Best posts made by Shifty

The comments are pretty entertaining, too.

@Dirk020 said in Jens Lindemann about mouthpieces:

Jens Lindemann about mouthpieces

From the oTHer forum. Is this the one?

https://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26763

Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 23
:41:49 EDT
From: JLindem96@aol.com
Subject: [TPIN] Jens Lindemann mouthpiece

I have received many e-mails from TPIN members who were at the ITG conference asking the classic "what-mouthpiece-do-you-use" question. I thought I would take this opportunity to give you my personal theory on mouthpieces.

I believe that far too many trumpet players use mouthpieces that are basically too big. IMHO, going larger than a Bach 3C or the Yamaha/Schilke equivalent 14c4 or smaller than a Bach 7C or Yamaha/Schilke 11 should be considered 'specialized' equipment.

We seem to have no shortage of trumpet players out there who would say that very small mouthpieces are considered 'cheaters'. Have you ever seen a Bill Chase mouthpiece? It is about as small as you can possibly get and it served him very well for the type of playing he did. Could he have done that on a larger mouthpiece? Of course, but specialized lead players are artists in their own right. Those who do it for a living are very cognizant of what they are hired to do in the most efficient manner possible so that they can continue to do it for as long possible!

True lead players are also extremely rare. Think about how many people in your own community would be considered monster lead players...specifically the so-called 'screech' players. You would probably come up with a relatively small number in any given city. I can also virtually guarantee you that those inviduals play on more 'specialized' equipment that probably falls out of a standard industry medium. In my opinion, you should only mess around with their type of equipment if you were interested in the type of air velocity that they themselves use for their specific job. Remember though that everything comes with a price. Extremely small, shallow mouthpieces simply do not resonate that well in a section. They may have good 'cutting' projection but try playing softly with a good attack...very risky. Of course, if you never have to play softly with a good sound then you should consider yourself a true specialist...go for it!

By the same token, the great orchestral players use equipment that would hover around a Bach 1 1/2 or 1C or the Yamaha/Schilke equivalent 16-18C4. These individuals should also be considered 'specialists' because they are. Playing in an orchestra requires the ability to blend first and foremost and occasionally lead the entire brass section. But even then, the best players are simply riding on top of overtones being laid down by the rest of the section. They are not trying to 'cut' through in the way that commercial trumpet players might want to sizzle over a big band or rock group.

I just finished playing with the Summit Brass this week. Allen Vizzutti, Allan Dean and David Hickman were also in the trumpet section. Playing with them was AMAZINGLY easy because everyone blended and played in tune and everyone occasionally had the opportunity to lead the section and lay down a style that the others would follow. When the section is in tune and balanced, it is very simple to play for long periods of time without feeling true fatigue.

It is my understanding that the great Bud Herseth began his career on something like a Bach 7C and only switched to a larger mouthpiece (Bach 1X...made for him) after his car accident so that there was greater sensation in his nerve-damaged lips. Obviously, Bud Herseth is one of the greatest orchestral players ever but his own switch to a large mouthpiece (largest ever at the time) was based on an extreme situation for a highly specialized job. However, since most classical players wanted to sound like him, many made the same switch without thinking of the potential ramifications. Specifically, working too hard to find the sweet spot...more on that later. Bud Herseth is one the most efficient players of all time and he was efficient on a Bach 7C for a long period.

Thus, the point of my ramble (I think I'm jet-lagged). EFFICIENCY!!! After starting on a Bach 7C like many of you out there, I graduated to bigger equipment...all the way to a Bach 1 1/4, 24 throat, Schmidt backbore. I love stats...it clears the room of everyone except trumpet players. So, now that we are alone, I can tell you about my realization. Unless I wanted to be Bill Chase, there was little point in playing through a pin hole. By the same token, it also seemed reasonably logical that unless I was recovering from nerve damage and needed to feel more of my lips so that I could play for Fritz Reiner in Chicago, I probably wouldn't need a 1X either.

