Posts made by Shifty

@Kehaulani-0 said in Matt Brockman scam artist:

"Does anyone know someone with the Army Band? This reflects very poorly on the Band . . . ".
How does this reflect poorly on the Band as a whole?

A knowledgeable post from the oTHer trumpet site:

trptboy3
Veteran Member

Joined: 31 Jan 2009
Posts: 135
Location: Washington, DC
PostPosted: Sat Mar 02, 2024 9:24 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Clearing up the Army bandsman confusion. Matt Brockman is not, nor has ever been, a member of The United States Army Band "Pershings Own". He has never been a member of any of the DC Army premiere bands. The fact that he even eludes to that destroys any and all credibility. He's deliberately fooling people into thinking he has credibility and a certain level professional experience and success that he simply has not achieved. He's a scam artist.

His actual background was as a member of AN army band in the army band program. I know he was at one time stationed with the band in Savannah, Georgia, but I have no idea if he's still in.

To be clear, there are some fantastic musicians and people in those bands around the country, and the world. I have the utmost respect for what they do and how they choose to serve their country. Matt simply isn't one of them and is the antithesis of the Army values, as well as those required to simply be a good human. If anyone is looking for quality trumpet instruction at a fair price, I implore you to look elsewhere.

Matt Gaunitz
Trumpeter - US Army Band "Pershings Own"
Former Bugler - US Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps

@Dale-Proctor
I'd guess it would be ok on the main tuning slide -- about like Hetman #7, but more colorful.

Perhaps a mix with valve oil for #1 and #3 slides.

@Dr-GO
I had a co-worker who went through college on a band scholarship. He said their entire trumpet section used STP as a slide lubricant.

@55Yr-Comback
I hope that video answered the questions that you actually asked. But wait--there's more.

In Charlie's demo, he has his jaw set so that his upper and lower teeth are aligned. He also has the mouthpiece centered vertically (50-50) on his lips. That's a good place to start, but it might not work for you.

Some folks play with overbite or (less likely) underbite. Some play 50-50, while others use higher mouthpiece placement or lower placement. Some even offset horizontally. A lot has to do with your oral and dental structure. There's really no right or wrong if it works for you so, unless you have an instructor, you just have to experiment.

Sometime in the future, you may find this website interesting:
https://wilktone.com/?page_id=5619
From that site:

*Where no obvious reason seems to exist for the adoption of any particular method, it is in order to ask “Why?”.

And if the “experts” provide you too readily with an answer, bear in mind that they may not, in fact, have any clearer understanding of how successfully to perform the task than you do yourself.*

@55Yr-Comback said in Proper Embouchure?:

@administrator Thanks! But two questions though.

1st one....After the MMM, do you firm your corners, bring them slightly in toward center firm against you teeth, & then have your lips firm against your teeth & are your lips just slightly touching? And when I say this, I don't mean rigid or in a stiff manner. In other words, if you measured "firm" for doing that on a 1 to 10 scale, it would be at a 3 the most.

2nd question is... after you've placed the mpc, do you put your tongue through your lips to open your lips slightly, or do you let your air stream open them.

Understand I'm not trying to be technical or mechanical. I just want to know if by doing this, it results in an embouchure that's not loose & sloppy. THANKS!!

Caveat: I'm not an instructor or even a very good player, so take this for what it's worth. I was going to opine that you're overthinking it, but then I started overthinking
it, too.

I'll offer up a video by Charlie Porter. After setting the mouthpiece on his closed lips, he consciously pulls them apart just a bit. I didn't think I did that, but it turns out that
I do (unconsciously).

IMHO, if the lips are truly touching without airflow, then adding airflow could allow the creation of a buzz on just the mouthpiece (or visualizer, in the video). If that buzz already exists with the mouthpiece in the horn before the horn itself starts to respond, you get the dirty articulation that Charlie describes. If you've formed a good embouchure on the mouthpiece alone, it should not buzz when you add airflow. But keep blowing while sliding the mouthpiece into the horn and you should get a
nice tone.

Charlie pokes his tongue out to wet his lips, but I don't think that will keep the lips open if the aperture is closed to start with.

@Dr-GO said in Proper Embouchure?:

Neither. I form an embouchure by firming my upper lips with the facial muscles attaching to the zygomatic arch of the orbits of my eyes. Why? More muscle fibers attach hear distributing force more in more directions, with more insertion sites increasing the efficiency of muscle action while increasing embouchure endurance with more effective distribution of work load.

Methinks perhaps the good Doctor's description may be (although precisely accurate) offered somewhat lingua-in-bucca.

@55Yr-Comback
Option 1 for me. Option 2 makes a sound like a duck being tortured.

