Best posts made by Richard III

@dale-proctor More photos are up now.

All those ideas work. But really what is the problem? Is it your fingers being stiff? Is it your brain being old and stiff? Is it your equipment not allowing the note to speak with minimal effort. Or is it something else? This will scare you. I was working on very technical and fast pieces this afternoon against a metronome. Worked through my mouthpiece collection until I found the one that allowed centered notes and fast articulations. I could then play the pieces at the correct speed. How about that? Equipment was the answer.

Once you get a chance to really explore the combination of mouthpiece and horn, please consider posting a video. I'd love to hear the sound.

Your measurements tell me that the mouthpiece is about the same dimensions as my old unmarked mouthpiece that I'm currently using. It is small but not so small that it can't be used. I have a Conn 18 that looks great but is so small I just can't be consistent with it.

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

Much appreciated.

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.

Fixing Bach mouthpieces is what Curry did and does. The ability to have consistency across the board with sizes and configurations allows us to have dependable results in our playing.

@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.

You forget that if Bix heard it, he could play it. It is realistic to think he internalized everything he heard. He was, therefore, educated in music in a way that was quite serviceable. Most players of that time did not read music. They also "knew" music in an intimate way and were also educated because of that.

XStream mouthpiece. Same answer as on TH. Have fun!

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.

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.

Wow! Just wow! Thank you for posting that. I'm passing it around to my trumpet playing friends.