Best posts made by SSmith1226

@Niner

The New York Times today had an article written from multiple points of view, “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet”. There were 16 short essays by music critics, reporters. Trumpet Players, composers, musicians, conductors, etc. Each short essay was accompanied by a recording that illustrated the point of the essay. The link to this article is below.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/arts/music/classical-music-trumpet-jazz.html

An example of an essay and accompanying recording by Terence Blanchard is below. It is very timely with Hurricane Ida making landfall in Louisiana. I know that I am “preaching to the choir”, but it is a great article. You should be able to access it by opening a free New York Times account.

◆ ◆ ◆

Terence Blanchard, trumpeter and composer:

Here is my impassioned clarion call to understand the trumpet! See that exclamation point? That’s what a trumpet does. It punctuates emotions. My trumpet teacher Bill Fielder would always ask, “What is the trumpet?” I would ponder for a moment and offer an encyclopedic answer like “A metal instrument with … blah, blah, blah.” To that Mr. Fielder would say, “It is a mirror of your mind.”

Ordinarily, I would invite you to listen to Miles Davis’s “Porgy and Bess,” a classic collaboration between Miles and Gil Evans. This album set the stage for people thinking differently about the orchestra and jazz. But as I write this, yesterday was the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. My song “Funeral Dirge,” from the album “A Tale of God’s Will,” originally composed for the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s first Katrina documentary, “When the Levees Broke,” still haunts me today. Actually, I don’t feel like I composed it. I feel like it was being screamed at me: my personal clarion call to hear and weep with my hometown, New Orleans.

Dead bodies floating. Dead bodies on top of cars. Dead bodies in the grass. Dead bodies in places I knew. Dead bodies in neighborhoods I grew up in. I saw these bodies in the raw footage of Spike’s documentary. One dead body I didn’t see in the video was that of an old neighborhood friend who died trying to help people stay on their roofs while floodwaters raged beneath. I never cried so much, shedding tears for the many bodies I saw, and the many, many more I didn’t see. This dirge is my tribute to those brave, valiant, fallen heroes. God bless those souls from Katrina — and, today, those souls from Ida.

The following as an excerpt from a medical news letter that reports highlights from the medical literature. The article discusses what it takes to become an expert surgeon and how to streamline the learning that is involved. We have all heard and even previously discussed the 10,000 hour rule and some of us have read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”. The beginning of this article applies to musicians and athletes. I thought that you might find it interesting.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME AN EXPERT?

The question on expertise has fascinated K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, for decades. Dr. Ericsson began studying how professional musicians and high-performance athletes train to become masters of their craft—how much time they dedicate, how they practice, and how they maintain and develop new skills.

In an early study, Dr. Ericsson found that it took, on average, more than 10,000 hours of practice to become the most promising violin students at a music academy by age 20 years (Psychol Rev1993;100[3]:363-406). To achieve mastery, he found that internationally recognized pianists put in closer to 20,000, even 30,000, hours of deliberate practice.

“The key to achieving expertise is not only how long you practice; it’s also about what you practice and how you practice,” said Dr. Ericsson, the Conradi Eminent Scholar and a professor of psychology at Florida State University in Tallahassee, who presented his research at the 2019 Canadian Surgery Forum.

Deliberate practice, Dr. Ericsson explained, means pinpointing specific problem areas and working on them until they become second nature. To achieve this, a teacher must first analyze a student’s skills and focus on particular features that can be improved. The teacher then needs to delineate what type of practice can help achieve those goals, and the student then spends hours working to reach them. Practice time, however, will vary by the profession and the individual person.

Although you can’t rush expertise, you can make that process more efficient,” Dr. Ericsson said......

THE REMAINDER OF THE ARTICLE APPLIES TO SURGERY.
I will open this up to discussion.

Sent from my iPhone

There is currently an active thread that in general is promoting increasing our posts about music related topics. I saw the article that I presented and was impressed that the performer was able to present “Old MacDonald” as a Beethoven like piece by essentially improvising, using the same skills as a Jazz Musician would in the same situation, although the skills will be used differently. See below video for an example to contrast with the Beethoven linked video.