Allen Vizzutti and I have discussed this often over the years and the simple fact is this, in order to play efficently you must be in the sweet spot of a mouthpiece. A large mouthpiece has a bigger sweet spot and, as with oversized tennis racquets and golf clubs, it helps compensate for our very human ability to miss the centre of the note more often than not. To accomplish the same goal on a smaller mouthpiece you MUST be more efficient or it will back up on you. I describe backing up as basically trying to overpower the sweet spot.

Currently, I am playing a GR mouthpiece which Gary Radtke made especially for me. This will be available very soon (complete with my website on it...the benefits of customization!). For years before that, my own equipment was made for me by a mouthpiece maker in Japan who worked for Yamaha. I don't know the exact dimensions but they are somewhere between a Bach 5-7 C or a Yamaha/Schilke 11. Never measured the throat or the backbore and I didn't really care because it basically got me to where I needed to be. I could pretty much do everything I needed to do in any register I needed to play in with that mouthpiece. Could it have been a more perfect mouthpiece? Of course! Will I obsess about trying to find an elusive solution? Of course not! The answer is fluid anyway due to the fact that my body, lips, dental structure, and vital capacity will always be changing naturally due to the aging process that everyone of us is undergoing as I write this. Now, if your thing happens to be the quest for the perfect mouthpiece, then at least be honest with yourself, it is the chase that you are into and not the solution.

The bottom line is this (again, IMHO) the name of the game is efficiency and flexibility and the best solution for an all-around game is middle of the road equipment coupled with focused, intelligent practise. Have fun experimenting but don't let it be the answer to your problems!

Jens Lindemann
www.trumpetsolo.com

Pilots always used to brag about the accuracy of their watches (before the advent of the "atomic" clocks that are corrected by radio signals). I got one of these:

over eight years ago. It was spot on GPS time coming out of the box. It is solar powered, but NOT corrected by any radio signals. I have never adjusted the time. At present, it is 4 seconds slow -- the worst it's ever been. (internet image, easier than taking a picture). Not bad

@Kehaulani said in How do you feel about vibrato?:

Well, I don't believe there is. There must be historical commentaries on vibrato performance practices of their time. Assumingly, no one on this board knows about them. That ignorance (not meant condescendenly, I don't know, either) does not trump historical sources and research.

https://repository.asu.edu/attachments/93464/content//tmp/package-k2tMBa/Verville_asu_0010E_11489.pdf

https://www.earlymusicamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/VibratoWars-1.pdf

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1105&context=ppr

http://www.classicstoday.com/features/ClassicsToday-Vibrato.pdf

@administrator said in Bots are getting scary:

There are a lot pitfalls with AI, but mostly, there are just a lot of unknowns. It's new territory. "Artificial Intelligence" is not actually intelligence. It's just programming. The thing I have learned about computers, being a programmer myself, is that they do EXACTLY what you tell them to do. The problem is knowing what you are actually telling them to do, that's where bugs come from. It is extremely hard to account for every possible variable that could arise, and program behavior becomes wildly unpredictable when unaccounted-for variables are thrown into the mix. This is partly why I'm not looking forward to "self-driving" cars.

Yes, they do EXACTY what you tell them to do and NOT what you WANT them to do. I remember doing the batch runs for our college computer back in the early 70s. The freshman math majors always asked why their program wouldn't run. I always asked "what did you expect it to do, based on your code.? Let's pretend you're the computer."

It's obviously immensely more complicated with modern apps and AI, but pretending to be the computer is still a good approach. And then assume that anything that could possibly go wrong probably will, and allowing for it.

@newell-post said in Trumpet Board Remote Performance:

@j-jericho Have you guys ever tried absinthe? It tastes like a Listerine and Nyquil cocktail.

And I'm sure Dr Go will add that absinthe makes the heart grow fonder...

@Tobylou8 said in Show Us Your Wristwatches!:

@Shifty You need this: It's pricey at $4300, but it's hard to destroy!! Here's the link! https://www.gshock.com/watches/mr-g/mrg2000rj-2a

Or, I could get 20 of these:

And a mint-condition Olds Super Recording...

