under the Selmer brand, but I don't think they sell Selmer-branded brass instruments any more.

Yamaha student model is a great place to start. You won't need anything fancier than that for several years. These topics are definitely discussed in the trumpet world. (All the time. You will see lots of threads about this topic.) I'm sure there is a list somewhere, but here are some highlights....

• Most of the big-name players of the big band era played the Martin Committee for some portion of their career. Miles Davis played Committees throughout his entire career, although he also used several other horns at different times. They built the last "real" Committee (second generation) in about 1955. Chris Botti still uses restored Committees exclusively. But you don't want a Committee unless you really know what you want after many years of development as a player.

• The Bach Stradivarius is the most common professional instrument for classical orchestra music as well as all-around, general-purpose use.

• Louis Armstrong had an exclusive deal with Selmer. (Selmer stopped making trumpets some years ago.)

• Harry James used Selmer at some times, but I believe he used the King Silversonic later on.

Greetings, Martin.

I didn't watch the entire video, but it looks like a great start. There are many different things that go into learning the trumpet, but development of the embouchure is the least intuitive. This video looks like a good place to start.

Do you already play other other instruments? Knowledge of music basics from other instruments is helpful in some areas. But there are some things that are unique to trumpet and other brass.

@tptguy Here is how -- I think -- they make "office glasses." They are intended for working in an office where you spend a lot of time on the computer, but also need to read paperwork and look up to see things on the other side of the room. They have worked well for me in terms of being able to read sheet music and also see the conductor, etc.

Once you get a little farther along, try joining a recreational community band. Ask to sit "last chair." There might be other retirees in the band who could give you informal advice / occasional lessons / some coaching. Also, try to follow a structured approach like the old "Mitchell On Trumpet" books. Start at the beginning and don't move on to the next lesson until you have mastered the previous lesson.