The Certs commercial was J.Jericho’s post, not mine. He is a man of mystery, but this post demonstrates that he might be a member of the Diplomatic Corps!!!

@ButchA said in Anyone like fishing? (when taking a break from Trumpet, that is...):

Wow... Excellent photos of fish you guys have shown!

Honest - I have never been saltwater fishing. Never been out in the Atlantic, out in the Chesapeake Bay, etc... and gone fishing. I don't have the equipment (rods & reels) for it. I grew up a freshwater fisherman, all over various lakes, ponds, streams & rivers, etc... The best, most relaxing experience, is fly fishing in a shallow stream wearing waders, and nobody is around to bother you, no boats, no jet skis, and it's just you and the rushing water.

Great Barrier Reef- Black Marlin

@administrator said in 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet- New York Times:

I spent 5 years studying the trumpet at a collegiate level, let alone 5 minutes.

The article was aimed at the general public, not individuals who play the Trumpet. Just the 16 recorded examples that the 16 essays are based on alone will take over an hour ho listen to and the essays probably another 30-40 minutes. The entire project is actually very informative. This is part of a series of music appreciation related articles.

“ In the past we’ve chosen the five minutes or so we would play to make our friends fall in love with classical music, piano, opera, cello, Mozart, 21st-century composers, violin, Baroque music, sopranos, Beethoven, flute, string quartets, tenors, Brahms, choral music, percussion, symphonies and Stravinsky.

Now we want to convince those curious friends to love the trumpet. We hope you find lots here to discover and enjoy; leave your favorites in the comments.”

@Dr-GO said in WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME AN EXPERT?:

@Kehaulani said in WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BECOME AN EXPERT?:

Yeah. It's like walking in the desert and stubbing your toe on a little pyramid shaped stone pile. You decide to dig it up and, to your amazement, it widens. You do this the rest of your life, discovering that you have been uncovering the Pyramid of Cheops. That's what mastery work looks like.

So your are saying, that is what it takes to develop great Cheops!

Check out at 2:43. Is that what you mean?

Now get serious!

I opened a thread titled “Trumpet Board Performance” to discuss this specific concept further. If possible, please address any further ideas or opinions relative to putting together a Trumpet Boards group performance video at that thread.
Thanks.

@ButchA
Butch,
Your post brings back fond memories. I also got my love of fishing from my father. When I grew up up in the 1950’s, my father owned a 1940’s 3 1/2 hp Scott Attwater outboard engine. He would rent a row boat from Cameron’s Boat Rentels in New Rochelle, NY, mount the outboard engine, and off we would go catching flounder, porgy, bergal, weakfish, blackfish, Boston Mackerel, or what ever else was out there.
As time went on, he purchased a 16 ft boat with a 35 hp Johnston engine, then a 21 ft boat, then a 30 ft Criss Craft Sea Skiff. He then followed the pattern of many boat owners and the boats started getting smaller until all he had was a 3 1/2 hp Scott Attwater engine, an Evinrude 5 hp outboard, and an old used row boat that he bought from Cameron’s Boat Rentals when they upgraded their fleet of rental boats. When the wood row boat rotted beyond repair, he was left with the outboard engines.
Interestingly, I followed the same pattern, advancing to a 34 foot charter fishing boat, that I had in charter for 12 years in Marathon, FL., and currently I am very happy to be boat-less. If I want to go fishing, I will charter someone else’s “headache”, and catch more fish then I would on my own.
For what it is worth, the above photos are of my father’s 30 ft Criss Craft Sea Skiff with me standing and him sitting in the stern area.

