Best posts made by tjcombo

For collectors of "misheard lyrics"

Sousaphone intonation is pretty funny too...

ABBA would be my guilty pleasure, if I felt guilty about enjoying music for the masses. I love the lush, often complex arrangements, naively simple lyrics written by non-native English speakers and over-use of video FX which were pretty fancy at the time.

@adc another advantage - I understand that it takes longer for the hair to grow back when you wax.

Not sure if I'm a collector of trumpets. I have 20+ horns, mostly vintage, predominantly Olds. After 25 years away from playing, I decided to treat myself to the horn that I could never have as a kid - an Olds Recording. I learnt to play and grew up in the local brass band. Once I could make a decent noise, they started providing me with nice cornets - the last one was a B&H Imperial. The only trumpet I had was an Eastern European "Zenith" branded horn. Looking back it was pretty ordinary, but I was playing 1st trumpet in the school and concert bands with it. Some of the other kids with rich relatives had Olds Recordings - there was never really a full range of instruments available in Oz. I always thought that cornets were naturally easier to play than trumpets because I had a good cornet and a PoS trumpet :-). When I started working and had discretionary income it was "invested" in motorbikes and good times!
When I started playing again, I bought my Recording and discovered an absolute treasure trove of beautiful vintage instruments that, by and large, were stupidly good value.
So... a collector? Probably more of an accumulator and I'm planning to do something to reduce the count, but I like @Trumpetsplus response the best "you need a reason?"
These days I try to cycle through the herd every now and then, but end up back on the same couple of horns.

Congrats to the board's founder and all who travel on it!
According to this message we've passed a meeeeelion views

@barliman2002 very sorry to hear that. Looking forward to seeing you back "on the air" sooner rather than later.

@GeorgeB some arrangers of marches are very unimaginative and write nasty parts for 2nd and 3rd cornets/trumpets don't they? My suggestion is to get your double-tonguing up to speed. It's far easier to cruise through a long stretch of semi-quavers even if you can single tongue at that speed.

A few years back a teacher gave me an exercise to develop triple-tonguing that is equally applicable to building double-tonguing speed and technique: Simply pick a scale that is comfortably in your range - maybe F major and start - (F) tktk tktk taaaaa (G) tktk tktk taaaa and so on, up and down the scale. Do it slowly at first, concentrating on getting the articulation clean and even. Getting the articulation clean is more important that speed ( +1 for the suggestion above to practice just "K" articulation too).

I won't buy into the discussion about tuku vs taka except to say that it's a case of what ever works in you head - dugu dugu works for me

New meaning to the words "scarily good"...

@pss Tampuri looks interesting (I thought it was a Japanese deep-frying technique ) Any sound source that generates complex harmonics and overtones can be used. The Drone Tool uses cellos.

@kehaulani, sax players are as obsessed with various practice techniques as trumpet players are with mouthpieces :-). I first heard about drones on a jazz podcast run by a sax player (10 minute jazz lesson podcast - worth a listen).

@ssmith1226 like you I was using Drone Tool for a while and have come back to it. The main driver for writing a post was noticing how relaxing it is to play over a drone. As well as the long tones, it's nice to play slow riffs, just listening to how the notes sound against the fundamental drone. Also cool to push notes sharp or flat and listen to the differential beating effect.

@j-jericho , @GeorgeB as per my post, I'm a fan of Sinatra too. I can remember being told on multiple occasions to go listen to his work by MDs trying to get a school band to swing. Same thing 50 years later as my community band rehearses Sinatra! (Arrangement by Stephen Bulla) He remains da man.
@J-Jericho, wondering if Pavarotti's respect was based on music or The Mob

An interesting read on this topic. Clearly written by a flute player (no mention of their toxic emissions)

https://www.startribune.com/in-minnesota-study-u-s-engineers-try-to-orchestrate-a-return-to-concerts/572784222/

Another fatted calf on the BBQ as another prodigal son returns. Welcome back !

@Kehaulani thanks for the post. It's a great reminder of the maxim "perfect is the enemy of good". Whilst I try to resist being a silly old fart handing out free advice to anyone learning an instrument, the most common gem (?? ) I offer is to make sure that they play daily, even if it's just ten minutes. Doesn't matter what you practice, just habitualise daily practice.
Budding virtuosos will already be way beyond that, and have practice routines sorted, but for mere mortals and easily distracted kids playing daily is a useful aim.
FWIW, it works for me. The great thing is that it's very rare to stop at ten minutes, but there's nothing wrong with setting the bar low!

@BigDub remember that we are trumpet players, here for our good looks and ability to play fast, loud and high, let's not question the underlying why's and wherefores
The teacher from whom I benefitted most in my early teens taught me to maintain rock-hard abs whilst playing. He was a leading pro trom player back in the day. I know from talking recently to older teachers (who teach a much more relaxed breathing method) that the hard abs method was advocated back then by the 1st trumpet from the Melbourne symph. At the time he was the go-to trumpet for many genres and a leading teacher.
My vocal teacher introduced a similar concept to circle of breath. I picked up a horn after a long layoff and noticed that it seemed easier to play when applying the vocal breathing techniques (along with the relaxed muscles needed to sing). Nowadays, my range is a little better than it was back in the days of tensed-up guts, but it's certainly way easier to play, control and make (JMHO) a nice sound.
So circle of breath is a real thing, it reinforced the ideas from my singing teacher and nicely articulated the breathing technique.

Now whether it's the basis for a religion

Thanks all for the advice and good wishes. I'm so looking forward to resuming playing.
@Kehaulani , condolences not needed, but thanks. I'm incredibly lucky that I asked my GP about increasing breathlessness. Playing wasn't really affected but the tests showed multiple major blockages so the arterial grafts are much better option than the otherwise inevitable event.
Please, all enjoy your Christmas gigs, I'm happy to be an on-looker this year.

cheers
tj

@Niner nothing wrong with the Penguin joke, that's going into the library.

@Tobylou8 Fanta Sea made me groan, but still glad to hear it. It gives licence to push on....

What do you call a man who puts Autumn leaves down his pants?

Russell

Thankyou very much