Posts made by ROWUK

@JWM The #1 reason for range just stopping at a specific note is too much damn pressure.

A buzz is nothing more than the lips opening and closing at a certain frequency. If we apply large amounts of arm pressure to the embouchure, we need far more air pressure to blow the lips apart. That is not a very responsive system!

In my view, the easiest way to break this habit is to turn the testosterone down. Play ONLY very, very softly for a couple of weeks and focus on the air doing the work. Overdose on pianissimo lipslurs and long tones. Practice to get the sound to start on a wisp of air.

Generally, it takes only a lesson or two to get students doing this reliably. The biggest problem with a social media recommendation is that body use can not be controlled. If someones body is twisted into knots, a big relaxed breath is a challenging thing. Exhaling also becomes a real chore.

My full view is in several posts that I made called "the circle of breath". This is a collection of things from many disciplines. Google it and if there is something unclear, just ask.

@JWM The only way to know if it is you is to have someone way better than you play the horn.
I would say the chances are 99.999% that it is you. There are essentially NEVER any notes missing unless there is a leak and then it is not "a" high notes that get s lost, rather usually in the lower octave.

The notion that tightly slotting horns are easier to play in tune is a myth in my world. We do not play "well tempered" we play relative to the other notes. This is called "just tuning". We need the horn to respond evenly because we need to bend the pitch to stay in tune in relation to others.

The notion of how a horn "slots" has more to do with how well we hear ourselves. In an overly reverberant bathroom or staircase, an instrument will appear to slot better than that same instrument when played outdoors on a cold day. If we insert earplugs (in our ears), the horn will slot noticably worse than if we just got our ears cleaned.

Sure, we want instruments that can securely be played in tune. I believe that the physics of resonance place limits on what works. I also would not agree that heavy instruments necessarily have less overtones. My heaviest trumpet is the one that is most easy to play and projects the best. It is the most brilliant too.

In many cases, we can improve instruments that are difficult to play. This can be accomplished by moving braces, cleaning the grunge out, aligning the valves and to a certain extent improving the mouthpiece shank/receiver connection. Sometimes a smaller mouthpiece can make our sound get to our ears more easily. I have had several students wanting to get a "darker sound" that ended up just being mushy. Recording their sound with various instruments can prove to them that they were following a "less worthy" goal.

Heavier valve caps on instruments not designed for them can make resonance more stable but as a rule have a cost in sound and intonation.

There is also a notion that some instruments project in a way making them easier to hear. This can help match the expectations in our heads to what the trumpet actually sounds like. When we match instruments to our sound concept, they are easier to play.

I think that playing in all keys is important to our playing. Not only the fingers and brain get a workout, but negotiating the changes in back pressure through the valve combinations stabilise our embouchures. Practice scales slowly and precisely, slurred, and then add just enough tongue to separate the notes, then less legato and finally staccato. Play loudly and softly.

@Trumpetb My point is that we do not NEED TO PERFORM WITH the original instruments to get the original intentions of the composer. For some people, myself included, learning and performing with them does however, offer additional palettes of color to use.
As the trumpet through its history has changed about every 50 years, I would place most of the "blame" for lost technique and tone clearly with the trumpeters. Even in the Jazz genre, how many players just noodle around without really embracing the various periods in jazz? How many can play a convincing Bix or Dizzy chorus? What about a whole evening of 1920s jazz (or 1950s for that matter). Sure, we may hear some licks that apply, but a whole evening? The same is true with cornetto choruses called diminuation. It is not a hard concept, the patterns developed over time and also applied to a certain extent to the baroque period.
The ignorance that is displayed - even by some (if not many) professionals, is simply laziness not lack of sources, information or role models. It certainly is not hardware based. There are even courses to build your own cornetto or natural trumpet.
I would not consider anything lost rather ignored.