Here are two more examples:

Mark Stryker, critic and author of “Jazz From Detroit”
Kenny Dorham (1924-72) did not command attention with Gabriel-like power and bravura technique. A favorite of jazz connoisseurs, he seduced listeners with the soulful warmth, colorful wit and understated wisdom of the hippest bon vivant on the scene. Everything about his approach to the trumpet and improvisation was expressive, relaxed and personal. The dappled smears of his crepuscular tone and the flirty bounce he brings to the standard “I Had the Craziest Dream” in 1959 make a beeline for your heart. His improvised phrases, delivered with nonchalant charm, enchant you with clever melodic and rhythmic rhymes and piquant note choices. He’s telling a story, inviting you into his dream — where you not only fall in love with the trumpet, but also the man with the horn.

Leonard Slatkin, conductor
In 1958 my father, the conductor Felix Slatkin, commissioned the composer Leo Arnaud to create pieces that would demonstrate the then-new audio format of stereo. Utilizing various military fanfares as well as original tunes, “Bugler’s Dream” included what would become known as “The Olympic Fanfare.” The track was featured on a Capitol Records album called “Charge!” and has been reissued several times.

With trumpets of all sizes and the musicians separated into two different studios, there was simply no better way to show off not only the new technology but also the incredible skill of the 26 players. If you do not love the trumpet after listening to this, I suggest the track that contains the 12 bagpipers.

@trumpetb
On this trip, I’m afraid the weapon of choice will have to be my seven year old Mendini Pocket Trumpet. The limiting factor is that most of my transportation and touring in the UK will be on low budget 16 passengers tour busses with long day trips, late dinners. and late returns to the bare bones accommodations. Luggage is limited to one bag and one carry on personal item. I can pack the Mendini in the suit case protected by clothing and hope for the best. If it gets damaged, it is not the end of the world.

Here is a link to a timely article from today’s issue of The Guardian on this subject:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/06/why-classical-musicians-need-to-learn-how-to-improvise

The point of my post was 1) I didn’t realize the French Horn was so difficult to play and unpredictable. ( I have enough problems with the Trumpet) 2) I was rather surprised that the New York Times published this piece that was so critical of French Horn Players, especially the 27 year ( at the time of this article) Principal Horn Player of the New York Philharmonic. He retired from this position 10 years after this article was published at age 68. 3) shortly after entering High School the French Horn playing Band Director tried to get me to “convert” to the French Horn. I too resisted and worked my way up to the First Trumpet folder by senior year. 4) while traveling in Spain I picked up a Stomvi Corno da Caccia, , AKA Soprano French Horn, that plays with a Trumpet or Flugelhorn Mouthpiece. It sounds and plays more like a 4 Valve Bb Flugelhorn. It seemed to amaze Horn Players in my Community Band that I could play it with relative ease. Now I know why. As best I can tell it is essentially a Flugelhorn with a different configuration. 5) I’ve had the idea in the back of my mind to pick up an eBay of GW double French Horn and experiment. I now will probably take a pass on that.

Is there such a thing as a “natural player”?
See what you think.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CTXTQZeFa_x/?utm_medium=share_sheet

I just stumbled on this tonight:

@neal085 said in The New Reality:

Also, is that Fred Flintstone's car going past at the 5:08 mark?

You’re right! Here is a screen shot.

@Tobylou8 said in Anyone like fishing? (when taking a break from Trumpet, that is...):

1- LONG skinny fish
2- Short skinny fish
3- Fishing lure

Close, but not the answers I was looking for. Due to the overwhelming response to this quiz I’ll give the group 24 more hrs, and then post the correct answers if the mystery is not solved by then.

I stumbled across this audio recording and thought many of you might find it interesting, as I did. I converted it into a video so it could be posted, accessed on YouTube, and put it in the form of a quiz. The soloist and composition may be obvious to some, but they were not to me. In approximately 72 hours I will post the answers, in the meanwhile, respond with your best educated answers or guesses.

@robertwerntz said in Bach AP 190 S Piccolo Trumpet:

@SSmith1226 well thats great news - sell now to avoid the old joke about not wanting our wives to sell the stuff for what we tell told we paid for the stuff LOL

This is not a joke! This is a real concern!

@Dr-GO said in The New Reality:

I find taking my shoes off guarantees there will be social distancing!

Adding. a “Plant Based Diet” to that will give you at least a 12 foot radius of clearance.