Best posts made by ROWUK

@ssmith1226 The solution for intonation is a combination of things: matching the mouthpiece backbore, leadpipe, mass at specific places and bracing.

@_mark_ Then all that is left is to be patient and remember that thousands of low impact repetitions build good habits. Getting in a hurry is pure poison. I have a glass of water near my practice chair. If things get congested (tonguing, breathing, chops, brain), it is amazing how much a sip of water helps.

@sessionaire Just contact Dave Monette. Just talk to him. Maybe you do not even need a doctor. Maybe he even knows someone in your area that could take a completely different view of the issue. https://www.davemonette.com

Jennifer Montone - solo horn with the Philadelphia Orchestra was in a car accident and damage to the hips immobilized her embouchure - no, not spine damage. Your root problem may have nothing to do with these serious symptoms. You may also want to watch this carefully:

@administrator said in Does a large bore horn take more air?:

Well, at some point it does (think tuba). However, I doubt the difference between .438 and .444 is a matter of air volume. Seems to me that the whole horn has an effect, and changing the bore size will contribute to that effect. To some, it may seem like it takes "more air," but this is often an issue of perception and not reality.

The tuba needs more air because it is a far less efficient system which starts with the large mouthpiece throat and less efficient embouchure due to the low frequencies.

In theory, the trumpets are already full of air. We only need air to sustain the buzz and modulate it for sound quality and volume. Some horns are more efficient than others (speak more quickly and give the player more feedback). Those are not functions of valve block size (where the bore is measured). Artisans can pack any sonic features into a reasonably sized bore instrument.

@USAFBugler Yes, some older trumpets out of the US were built around A=440 and the current A=442 or 443 just makes life hard to impossible. The solution is to cut the instrument down - preferably at the stem of the bell. Then it could end up better than ever (because you can use it). What usually does not work is shortening it at the tuning slide or mouthpiece.

I have a Selmer Radial 2° D/Eb built in the early 1970s and after taking a bit off of the bell stem to raise the tuning pitch, it is much, much better than before.

Based on an instrument that they built for Joe Alessi. Hmmm. Aren't all trombones (even the el cheapo ones) based on some great
instrument? When I read marketing trash like this, I wonder why they do not build that exact model. With todays material science and still available "old world" manufacturing skills, it is certainly possible!

Happy Easter 2024 to all of you! Here is hoping to get to know more of you personally!

@Bay-Area-Brass: Here are 260 registered brass players with Yamaha - just in the US. Kind of a "Whos who". What I meant by "smoked": Yamaha has become THE first choice for the symphony player (just look at the sections in US symphony orchestras) and the list of commercial players is certainly not small. The amount of university professors and teachers with Yamaha support is very large. Schilke has made no inroads to the classical player, in spite of the heavy model.

As far as innovation goes, the Xeno redefined what a trumpet could be. Less core than a Bach, but a wonderful brilliance and above all superior intonation and blow.

In any case, Yamaha is defining what artist support means and they certainly are setting the standards very high.

The F trumpet is not popular because of one reason: security. That is the main reason for the ever shorter instruments most used today. Our standard Bb trumpet today used to be called the "high Bb trumpet" by the F trumpet players. They criticised the smaller horns for their "tone".

My F trumpet is in tune. Due to its length however, it does not blend in a section of modern Bb trumpets. The tone is dramatically different.

@kehaulani said in Tough Decision to make:

Good grief. Isn't the OP's question simply which of two horns to buy? You play them both and pick the one that plays and sounds the best and is well built.. If it's a tie, go with nostalgia or it's mystique to you.

It's not rocket science or polemics or pseudo creative writing 101.

If it were only this easy. There are so many reasons to buy a horn. I have 20+ and identify with each one. Every one has its use case. They all get played without having to make up stories about why.

That being said, we are creatures of habit and I am convinced that it takes months to really acclimate - then the sound and blow is considerably different than the first impression.

I would heartily disagree that "warts" are bad. Why can we not accept that we are human, fallible but capable of development? A recording of a live concert by a school band, symphony orchestra or church choir is a time document - showing various realities and triggering honest memories. That is far more "valuable" than pimped material where we would like to portray ourselves as superheros.
As far as the bar for putting stuff on YouTube, we are simply feeding the beast. Like with social Media in general, "weak content" prevails, not because of lack of talent, rather because of lack of humility. I have no trouble rubbing that in peoples noses years later. A CD passed around to friends and family would have been enough but wanting to be a movie star clouded our common sense.
It becomes even more problematic when we try to help the misguided by critiquing the posts. Then the excuses start and those in a position to help are attacked for misunderstanding the purpose behind publishing.
Nope, I say our recordings are what they are and bad decisions are no different. If our first posted recordings are weak but we show incredible growth, we are good model roles. If our performances stay weak but we continue to post, we learn something about that person. Also not a bad thing. Black and white lists are available for most forms of social media.
The choice has ALWAYS been ours but the results involve others whether we like it or not.

