I've been playing at the same church for 4 years - this is my 5th Easter with them. Big domed church in Baltimore off of N. Charles street called St. Philip & James Catholic Church. As for music, I honestly can't tell you what we're doing - I don't have the music yet and I'm not likely to see it before rehearsal tomorrow night, although I can assume that at the least we'll do the Hallelujah Chorus. I'll update this thread once I actually know.
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.
I think that Schilkes are some of the best designed, well made horns out there. There was a time when I thought I would be a Schilke man for good, but things and times change, and I wound up going another direction with my most recent horn acquisition. With that said, I'm still not opposed to the idea of going with an S32 some day as a good all-around horn.
The "problem" that the B models run into, IMO, is that they have a somewhat different scale than your typical trumpet design, i.e., Bach, Yamaha, etc, so that if you are playing in an ensemble with other people playing Bachs and Yamahas, sometimes you run into intonation issues because of it. The tragedy is, Schilkes seem to be inherently much more in tune with themselves. Although there were some things about my B6 that I didn't really like, when I was playing with the rock band and wasn't trying to match another trumpet player, I always appreciated the intonation characteristics of that horn.
@BigDub said in Easter Services:
@trickg said in Easter Services:
So here's my lineup:
- Hail Thee, Festival Day - arr Joseph Wilcox Jenkins based on Salve Festa Dies by Ralph Vaughn Williams)
- Festival Alleluia - James Chepponis
- Christ is Our Cornerstone - Philp W. J. Stopford
- Mass For the City (only parts of it) - Richard Proulx
- The Earth Is Risen - Gwyneth Walker
- Jesus Christ is Risen Today - arr Jeremy J. Bankson
- Hallelujah Chorus - Handel
Wow - I'm just now realizing how much music this is. Oh well - I seem to be able to get through it ok.
On a side note, this is for 4-piece brass and tympani with organ (a real, well-maintained pipe organ!) and choir that is mostly made up of students from the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory of Music. I've been paid more to play less, but I always come away from this feeling richer for having been there with these fine people.
I'm playing lead on all of it, so there is that middle section from the Hallelujah Chorus where I'm always wondering if I'm going to make it, but I haven't had an issue with it, so here's hoping that it goes ok on Sunday too.
That is a lot of work load there, especially with the Hallelujah Chorus coming at the end. Is this for one service or are there more than one? I don’t have as much but there are two services, and there’s virtually no break between the Hallelujah Chorus and our postlude, Grand Choeur Dialogue. That will be a challenge........everything I am doing tomorrow (Easte) is on the C trumpet. But for two services. That will be the test of endurance for me.
One performance per day, but I'm playing vigil (currently sitting here waiting to play) and tomorrow morning.
@dupac said in Great Idea!:
Sorry, my friend, just testing how to post a picture!
Posting pics seems pretty easy - I just did a drag and drop into the composition frame, and it automatically uploaded it.
@Lawler-Bb said in Schilke Club?:
@trickg Interesting. I guess I never noticed that, but I've only played a couple of B series in music stores, while I own a custom S42HD-F and a S32. The different scale of the B series isn't as pronounced as the Benge scale, is it? I love the Benge sound but I really don't get along with the scale and intonation of Benge trumpets.
It's pronounced enough that when I moved from a Bach to my Schilke B6, I had horrible intonation problems at first - the reason why was because my approach to playing on a Bach was so ingrained, I was automatically pushing notes up or down, depending where they sat on the Bach. It took me between 6-8 weeks to fully assimilate to the Schilke, but once I did, my intonation was markedly better than it was on the Bach because the notes on the Schilke are naturally more in tune, and even for notes that you have to adjust, you don't have to adjust them as far. Low D, for instance, barely required much of a throw of the 3rd valve slide, but surprisingly, low E rode fairly sharp, to the point where I'd thrown the 1st valve slide.
I had a similar issue when I switched to the Jupiter 1600i from the Schilke. Both times I thought I'd made a costly mistake, but eventually I assimilated. My intonation is not quite as clear on the Jupiter, but what it lacks in intonation it more than makes up for with secure slotting.
Another set of Easter services in the books!
Overall, I'm VERY pleased with how I played. I had one spot yesterday morning that was less than stellar where I took a breath, and didn't quite reset correctly, so I clammed the next entrance, but otherwise I had two clean gigs. I even opted for the optional D at the end of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" and nailed it both times, and both renditions of the Hallelujah Chorus rank up there for me as some of the best I've played. This year I started using alternate fingerings on my D trumpet for that long section in the middle with those long held notes - 1&3 for the D, and 3rd valve for the E - that gave me some control over it with the slides because otherwise I'm really pushing up to lip those notes into tune on this particular Eb/D trumpet I own.
We all go through peaks and valleys playing - with luck and diligent practice our valleys and peaks aren't very big, but I was totally at a peak this year - I had good control over everything, and even though I backed off the volume, after our cut-offs, I could clearly hear my horn sitting on top of everything (but very well balanced) in the 3-4 seconds of reverb that sanctuary has. It was great to hear those notes being right on the money and in-tune.
