I realize that this is a trumpet board, but Hal Blaine, legendary session drummer and member of the LA Studio group know as "The Wrecking Crew" passed away yesterday at age 90. News reports said it was due to "natural causes." I hope Hal passed peacefully in his sleep.

Hal Blaine tracked drums on the soundtracks of our lives. If you think you've never heard Hal Blaine, think again - he tracked drums on 40 number 1 hits, tracked drums for 150 top 10 hits, and tracked drums for 8 Grammy songs of the year, six years consecutively. At times he was paid 3 and 4 times union scale because he was so in demand as a session player, and he joked that he made his ex-wives rich!

Many people know that Karen Carpenter was also a drummer as well as a singer, but in the studio, it was all Hal.

Check out the link below for a montage of some of the better known tunes were Hal was the session drummer - can't do them all because he played on something like 6,000 sessions. What a life he lived - he was right there, creating the soundtracks of our lives and was instrumental in the evolution of music for 30 or more years.

@Curlydoc said in TrumpetMaster Format:

@administrator How does one “like” a post?

To my knowledge, you click on the little ^ next to where it says "Quote" - that's an upvote of the post.

Another way to think about it is like a vocal tune - sing through the lines and find where you would breathe normally if you were singing lyrics.

Where to breathe, and how long to play on one big breath of air is almost always dictated by the context of what you are playing - not only with tempo, but with phrasing.

In a somewhat related side note, I always find my first couple of rehearsals back in a concert band challenging because as a guy who normally plays rock horn lines, those can be thought of in terms of hits - almost percussive at times - and they are often much shorter phrases than what you typically see in concert band literature. I find myself running out of air a lot on my first couple of concert band rehearsals until I get used to the difference in phrasing and breathing again.

I've been digging this new board lately - some really good stuff on here, and it's cool to see the same screen names and avatars. I don't know who created this board in light of TM's demise, but I see this as sort of the new and improved TM. Let's hope that it becomes a place that newcomers to the world of the online trumpet forum can find and easily learn to navigate.

I don't know why this is, but I have always really enjoyed wristwatches. I think part of it is because of timing - inexpensive digital watches had become very popular about the time I was in middle school, and I saved my money (all of $25) and bought a Lorus 4-button digital watch when I was in 8th grade, mainly because everyone else was getting one, and it was a fun class distraction when someone's watch would chime, and the teacher would take it for the day. (Kind of a no harm, no foul kind of thing.) From that point on, I've always worn a watch, and I feel naked without it.

A couple of years after that I asked my mom for a specific Lorus quartz analog watch, and analog watches have been my thing ever since. I'm currently "accumulating" some new watches and have a couple of lesser cost options on the wish list - I suppose I could save up for something nicer, such as a Tag Heuer, Omega, or something like that,but for now I'm more concerned about wearing something I enjoy looking at rather than the name emblazoned on it.

This is some of what I do have.

This is the Seiko world timer my wife gave me for our 1st anniversary in 1993.

Invicta Pro Diver with Swiss Sellita SW200 movement. (ETA 2824 clone) Basically, it looks a lot like a Rolex Submariner.

Here's the Citizen Eco Drive Perpetual Atomic Chrongraph I got a few years ago - I'm actually wearing it right now. It has a fairly classic look of 3 sub-dials on the dial/face.

I have another chronograph too - another Citizen Eco Drive Brcyen Model with a black dial.

Last, but certainly not least, my Tissot Luxury that I got for Christmas. This one is also self-wind/automatic, and features a laser regulated ETA 2824 movement with an 80 hour power reserve. When I first got this, it was very accurate for a mechanical watch, keeping right around +/- 1-3 seconds/day.

Maynard in his prime was unbelievable - even Bud Herseth once said that Maynard was "the greatest trumpet player." ("...in this part of the century." Not sure when Bud made that quote.) But the point is, Maynard did things with the trumpet that were unparalleled during his prime. The first cut from the "Message from Newport" record is proof of that.

Good stuff! Keep em coming!

