Best posts made by tjcombo

@bigdub That reminds me of joke my dad used to tell me... Q: "What's the difference between a mail box and the back end of an elephant?" "I don't know dad" A: "Well I won't send you to post a letter".
I was so young at the time, I didn't really get the joke, but Mum used to admonish him for telling such a rude joke .

Love this. Jazz is just wrong notes innit?

Fortunately most of the drummers I’ve encountered in jazz bands have been pretty decent, but WTH…

Whilst the thread is following s reflective vein, consider paralysis by analysis…

Drummers...

@administrator said in Practicing with drones:

I don't know, it seems it would be hard to fly one while you practice.

Nah.. easy with the "follow me" function. Could live stream your practice to Facebook.

I'll spare the world my practice and pass on the above option.

@dupac What a thing of beauty Mikel. I've just taken a roll-of-the-dice and bought a "fixer-upper" one of these on eBay. It looks to have the bits and pieces of the mechanism. Waiting for the postman now!

@Peter-Mac Congrats Pete. That's a serious commitment. Do you have any gigs coming up? From the clips on your FB the band sounds great and I'd love to hear a full set.

Edit... Should've clicked on more links... Is the Cherry Lake gig a current thing? First Sunday is the day they have the market I think?? What time?

@barliman2001 best wishes for a speedy recovery.

https://thebrassjunkies.libsyn.com/tbj118-trumpet-player-and-builder-trent-austin-on-clark-terry-making-sacrifices-for-your-dreams-and-an-augmented-trumpet

Highly recommended. Trent, you seem to be a very modest person, hope this doesn't embarrass you (too much).

A very interesting and enjoyable chat.

@adc Can I suggest that you might like to stretch yourself a little by adding degrees of difficulty one at a time - say a new scale with an extra sharp or flat, not looking at a chart? (FWIW, playing scales around the cycle of fourths can be fun - adding a flat/subtracting a sharp). After a short time you'll find that you don't have to think about the number of sharps and flats, just the starting note.

I think that this is about to become my favourite cornet. It just arrived. Incredibly complete with two sets of valve slides and appears to have all or most of the famous Mechanism in pieces.
It's in way better condition than the eBay seller's description. The case is tatty, but seems original. Third valve was rotated and so it wouldn't make a sound at first. Oiled and refitted the valves and it plays quite nicely. All slides except the main tuning slide move freely. The tuning slide crook fell off in my hand so I guess that the inner tubes are seized. Will clean it up and have a gentle go at freeing them this weekend.
I'm as happy as a pig in manure. I think this is a keeper

@Peter-Mac I look forward to seeing you play. I hope the weather hangs in there for a few more weeks. And yes I would like to have a tootle with you some time.

I could never buzz my lips without unnatural facial contortions, but have no problems making trumpet noises with a horn.

This video from Greg Spence shows airflow straight from the chops, with a mouthpiece and then with mouthpiece and leadpipe. Not sure where the quote can from, but this seems to demonstrate that "you do not play the trumpet, the trumpet plays you". It also made me feel better and that lack of a "naked" buzz was no big deal

I have a couple of Kelly MPs - 1 Kelly Screamer - feels and sounds pretty ordinary, but that may say as much about my playing on a too shallow (for me) mouthpiece. 2 A 3C cornet piece - the cheapest option after not packing a mouthpiece on a business trip. It plays fine and doesn't feel much different to a metal MP of similar size.

@SSmith1226 thanks for the reminder, I have "Orchestra Confidential" on my Kindle. Must go back for another read. It's very funny and the observations and cartoons of various performers are devastatingly close to the truth (present company excepted of course).

Speaking of Mark Gould (and humour) there is a man who pushes the envelope! Pink Baby Monster videos on youtube are worth a look.

@adc Wondering if the Studio cornets are as fine an instrument as that model trumpet. If so, you've had a great win. Also wondering if the Olds cornet mouthpiece is as horrible as their trumpet pieces

@Dr-GO and Kehaulani, thanks for your help on this one.
The Till Bronner solo is beautiful (not a bebop line in sight or sound :-)). It's so simple, yet masterfully done.

We had our final rehearsal yesterday before next weekend's gig. I wrote out a few melodic ideas and some guide-tones on a chart and all went smoothly (and most of all musically :-)). If I get time this week will go through a similar exercise on some of the other pieces. It's certainly worth doing in tunes where the tonal centre constantly changes.

@BigDub first of all props to you for having made a wooden trumpet. I've done enough wood turning to know that my wood-turning skills are not up to such a challenge. I can see two issues with turning a wooden mute - first the difficulty in turning such a thin-walled object (there, I've confessed my limitations), the second is the durability of the item. It would likely be pretty fragile. A fabricated wooden mute would have its own construction challenges but at least each wooden part would be cut such that t wasn't cross-grain.
But I do look forward to seeing any the outcome of you efforts...