Posts made by ROWUK

Moisture! The speed of sound in moist air is different than in dry and in the microcosmos of the trumpet, that is a big deal. Intonation and targets change.
Granted, if one has minimal chops, other issues may mask the effect.
A „moist“ instrument is different than just running water through it first (although that does help some).

This is such a fundamental thing for me that I will not risk playing a gig on a dry trumpet (even although it is only dry for the first 10 minutes or so). When testing trumpets, the first 10 minutes do not count.

@Dr-GO No, I have never needed circular breathing to get me through any particular phrase.
Most of my gigs are not sight reading, so I do have time to „feed my dependence“ on organisation and preparation.

When I do sightread (happens with commercial shows that I play), I still use the pencil when looking at the parts before the rehearsal. Potential missed accidentals get marked as well as „special breathing“ or time change situations. During the usual rehearsal, I fill in the rest of the dots.

This is what I do and teach. It is not a recipe for everyone or other situations. It helps to keep those that book me loyal.

My first action when reviewing a new piece is to determine phrasing and breathing. I enter breath marks, dynamics, slurs and other info (pencil). I ALWAYS prepare this way and practice with everything that I have decided. Only this way does it become habit for me and it relieves my mind during performance of some unnecessary decision making.
There are occasions when I enter notes to take a "small breath". I need this when I have little time further down to exhale before I fill up. The Bach Christmas Oratorio bass aria #8 "Grosser Herr" is an example of this situation. One could also try to muscle through, I just have had better luck through optimization.

@barliman2002 said in Still unable to log in under the original barliman2001 tag, and in hospital...:

Surgery was partly successful, but the eye still needs lots of time to recover. I am not allowed to play trumpet or drive myself or have sex...

Well, there are cornets, public and pubic transportation...

Hang in there big guy! Better times are coming!

@Dr-GO We must be careful with ANY machines or athletic programs for muscle development. Playing the trumpet IS physical, but is fine motor activity. Building a 6 pack is mostly contraproductive as we learn to use ever more force in conjunction with our body. We need thousands of „lowest“ impact reps to develop the patterns for playing to keep tension down and still get enough development. The prepared body is something earned in this special way. I avoid all advanced development with the Circle of Breath. It is potentially detrimental as most of us do not understand the connections between body and mind that are also developed in very small steps.

This low impact „requirement“ is actually something for life in general. Really good yoga, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique teachers only work this way. Our bad body habits are also built a little more slouch every day. Fixing them is not by force, rather gently.

That all being said, there are many fine players that work out intensively. We have to know that they did not build their playing habits this way. Once we are at a high level of playing, our bodies are very resilient. This fact has resulted in many „brute force“ embouchure and playing methods over time. They have not withstood the test of time!

Thank you for digging this out. I had as much fun putting it originally together as many had after using it for a while.

@Kehaulani said in a new way to learn scales (and a bunch of other stuff in the process):

"A new way?" Where's rowuk.

Rowuk has been in the wings (probably something wished for by many at TrumpetMaster back in the day), just watching where this stuff goes. As we can clearly see, history repeats itself.

Scales, modes and triads are a great way to build patterns - although not new, most of us will admit that we do not practice them enough. Certainly worthy of a post in pedagogy.

That now worked for me too!

I can log in with my MacMini, but no longer with my iPad. I have changed the password, reinstalled Safari, rebooted - it simply does not work. I have found no google info on similar issues.

I get the log in screen, enter user ROWUK and password, it just sits there.

I suspect some hidden credential that does not allow multiple devices. Probably a setting for the admin somewhere.

Just say no!

I successfully use LaTromba T2 (new bottle), Ultra Pure, Hetmans (various thicknesses) and Monster (various thicknesses). LaTromba T2 is the cheapest (in Europe). I buy it by the case.

They are all "equal" on my horns if applied properly. They are much faster than my fingers, last for at least a week of heavy playing. I have no sticking or other artifacts.