Some folks like to lip buzz (sans mouthpiece) to get their blood flowing (I'm incapable). Some folks like to buzz the mouthpiece as an embouchure exercise. Some put the mouthpiece into the leadpipe (only) or into a Warburton "buzzard" or similar device (https://warburton-usa.com/products/the-buzzard).

But only Option 1 is playing the trumpet and is, IMHO, the way to go for making music. You'll probably hear some alternative views here, but they won't try to chop your head off for asking like they do on the oTHer forum.

There's a YouTube video out there somewhere in which we demonstrate that Option 1 (without a trumpet attached) produces nada, but slide the mouthpiece into a trumpet while continuing to blow and PRESTO- music happens.

@Alex-Otis
I'm not an expert, but it sure resembles the Conn 22b New York Symphony circa 1920s. Here's a link to the Conn Loyalist, and a sample picture from trumpet-history.com:

https://cderksen.home.xs4all.nl/Conn22B1924image.html

@Dr-GO
The site says they're in Dayton -- why not drive by and take a look:

Visit our shop and try our products at:
Visits must be scheduled in advance.

1120 East Second Street Suite 2180
Dayton, Ohio 45403

@barliman2001
They are on the web: https://brasswindresearch.com/

And here is some commentary from TH a long time ago: https://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=102980&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

@jolter said in Future survival of this forum:

@dr-go said in Future survival of this forum:

What is interesting to me is we have more and more new users but very little input from them.

Do we? Color me surprised, as I'm seeing no new posts most days, or even weeks. Is there a way to see the user count?

https://trumpetboards.com/users shows just over 12 pages, each with 50 users. I make that to be 600 users in all.

https://www.pictouadvocate.com/obituaries/bellefontaine-george/article_657ce330-3530-11ee-ab37-6f81e304089d.html

Hal kills Dave in simulation:

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

I disagree, Trumpetb.

If a computer does exactly what it was told to do in the code despite the fact that it isn't what the programmer wanted, that does not constitute a case of the computer acting outside of its programming. It's a case of erroneous programming.

@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.

Nerves of Steel - Woman stops 3.5metre croc with .22 pistol.

Absolutely amazing and deeply moving story of an Aussie woman's bravery with a tiny .22 calibre pistol yet.
They are like a mosquito bite to a big croc.
A Darwin woman, Beverly Thompson, 38, has stopped a crocodile attack using a small .22 calibre Ruger pistol.
This is a story of self-control and marksmanship by a brave, cool-headed woman with a small pistol against a fierce predator.
Here's her story in her own words:
"While walking along the edge of a lake near my house in the Zuccoli Village Estate near Darwin discussing a property settlement with my soon-to-be ex-husband, and other divorce issues, we were surprised by a huge 3.5metre crocodile which suddenly emerged from the murky water. It began charging us with its large jaws wide open. She must have been protecting her nest because she was extremely aggressive. If I had not had my little Ruger .22 calibre pistol with me, I wouldn't be here today!" said Beverly.
“Just one shot to my estranged husband's kneecap was all it took. The croc got him easily, and I was able to escape by just walking away at a brisk pace. The amount I saved in lawyer's fees was really incredible, and his life insurance was also a big bonus!”

@kehaulani
If you view it on YouTube, you'll see it.

(Click on the word YouTube at the bottom right of the window).

The comments are pretty entertaining, too.

@dbtrumpet

Thanks, Dave, for posting this warmup routine. I've found it very valuable in several ways. It took me a few tries to figure out how to play it, and more to play it reasonably well. It's a nice little workout--even a routine you can run through when there's no real practice time.

Being a rank amateur, I should probably pick a horn and a mouthpiece and stick with it, but I love cycling through the horns in my signature. It used to take me a while to make the switch, but this exercise works as a "reset" for me. Even going to the baritone is easier.

I also owe you thanks for a post you made quite a while ago over on the oTHer site. You quoted a discussion about using a 3x5 card to determine your dominant lip. That led me to discover that I'm weird (in yet another way) in that my bottom lip is dominant. I can play a reasonable tone with a business card over my top lip, but the only thing I can get out with the bottom lip covered is a pedal tone.

What did I learn from that?

1. I believe I'm an upstream player with low MP placement. Moving the mouthpiece down a bit more allowed me to disable the double buzz I was getting at low C -- where my upper lip wanted to join in.

2. I'd always believed the accepted science that the top lip was dominant, so you should punish the lower lip when pressure was required. Doing that cut off my top range, making high C impossible other than early in the session.

3. The lower MP placement cleared up the tubbiness on low G and F#.

Using a bit of pressure on the top lip (in lieu of the bottom) helps with high range. Too bad my dog starts to whine when I get above high C. Otherwise, I could practice up there.