Hal kills Dave in simulation:

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-artificial-intelligence-drone/

Where's the "Like" button?

OK, found it.

@J-Jericho said in RIP Trumpet "Master":

Someone on anoTHer website claims to be the owner and claims to have deleted all of the information. No further explanation given. Which frustratingly leaves unanswered questions.

THat particular poster is, how shall I say it, not to be believed. It's not his real name, and in previous posts he has shown strong dislike for TM (and apparently Rowuk in particular). Read his 107 posts -- he never makes a positive contribution to any discussion. Just cynicism. Troll, IMHO.

@Seth-of-Lagos
Welcome aboard, Seth. You've been missed.

@Kehaulani said in "Star Trek Next Generation":

Probably the weirdest accent I heard, was a guy from Cuba who was raised in Alabama. I defied anyone to identify that one.

I can hear it now: "Y'all got some 'splainin' to do, Lucy."

This was posted on the oTHer forum almost 15 years ago, and the shoe fits (THere) pretty well:

Post Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:17 pm Post subject: How many forum members does it take to change a light bulb?

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed
14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently
7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs
1 to move it to the Lighting section
2 to argue then move it to the Electricals section
7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs
5 to flame the spell checkers
3 to correct spelling/grammar flames
6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ... another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid
2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp"
15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct
19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum
11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum
36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty
7 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs
4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's
3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group
13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too"
5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy
4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"
13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs"
1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

And, of course:

You forgot about the 12 who will post about how much better the light was from bulbs made in the 50's and extol the virtues of NOS (New Old Stock) bulbs.

I wouldn't have been aware of the thread, but some lurker responded to it today.

Glad Trumpetboards is refreshingly different

As sort of an aside, things are also relatively slow over on TH. And none of the usual raging controversies.

Maybe everyone is nursing bed sores from sitting on their butts in front of their computers and TVs.

@bigdub said in A little humour:

You have all heard teachers, advisors, seminar leaders and the like say, “there are no dumb questions”.

Would anyone like to put their two cents in on this?

They say that to encourage shy participants to ask questions if something isn't clear to them. If it wasn't clear, there are probably others that would like to ask the same question. IOW, the only dumb question is the one you were afraid to ask. But there are dumb/stupid questions.

Good discussion here: https://sites.monroecc.edu/mofsowitz/advice/stupid-questions/

From another perspective, I had a professor that said the only stupid question is one that is posed in such a way that it can't be answered. He was referring to logical defects, but how about "what mouthpiece should I buy if I want to be able to play double Cs next week?"

@administrator, congratulations on this amazing new site. It works great on my PC and on my tablet. Yesterday, the mobile version looked great on my Blackberry Q10 as well. I could log in and use the menu to find new posts. Today it appears the menu is broken, referring to the three horizontal bars at the top left of the screen. They're black on a blue background to start with and, when selected, the whole square turns grey and no menu. Can't even tell if I'm logged in. Any suggestions?

@Dr-GO said in 2019 Jazz Festivals:

Any members playing Jazz Festivals are encouraged to let us all know. If in the area, this may get our members to come out and support our TB family.

AND by coincidence, The Eddie Brookshire Quintet will be playing the Dayton Jazz Festival on Sunday, June 9th at the brand new Levitt Pavilion right in the heart of Dayton, across the street from the Dayton Convention Center and on the grounds of the Crowne Plaza. We start at 7:30 pm.

https://www.daytonlocal.com/festivals/dayton-jazz-festival.asp

I lived in Dayton about 35 years ago; you make me wish I still lived there.

Protec Trumpet/Small Brass Multiple (4-Piece) Leather Mouthpiece Pouch with Zipper Closure, Model L221

@richard-iii said in Why not another thread about bigger horns ?:

Of course if there were a Cornet Boards, I wouldn't even be here.

Are you a facebook user?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1514385745525221/about