@Kehaulani said in Kanstul -- Any News?:

I'm wondering (jazz-wise), that, if you want a Committee sound (whatever that is), that all you need is a horn in the ballfield, the right mouthpiece and the right attitude and you can have it. I wonder if the sound-image in one's head is not given enough credit.

Absolutely! I think that we have a luxury issue here. How can we separate “being able to” and “having to”. If we have a Committee, how much of the sound is real and how much is in our imagination? Aren’t dreams sometimes self-serving? I think that on trumpet websites our voice is almost neglected compared to hardware. We really want to believe that a Committee is 50%+ of Miles or Tills “Voice”. I consider that insulting. Just think of all the notes that we did not get because of the things that a Committee did not do.

This is the soprano low F-Trumpet that I am talking about:

It takes a "standard" Bb trumpet mouthpiece, preferably with a deep cup. The historic mouthpiece often had a thin "cookie cutter" rim.

Gary,
normally I do not answer your 20 posts answering each of mine or anyone elses (must have something to do with keeping your post count high). In this case I make an exception and quote "So here is my bitch with your bitch ROWUK... how in the hell did you get the idea this was a discussion about using alcohol as a cleaning agent? The posts above are discussing alcohol as a disinfectant:"

Well, what is the title of this thread? I rest my case. How in the hell did I get the idea? Simple reading. The OP even goes into detail in the initial post about much more than disinfection. In fact, what he does is something that I would never do - for various reasons.

Now, unrelated to the content - why do you respond with "how in the hell did you get...". Do you ever look in the mirror (figuratively) and think about how you address people - who you even are? I know that you consider yourself to be a top expert on many things - unfortunately the shitty presentations does reduce the urge to even bother to get involved to about zero.

So, as far as this thread is concerned, I am done too. Don't bother to respond to me, I am not coming back to this thread. There is nothing that you could add to "clear" the situation up. Be sure that what I have said here will not get repeated elsewhere, it is simply not worth my time.

@administrator There are fixes for the intonation issues on Bach C Trumpets. My mid '70s 229 CL is VERY in tune. No alternate fingerings needed. My modifications were extensive.

Ivan from Jaeger trumpets visited a while back. He also knows what to do. We had a great time playing duets. I still have not managed to visit him in south Germany yet, but I will be in his area this summer and will make the effort.

@Dr-GO said in Does a large bore horn take more air?:

@ROWUK said in Does a large bore horn take more air?:

Simply, NO. it is not the bore that needs air. It is the resistance and that has nothing to do with the bore.

Thanks Rowuk. I've been trying to convince others on this thread but they all seem to be reluctant to appreciate the physics of a propagating sound wave through various materials. I guess my having a PhD in quantum chemistry doesn't qualify me, but your understanding of Trumpet physics truly blends with my training in wave forms.

The simple observation that if it was air transmission dependent, we would not be hearing the sound until seconds after a note was played. I hope people reflect on these concepts as I do feel this understanding can enhance the performance we get from our horns.

I have experimented with a headphone speaker glued to a mouthpiece. The trumpet needs no air flow. Only the players lips need enough air to get them to open and close by overcoming lip tension. The smart players learn to reduce tension, that reduces pressure and the amount of air flowing.

To be honest, I think that the air discussion has more to do with mine is bigger than yours than with serious intelligent practice. If a trumpet needs more air, the phrases that we play become shorter.

@Trumpetb, I report my first hand experience. I did not say that the importer dictated price. I said that the manufacturers have a catalog of options and that the importer can put instruments together from junk to great. The assumption that there must be a moral obligation in commerce is simply naive on your part. That is why there are laws to protect the end customer.

What I do not like is that you derail this thread (as usual with far too many words) which is about somebody selling an instrument because of the perceived category being “student quality”.

@jessie, Technically EVERY valve ALWAYS does something - maybe not what we want, but something. This has nothing to do with being a beginner.

The lips are the tone generator. I will assume that you can play a low C, a second line G and a third space C reliably.

The ONLY choices are: the valves lower the pitch or they prevent air from going through/are VERY, VERY stuffy. If the horn is complete, there is no chance that they have no function.

On an open low C the pitch must change. On an open second line G, no valve and valves 1+3 CAN have the same pitch. On an open third space C, 2+3 can have the same pitch. On an open 4th space E, 3 or 1+2 can have the same pitch. For beginners, we do not need to even talk about higher notes.

If the beginner has no reliable pitch whatsoever (or just blows air through the horn), then the valve makes a difference, but the weak embouchure is not capable of sustaining any tone. In any case I suggest getting a lesson to get the hang of playing resonant tones - and getting the horn checked out. The lesson does not have to be from a virtuoso. A music teacher in school or one of the better brass players in a school or community band can speed up the learning process a lot.

Still useful to learn about what trumpet sound Brahms, Wagner, (Richard) Strauss, Bruckner and Mahler had in their heads when composing their monumental works.

@tjcombo I use drones. It simply keeps intonation on the map when practicing. A 6th in C major is much different than the third in F!