My personal opinion is that we have lost NOTHING. The trumpet has been evolving/transforming about every 50 years and that the issue is more about what the contemporary view of what is acceptable. The end of the baroque era brought the requirements of chromatics that the natural trumpet could not fulfill. An additional handicap was classical modulation of the key signature that ruled out "mean tone" instruments. Initial attempts to get the trumpet chromatic sounded HORRIBLE, that resulted in it losing its "solo instrument" position in the orchestra and it wasn't until the late 1800s until further developments enabled the trumpeter to recapture melodic superiority. With the advent of recording technology, the requirement of security drove the creation of shorter instruments (in Bb, C, D and Eb). In Germany around 1900 the Bb trumpet common today was called the "high Bb" trumpet and the orchestral players using the deep F trumpets commented on the thin sound and lack of color of those Bb instruments. They lost the battle.
Rediscovery of Bach in the 1920s and 1930s drove development of smaller bore high D, Eb, F and G trumpets. Jazz drove additional changes to the Bb as did raising concert pitch to A=440. Charles Mager bringing french C trumpets to Boston was an additional change. After the second world war, the volume war started. Symphony orchestras (especially the brass) got larger bore instruments to get a "darker" sound that fitted in the orchestral fabric better. Unfortunately, that development increased the loudness, driving orchestral pitch up to the current A=442/443 to make the woodwinds brighter to compete. The string sections got strings that were also much louder.
Now, to get back to my original premise: trumpeters never had any need to ignore history or lose certain playing techniques. This was and still is their own choice. I listen to recent symphonic brass recordings of Gabrielli and wonder why nothing has improved since the 1960s when Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago created their legendary recordings. The reason is choice and ignorance. Ed Tarr and many others have made historical performance practice popular and accessible. Choosing to ignore what has been learned is my definition of ignorant. There is NO REASON FOR A MODERN PLAYER TO NOT ENCOMPASS THE ORIGINAL INTENT OF COMPOSERS FROM ANY ERA. Everything is freely available in our information age. I do not need a cornetto to play Gabrielli or a natural trumpet to play Bach. I do need to understand performance practice, phrasing, articulation and blend to serve the original intent however. It is there for the taking as long as we are not too proud to bend over and pick it up!
We can learn a lot from these pioneers.

I do not think that I have missed anything. It is a simple fact that our lives are far more public than we realise and that brings a bunch of opportunities - good and bad.
As far as someone "secretly" recording me and publishing, that would only be a (solvable) problem if my name or picture were attached somehow. Especially in Germany, there are very fast venues to take care of situations like this.

That being said, my practice sessions are generally purposeful and I think for the most part it is audibly very clear what I am working towards. I almost never "noodle around". This means if a recording was made without a picture or video of me or my name, I probably would not care. The chance of someone "stealing" my practice work and making money with it is so unlikely, I have never given it any thought.

The idea of a private detective digging dirt up about trumpet practice sessions reminds me of Guy Noir of "a Prairie Home Companion" fame. Garrison Keillor is my hero!

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.

@administrator only considering a few aspects...
There is always a "cost of business". When the recording industry was in its infancy, the ensembles had to play an entire side of a record. The musicians did not have a "second chance". I believe in the beginning, that made them more interested in playing safe instead of "with abandon".
Fast forward to the recording to multichannel analog tape. Now we could splice out things less desirable, reality became something else.
Fast forward to digital recording (starting further developed perhaps in the late 1990s). Now we can manipulate with surgical precision pitch, rhythm, phrases or even individual notes. In addition we can add all sorts of "vitamin supplements" like reverb and instrumental effects, we can modify the size and directivity. We do not HAVE to, but we are FREE to.
In spite all of this real musicians have always been very selective about what influences affect their playing. The possibilities are also tempered by the physicality of their playing. How many "reference" recordings of major concertos have working symphonic players as the soloists?
Enter AI with a huge database of what has been (albeit a very incomplete database). How are the styles across centuries linked? How is the physicalities of the instruments implemented? Do we really need an even blonder Barbie with Botox lips for better embouchure, 100-20-100 hourglass figure for better breath control?
Of course we can maintain that the pop industry could produce ever more cheaply. I am also convinced that "serious" music could benefit from AI but not in ways that we currently consider. Just like the fact that it took the digital recording industry a decade to develop its own new face and voice, AI still has a long way to go. I can reference Googles Bach Doodle project which in my view is HORRIBLE! Experiments to finish various symphonies have also failed by not even sounding like the original composer - in spite of dedicated database training.

We also have an ethical issue when we "colorize" black and white photography or let dead musicians perform notes that they never played. Even more critical is when movies get soundtracks from samples and the musicians that created the samples as basis for AI get no credits or money!

