Best posts made by SSmith1226

@ssmith1226 said in Need some information on this item.:

The latest iteration of the buzzit:

These are actually used to catch Trumpetfish, Cornetfish, Guitarfish, Fiddler Rays, Banjo Catfish, and Drum.

@Kehaulani said in Is It Jazz or Is It Classical?:

I don't know why you even mention Jazz in the title. To me it's pure Beethoven, with the caveat that he probably wouldn't have used the original theme to Old McDonald, in the first place. To me there's nothing brilliant about it, just a good pianist who knows his Beethoven.

The posting of this topic was an attempt at starting a musically relevant discussion.
Please keep in mind that I am not a professional musician, I do not have a Doctorate or any other degree in Music, but I enjoy listening to music and as a musician, I am a novice hobbiest, I played the character Ludwig van Beethoven in a third grade play, and I slept at a Holliday Inn Express. Now that we have my qualifications out of the way I made the statement based on one important aspect of jazz that clearly distinguishes it from other traditional musical areas , especially from classical music. The Jazz performer is is primarily or wholly a creative , improvising composer. He or she is their own composer, sometimes composing wholly original pieces, but more often, modifying existing pieces. In classical music the performer interprets and expresses someone else's composition note for note. Generally the performer of classical music does not modify the piece composition wise.
In the particular piece, Old MacDonald, 95% of what was played was composed through improvisation by the performer around the simple melody of Old MacDonald. The improvisation was in the style of Beethoven, but not written by Beethoven. The style could have been improvised in the pentatonic patterns used by John Coletrane, making it clearly recognizable as jazz, but the performer improvised using patterns made most recognizable by Beethoven.
Admittedly, Beethoven, Mozart, and other classical composers improvised within their genres, but performers play their compositions back note for note and vary the nuances as their interpretation. Both Daniel Vnukowski in Old Mac Donald, and Duke Ellington in his interpretation the Nutcracker Suite accomplished the same goal in different directions. They took known musical pieces and modified the genre and playback though creative improvising composition. Thus my question, and conclusion. I knew that there was going to be debate over the correct answer, if there is one, and welcome the opportunity to learn from the discussion, since sleeping in the Holliday Inn Express does not universally make one an expert at everything.

@J-Jericho said in Some good...."non-trumpeting" music :

@SSmith1226 Ummagumma's my favorite Pink Floyd album by far. Roger Waters, in spite of all his musical ability, is my least favorite Pink Floyd member by far.

I understand. We don’t need no Roger Waters!

All that aside, in 1969, one of the most memorable parts of the album version of “Granchester Meadow” was the ending. If you had a good set of stereo headphones, or better yet, an egg shaped stereo chair, there was a fly buzzing from ear to ear and a person, trying to swat it. Ultimately the fly loses. Having recently been introduced to stereo at that time it was great.
To digress further my true introduction to stereo was in 1966 or 1967, listening to Miles Davis and Gil Evans 1959 album, Porgy and Bess in an egg shaped stereo chair. It was one of the most memorable musical experiences I ever had. It was a real awakening!

An article from May 8, 2023 New York Magazine indicates that deep fake vocals are of outstanding quality and are getting simple to create. I would imagine that the deep fake virtuoso instrumentalist is not too far behind.
Below is a brief selection and a link to the full article.

“AI Singers Are Unnervingly Good and Already Ubiquitous

The software that cloned Drake and the Weeknd is easy to use—and impossible to shut down…

…Two months ago, AI voice-cloning technology barely existed. Now it’s forcing the music industry to consider such tricky questions as whether pop stars own the sounds produced by their own larynges and if we even need flesh-and-blood pop stars at all anymore…”

https://www.vulture.com/article/ai-singers-drake-the-weeknd-voice-clones.html

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.

This looks like the ultimate audience surround sound experience. A few weeks ago, the 4,000 person audience was mixed in with the Aurora Orchestra in London, as the widely spaced 47 piece orchestra performs Beethoven’s 5th Symphony by heart.
A full report can be found at the following link. Video excerpts are below as well, and also in the Classic FM Link. This looks like a great concept. I wish that I could have been there.

https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/aurora-immersive-fifth-symphony-printworks/

@dr-go
“ So when applied to the world of Medicine, Bots do not do so well:
ChatGPT, a popular artificial intelligence language-processing model, failed a gastroenterology self-assessment test several times in a recent study. Versions 3 and 4 of the chatbot scored only 65% and 62%, respectively, on the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Self-Assessment Test. The minimum passing grade is 70%.”

