Best posts made by Richard III

Favorite? Not sure at this moment due to some recent acquisitions. I meant to buy an old Bb made by M. Dupont, Paris. No serial number on it, so I'm not sure when it was made.

As it turns out, the cornet is in the key of C.

Then I added a Bb Conn Wonder from the late 1800's. That showed up and it was in pretty good shape. Just got it back from the repair technician. Plays great.

!

So that made a new one in C and Bb. I thought I would also include my Boosey & Hawkes Eb cornet to show the compete set. Pretty much have everything covered now.

Gorgeous.

How about an alternative? Forget exercises. Play music. Get a stack of music you like and want to play. Sit down and play real music until you get tired. Stop for a while. Start again on the rest of the stack. Rest and repeat. Gonna tell you, after a while, you will be better, have more endurance and actually be better at playing the music you need to play.

I have a new project doing ragtime tunes with a small band. Try playing the right hand piano part to ragtime on your horn. Constant eighth and sixteenth notes with lots of intervals and accidentals thrown in. It's really hard but very productive as practice.

@Dr-GO said in Lead Players Need Less Bathroom Breaks:

So, for lead players that have their parts that hang a good part of the time above staff, I imagine less bathroom breaks are needed.

I remember the days when my parts did that.

This is what I play in my small jazz group. Every time I bring it out, people come up and ask what it is. No one has ever guessed right.

Here's the analogy I always tell people. Playing the baritone horn is like riding a bike with training wheels. Pretty hard to fall off. Playing a trumpet is like riding a bicycle. Once you learn, you pretty much get it. Playing a french horn is like riding a unicycle on ice. Even when you are really good, bad things can happen at any moment.

I played FH for one year in college because the band had none. It was fun and then I went back to trumpet. Now retired, I started a brass quintet and bought a horn to play because we didn't have a horn player. Three years later, that's all I play in all my groups. I play a double horn in community band and a marching french horn in small jazz groups. I now think in horn for fingerings and such. When I get a chance to play trumpet, it's a struggle because of the different fingerings.

Plus, with horn, I rarely get tired. Trumpet players who switch to horn have a huge range advantage as well as an endurance advantage. Go us!

@dale-proctor More photos are up now.

Push your lips away from your teeth. Make a cushion. The outer part of the lips should remain relaxed. Contract towards the center when needed behind that point. All this and the teeth rarely matter.

@King_Conng said in Why not another thread about bigger horns ?:

@Richard-III Is that a king 1122 marching french horn? I played on a conn 134e during marching season when not on cornet. I always had trouble with the lyre holder's placement, do you have that problem?

Well, you named the horn. Yes it is. I never marched with it so have never tried it with a lyre. In my day, back in the early 70's, our mellophones were two valve things in G. If I remember correctly. And we had everything memorized. Drum and Bugle Corps. The corps, now defunct was the Knight Raiders.

The tuba is the backbone of the band. A good player is worth his weight in gold.

If you are in NOLA, you gotta hit Frenchmen St. Once there, you will never want to leave. Don't miss The Spotted Cat. For the price of a drink, you can listen to so many great bands. Have fun.

Please continue to post these. I absolutely love them. What a gem this one is. I would love to play that cornet.

Much appreciated.

@ButchA said in What about non-trumpet Brass players:

I am slowly doubling on "treble clef" Baritone, as I am succumbing to assorted lower dental problems, which is starting to affect my trumpet playing - especially in the upper register.

The bigger MP of the Baritone (and Trombone as well) are both incredibly different and (obviously) need a new approach to trumpet embouchure.

I have a friend that was gifted an Eb Tuba from around 1885. We took it to the repair store and they concluded they couldn't make it playable. While there we tried an old baritone. We also tried many tubas. Both of us were surprised that two trumpet players could easily play the baritone. My friend is still playing it. The baritone is very forgiving. Have fun with it. Baritones have a beautiful sound.

@ACB said in Favorite Cornet:

Thanks Richard for my new favorite Cornet!!!

Trent, that's the sound I was aiming for with that cornet. I never got it right. You have. Perfect. Nicely done. Might be my favorite recording of you ever.

Both here and TH has changed a bit. Here the contributions have stayed with the TM trend, frequently devolving into silliness. TH has had the influence of the very young crowd. Both means that I rarely find anything of interest. I spend a bit more time on Euphonium.com because that's what I'm working on now. But even there, how much do you want to read about this horn or that, this mouthpiece or that.

So if I buy a horn with a fixed ring and the ring is in the wrong position for my hand, I have to get it moved. Then over time I change my mind and have to get it moved again. And on and on it goes. I vote for adjustable rings. Or even better, give me a trigger. I've never liked rings anyway. Changing from gripping to extending seems wrong. Gripping and gripping a little harder seems more intuitive. I'm going to go play my York Eminence cornet now with a main tuning slide trigger and enjoy the obviously better design.

@tjcombo said in Set lists:

@Mike-Ansberry +1 for the iPad Mike. All charts for all bands in the one place. Set-lists can be put together quicker than sifting through a folder.
Real Books are there if someone calls an unfamiliar tune at a jam - or if you need to pass a chart to someone who doesn't know a tune. Can take a screenshot and email a chat in an instant.
But wait there's more... With an AirTurn Ped there's no problem with page turns.

Funny story, a local pro player sat in on an outdoor gig with my community band a while back. He explained that he didn't trust the technology and had stories of it going awry. The wind blew up and everyone was frantically trying to keep their "reliable" charts on the stands while my iPad didn't budge.

I know a guy who every time I see him perform, the pedal thing loses connection with the iPad. Plus I have songs that are three or four pages with repeats back to page two or some other thing. I'll stick with the book of paper.

I just got a Blessing marching baritone. Much less expensive than the flugabone because it doesn't say flugeabone. Same configuration. Nice sound that can be baritone like or trombone like. Sort of like a flugelhorn with more smoke and depth.

And one of the reasons there isn't more interest in this thread is that most people aren't interested in things other than trumpets on these sites.

These guys have been visiting you at night and playing your horn:

And then there is a cheaper idea. Buy this book:

link text

Though I have no expertise, nor do I really have any interest in the style of music, I think that the OP is discussing the tune the only real way of talking about it. It is very technical music. I just listened to Dizzy playing it. I listened intently to the backing of the rhythm section as well as the soloists. I heard occasional melodic movement with the soloists but generally just a variation of the harmonies. The backing musicians sounded like just a mass of notes without coherence.

I play jazz all the time, but it is trad jazz. I just don't have an ear for more modern stuff.