I have recently found something else (the exact opposite): a young lady Alma Deutscher that composes and improvises as if she had been born in the early 18th century. This lady has unbelievable instrumental talent as well as ability to improvise.
https://www.almadeutscher.com/compositions. This is my next best thing.

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

@Trumpetb
Wynton is INFINITELY more sociable than Miles ever was. I think that the feud was totally unnecessary and the result of a huge chip on Miles shoulder.
Miles was one of the greatest influences on the trumpet world and he knew it. There was no room for his ego and another trumpeter in the same room much less the same stage.
To be honest, I prefer ignoring the extensive moronic side of Miles and focus ONLY on his iconic playing. I use those same skills when watching TV these days.

There are wind town bands all over Germany, most with no chance to earn money. There is also a fair amount of freelance work, but a lot of that is being covered by professional musicians with music jobs. Getting a break means having the right teacher and playing well enough for them to want to take you instead of another pro that could also offer them gigs in return.

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

We must always keep in view that trumpet playing is a fine motor activity - not weight lifting. Endurance comes through training efficiency and body use. The goal is NOT a six pack!
The problem with Caruso is if we in fact treat the exercises as "calisthenics". This is a 100% wrong image.
Remember: the harder you press your lips together, the more blow force that you need to get them vibrating. The #1 problem that I observe is that way too much force is used - with the lips being forcefully pressed together as well as being mashed against the teeth.
Our embouchure must speak with a whisper of airflow. Starting from this side of playing, we develop that efficiency and NEVER need a hurricane to blow the lips apart.

@malintrumpet As I noted, in my case there is a specific trigger that needs to be fulfilled to start the tremor. (some connection with my left index finger which can happen through the trumpet, when drinking a glass of water held in my left hand or even directly touching my lips with that index finger. If I hold the trumpet or glass of water only with my right hand, I am symptom free.
Navigating through such diseases is not easy and even if chemicals (including alcohol) can hide the symptoms, I believe that the "solution" is to get the brain and body reorganized. I currently have Feldenkrais sessions 1-2 times a week and this has been very helpful in getting a fresh view on how everything about us is connected and letting the brain do the work. I have a much higher level of mobility now in just about all activity.

Dave Monette is also finishing a book that covers the esoteric part of performance. A good portion of his teaching is based on Moshe Feldenkrais' teaching.

@thornybob I too (67 years old) suffer but have discovered that the trigger is contact with my index finger on the left hand and my lips. That makes me hold my trumpets in funny ways but lets me keep playing at my previous level.
I also have the effect when I drink from a glass held with my left hand. The tremor starts when the glass makes lip contact. If I lift the index finger, the tremor stops. If I touch my lips with another finger, I short circuit the effect for a very short time.
I have not noticed an improvement through alcohol, beta blockers or quitting coffee. I have never smoked.

I always have issues with so called R&D without a substantial sample base and R&D prior to the selection of questions. Ask the wrong questions and you can prove just about any results!

That being said, just like with any profession, there are those born with the talent (musicality, preserverance and business sense) and those that "learned how to play their instrument". The former probably would not take part in any "studies" and the latters response would depend if they had a reasonable paying job outside of music or not.

Horn u Copia has essentially identical info:
https://www.horn-u-copia.net/serial/Kinglist.html

as does Conn/Selmer:
https://www.conn-selmer.eu/resources/serial-numbers/king

Around 1976.

@barliman2001 said in Mute Clarification?:

@j-jericho As I do have a derby mute, but no derby hat, I think I'll settle for the mute...

Playing into a "soft" mute of any kind means that there is enough damping to kill overtones. A normal "hat" or derby mute is OK but putting some additional damping material performs the conversion. Kill the overtones on a trumpet, and it sounds more flute like.

My tip is to use "drones". Single bass notes that can be generated with a keyboard or PC. For instance, you create a low concert Bb (bass clef) drone and just let that note play. Then you slowly play a C scale on your trumpet - recognizing the effects of each note compared to the drone. After a short while, your ear/brain guides you to the most favorable relationships. Then you create a low F drone and play the same C scale - learning to savor each relationship. Then you follow up with Eb, C, D and others! After a while (a month or so) a B natural drone with a C scale on the trumpet becomes enjoyable (to you).
Ear training is developing habits. It is best to slowly develop habits. That way there is no artificial "pressure" mentally or mechanically!