Chat GPT’s knowledge base consists of both professional based as well as non professional Information and misinformation (see my query below). To complicate matters, professional level information is in a constant state of flux. In my own experience of Board Certification and multiple Recertifications, the questions often remained the same but the answers changed each exam, on some occasions reverting back to answers that were correct 20 or 30 years before. Taking all this into consideration, and that Chat GPT was not designed as a medical device, it is not surprising that it had a mediocre score answering GI questions.

However, this is Is just the beginning. Imagine an advanced bot given access to only state of the art valid medical & scientific information with interpretation. Given the proper knowledge base as well as accurate input of a patients clinical data, I would predict that it would be William Osler and “House” on Steroids!

Query to ChatGPT:

Has your knowledge base been tested against standardized medical licensure examinations, specialty board examinations, or medical competency examinations?

As an AI language model, my responses are generated based on a mixture of licensed data, data created by human trainers, and publicly available data. I have not been directly trained on specific medical licensure examinations, specialty board examinations, or medical competency examinations. While I strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, it's important to note that my responses may not always reflect the most current medical guidelines or practices. Therefore, it's always a good idea to consult a medical professional or trusted source for specific medical advice or information.

@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.”

@administrator said in The Ultimate Audience Surround Sound Experience:

That would be exceptionally tough for the trumpet, trying to remember whether you should be playing C, E or G.

Fortunately for them, their choices were limited by their Natural Trumpets.

Born in Queens, NY, but lived and raised in Mt. Vernon, NY, during the Bach Mt. Vernon years. When Bach left, so did I, with my Mt. Vernon Bach. I lived in Manhattan for four years, then New Orleans, LA for five years. The last 40 years home has been in Marathon, FL, the “Heart of the Florida Keys”, with scattered down time time in Orlando, FL and Plymouth, MA.

It has reached a new level!

https://www.twitch.tv/ask_jesus

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.

What’s the difference between a symphony, a philharmonic, and a chamber orchestra? How about a sinfonia? If you don’t know, here are the answers.

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/difference-symphony-philharmonic-orchestra/

https://www.wqxr.org/story/what-difference-between-symphony-philharmonic-orchestra

Opinion 3
Youtube Video

@Niner
I think that this is a perfectly acceptable reply to the joke that you posted it for, except for one minor problem that illustrates two my points. I found the actual joke very funny. It set me up and the punch line sent me to an area I wasn’t expecting. The points illustrated are: 1) We are all wired differently as to what we find humorous. I actually found the joke and your reply humorous. 2) We would be incompatible as a married couple.

It has been nearly 2 months since the last post on this topic. Here is the latest credible opinion:

Youtube Video

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

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

According to Classic FM, “ From Henry Purcell to Joseph Haydn, here are some of the best pieces of music ever written for the trumpet.”
The article can be read, or listened to, with YouTube examples, at the following link:
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/trumpet/best-pieces-trumpet-music/

@BigDub said in Artist on BOARD:

@Tobylou8 said in Artist on BOARD:

@BigDub said in Artist on BOARD:

I am so glad you all are taking my art so seriously. But, really, don’t be so stuffy. Have a little fun with it. But don’t milk it to death.

You steering us away from fun? I'll calf no part of it! Cud you please leave us alone? I don't know what the veal problem with us having fun is!

The problem is........cows don’t have fingers. Come on, let’s not be silly here.

You think Cows have a problem by not having fingers! Cows never had fingers, but Steers are in real trouble. They are missing the parts that turned into Rocky Mountain Oysters. Now that is not being silly. It is a real issue if you are a steer or ox. No Bull!!! (Any more)

Over the last few years I have seen advertisements for Greg Spence’s Windworks “Mystery to Mastery” program. I certainly could benefit tremendously from making my playing more efficient and I’m considering taking the plunge. I have a few months coming up of reduced playing obligations, so I will have time to spend learning and practicing this method. My questions are, does anyone on the forum have any firsthand experience with this program, and if so, could they report on their experience and results?
Thanks