Horns that I use these oils on:
Bach 229CL
Selmer Radial 2°
Monette Raja C
Getzen Eterna 4 valve flugel
Cheap chinese pocket trumpet
All of my rotary trumpets

I also use these oils to keep my natural trumpet slides and bows from oxidizing together.

Clean horn first, wait until it is bone dry, apply oil sparingly. Never mix oils and greaes on the same horn.
It is not rocket science and I have no preference - maybe I am simply not good enough to notice? Maybe I simply do not have a "need" to have a preference?

@stumac I think that a "barrel" backbore would be something like the Schmidt Backbore that Schilke uses as well as certain hyperbolic shapes used by Monette.
Those that get excited about backbores need to keep in mind that the rim, cup, throat, leadpipe and bell are also in the system and that any advantage is very much dependent on the synergy.

A good playing mouthpiece with a standard backbore gets a flat upper register when we change the backbore in this way. Some like that because they play tense and that compensates...

V cups go back to medieval times. They were easy to produce - and worked.

As far as the "modern" trumpet goes there are deep Vee cups like from flugelhorns and cornets - and shallow Vee cups like those that Maynard Ferguson played.

What actually works for the modern player is very debatable. Most of our success is in our heads - what we believe, how we bias confirm what we believe.

I would insist that we need MONTHS to acclimate to a new architecture before we could really know if the switch was good or not.

I use Vee cups for my cornets and flugelhorns and C cups for everything else. I can switch easily back and forth.

I have a Vee cup experiment for a natural trumpet project. There are some historic originals that I want to try.

Mavbe some of us are reading the auction incorrectly. The engraving says Duke Donin FROM Louis Armstrong. Christies has a bunch of "non scientific" theories - not backed by documentation (invoice, serial number. history):
https://www.christies.com/features/The-1948-Louis-Satchmo-Armstrong-trumpet-10881-3.aspx

Certainly a collectors item, but you really have to want to believe the conjecture about Louis having actually played theis horn...

I think that the word "precision" in trumpet valve alignment is not exactly accurate. We have a "huge" amount of play horizontally even if we get up and down right. I have never seen a "precision" valve guide that reduces that horizontal error to thousandths.

That being said, I think that the valves and slides being tight is even more critical. Many good players play much better with heavier valve oil - even if the player does not like the feel.

I use a cheap fiber optic endoscope to look at the bore and valves from the inside. Need to get the solder blobs and grime out too.

I have also had mixed results with PVA and gap - regardless if I did it or I had my artisan of preference do it.

What ALWAYS worked was a complete disassembly of the horn - unsoldering EVERYTHING soft soldered, reassembling without jigs or tension applied to the parts, solder cleanup and polish inside, then valve job, PVA/gap.

I believe that there is a short and long term "break in" of the horn and player. Short term, it is wear/mechanical (valves/slides) for the hardware and acclimation of the player. Long term it is tempre, wear (gap, leaky slides and valves) and the training of preferences in our ears/brain. Those preferences can be blow, sound, color or intonation - all being related.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirschl

It is not even a shadow of the former company. These horns have nothing to do with the Nirschl quality from Germany. They can still be OK, at least as OK as China, India and Brazil produce.

The Meister can be found here:
http://www.walternirschl.de/sites/home.html

If that is the original case, it is a far east creation. I do not think that a realistic value can be placed without physically seeing the horn - even if it were a popular brand. Valve condition, repairs, etc. all determine its value.

In this case with the leadpipe sleeve, I would assume that it did not come from the factory this way. I would suspect someone customized.

In my view, it looks terribly unbalanced. Sheet bracing, removable bell imply "heavy" something that is not good for a horn not designed to specifically be that way.

Play before you pay. This is an old horn and no one will say if it has been "repaired" or not. Because the picture quality is low, bell creases would go unnoticed.
I have played Radial 2° from miserable to brilliant and never could blindly recommend them. I paid 500 euros for my Bb - but played before paying. Mine is only a bit better than "good" and I am working on making it "great" - probably at a cost of $700 to $1,000 ...