Here are a couple I'd like to get eventually - discovered a Japanese watch company called Orient that makes some well made yet cost efficient automatic wrist watches. There was a time when I swore off on automatic watches - my thought was that they can't even come close to keeping as good of time as a quartz watch, but there's something I like about the smooth sweeping second hand and the idea that there's a spring wound mechanical machine in there making it all work. When you consider that for a watch that "beats" 28,800 times per hour, only being 40-80 micro ticks off out of 691,200 per day is pretty amazing when you think about it.

Anyway, here are some of the offerings from Orient that I like:

1.) The Orient Bambino, V2 - cream dial, blue hands.

The Orient Mako USA II

Orient Flight, with blue dial.

Miles Davis at his best.

Another awesome performance by Clapton. (These are classic - I laugh so hard I literally have tears rolling down my face.)

Trumpet or bugle - it doesn't have to be a "bugle" - by default, if you aren't pushing valves on a trumpet it functions as a bugle, so it's not inherently "better" for it to be a real bugle. However, as long as the person doing the bugling doesn't suck, it's ALWAYS better for it to be a real person rather than the digital bugle. Even if the bugler chips a note along the way, at least you've got a real person there performing rather than someone just holding a button on a device that has been known to malfunction.

Another awesome performance by Clapton. (These are classic - I laugh so hard I literally have tears rolling down my face.)

Miles Davis at his best.

@Newell-Post said in Game of Thrones Thread:

BTW, after the surrender, while Drogon was continuing to torch the town, did anybody actually see Dany riding Drogon at that point? I didn't. The images were all from long distance. I suppose it is possible Drogon got the blood lust and Dany couldn't control him/her/it. Not sure of Drogon's gender.....

Daenerys was in full control. The reason you didn't see her (she was there) is because at this point Drogon is HUGE - there's a scene where Drogon lands on something and you can see her perched up there, and she's just a spec on the back of his neck.

Nope Daenerys lost it and torched King's Landing in a fit of rage, which is confirmed by all of the behind the scenes stuff and commentary from the directors.

@Rapier232 said in Game of Thrones Thread:

I was disappointed. Arya should have been the one to kill Cersei after killing Jamie who was trying to protect her.

I've been thinking about that. After seeing some behind the scenes stuff from the producers, they seemed to want to switch things up between Cersei and Dany - they wanted people to feel sympathetic toward Cersei, and they wanted to villify Dany.

The way I see it, if a particular character had killed Cersei, it would have caused some to think that someone else more deserving should have been the one to strike the death blow. Although Dany indirectly caused it, she didn't knowingly strike a death blow on Cersei - she destroyed the Red Keep, which simply fell down on Cersei...and I'm not completely convinced she's dead. She probably is, but it's kind of like "The Walking Dead" - if you don't see a dead body or the zombified version of the character, then they may not have actually died.

I have no issues uploading pics - I just drag and drop from a Windows Explorer window.

I just sent them a message stating that their review of trumpets was a joke, and that I sincerely hope no one takes it seriously and makes a purchase decision based on it.

@mafields627 said in Kanstul:

Based on various Facebook posts I've seen it looks like they have been selling off their showroom inventory.

That doesn't sound good. That sounds like they are liquidating the company. I wondered what was going to wind up happening when I'd heard that Zig had passed.

If that's the case, and they are liquidating the company, I'm bummed out, but for purely selfish reasons - I'd always hoped to acquire another CCF 925 flugelhorn like the one I'd had - lacquered with a 100% copper bell. I've already vowed that if I see one pop up on the used market that I'm going to snap it up. I wish I'd never sold mine.

So clearly the scorpions/ballistae weren't up to the task of taking out Drogon. That last episode was a doozie - I was a bit surprised by the turn of events.

I was wondering about this today - is there any news about Kanstul - has anyone heard anything? After a cursory look online, it seems that many distributors are currently showing, "currently unavailable" for some of the Kanstul offerings, particularly flugelhorns.

Is the company going out of business, or are they brokering a deal somewhere to sell it off? Has anyone heard anything?

I borrowed an Eterna D trumpet from a friend once - I thought it played pretty well.

On my current Eb\D, a Yamaha 6610, it just seems that when I throttle back on the volume, it takes a lot more support to keep the sound from thinning - small horns are just a challenge to play, and I'll jump on to what others have said, pick your best mouthpiece that works with it, practice, and go from there.