I attribute some of this to finding the "right" mouthpiece - a vintage Marcinkiewicz #2. To make a long story short, years ago I had a gold plated #3 that "liberated" itself when I forgot it sitting on a locker after drill band one day at the Armed Forces School of Music. The music store down the street had Marcinkiewicz mouthpieces, but not a #3 - the next closest they had was a #2, and I did some of my best playing on that mouthpiece. Later I got another one because my original had gotten beat up, but by then they had moved to another facility, and they changed the numbering on the mouthpiece - it read 2/7B, and it never played or felt like the original, so I never really used it. Then I thought I'd "improve" the original by drilling it - that ruined it.
A month or so ago, a guy was selling one that was an original Glendale production with the original "No. 2" stamping. It was like finding an old friend - it feels right, it plays right, and it sounds right - I'm very happy about it.
Anyway, I hope everyone else had good Easter gigs too.
I really like the look of a Chronometer style watch - there's just something neat about the sub-dials that makes it work stylistically.
Funny thing though, it was only fairly recently that I learned how to read a tachymeter bezel, which is funny considering I had two watches that had it. (The idea is that you time based on a fixed distance - usually a mile or kilometer - and the bezel gives you your speed. As an example, if it takes you 36 seconds to traverse 1 mile, your average speed is 100 mph.
Getting back to the subject of Orient, they are owned by Seiko, but to my knowledge, they don't mix parts - Orient produces their own movements and they do everything in house. I'm intrigued - everything I've read about Orient suggests that they are quite reliable and accurate.
That's because he's playing a Conn Connstellation. 
@Newell-Post said in Easter Services:
@BigDub Piccolo trumpet is a harsh mistress. It seems like you should get a whole additional octave out of the deal for free. But unless you are a real master, you mostly just lose the lower octave and get tinny sound. Resist the call of the dark side. Borrow one if you must before investing.
I think this is why I don't particularly like playing on a pic, and have always preferred either D or Eb, depending on the tune and key.
I have no issues uploading pics - I just drag and drop from a Windows Explorer window.
I know you can get it on DVD, but it's also usually available on one of the streaming services - it was on Netflix for a good bit and I watched twice when it was.
@barliman2001 said in Easter Services:
@BigDub I once had a spate of piccs...and then I got my claws on an old Selmer high G out of the estate of Maurice André... and that was one revelation. It beat the Scherzer and all the other piccs by such a margin that I sold every single one of them.
Are you saying you own and play on one of Maurice Andre's pics? That's very very cool!
@pss said in Show Us Your Wristwatches!:
Another one of my daily beaters, this one is probably unknown in the US, it's a Belgian designed brand (more of a marketing thing, they are made far far East, but are supposed to have Miyota movements):
You seem to be a fan of tool watches. Hah! I didn't even realize there was such a thing as a "tool" watch until recently when I saw the term being bandied about on a forum. I always just looked at watches as being either a dress watch or a sport watch, and even then, some sport watches are classic enough that they go with just about anything, such as the Rolex Submariner or Daytona, or the Omega Seamaster, or even the Speedmaster.
Now that my collection has grown a bit, I've really enjoyed picking and choosing what to wear. I really dig this Tissot - it's categorized as a dress watch, but with the carved sides of the case, it takes on a bit of a sporty look and it works well with jeans and a t-shirt too.
@Newell-Post said in Show Us Your Wristwatches!:
I really like the look of this Hamilton, but $300 for a "chronometer tune up" to keep it accurate? Forget it. The Citizen Eco-Drives never need winding, never need batteries, never need cleaning, and never need regulating.
@Newell-Post said in Show Us Your Wristwatches!:
Like this. $125 on sale, never needs anything. It's a perpetual motion machine.
All good points, however, when a Citizen dies or breaks - and it will eventually die or break - you are left with a throwaway timepiece that is no longer worth what it would cost to repair it. With a Hamilton automatic, it retains it's value, and once you have it serviced, you get years worth of use out of it again. Don't get me wrong, I've owned more Citizen watches than anything else - all Eco Drives - but the lithium cell in the oldest one is almost dead (although amazingly it will still charge up a bit) and it has been discontinued so long that I can't even replace the bracelet, which is now falling apart. I made the decision to just simply let it go, and it was a $200 watch when I bought in the mid 1990s.
A friend of mine bought a Rolex years and years ago before they got stupid expensive. (I think he said he paid something like $275 for it when he was overseas.) It's nothing fancy, just a Rolex Oyster Perpetual, but he's only had it serviced twice by Rolex in the nearly 30 years he's worn it, and it still runs and looks great - it's a timeless classic that is worth by far more now than when he initially bought it.
You can't do that with a Citizen.
Again, I have two Citizens that I rotate through, and at least these two are classic designs with normal style bracelets. In theory, I could continue to wear these for the rest of my life, although I might eventually want to replace the crystal on the one - it's mineral glass rather than sapphire, which I have on the other one, and therefore much more prone to scratching. Otherwise, as long as I can still get the lithium cells, I should be able to replace them when they eventually die and stop taking a charge.
I used to golf a little bit when I was a kid - I just don't have time for it now. Maybe I'll take it up again when I retire, but I see golf out here as a rich man's game - it's just not something I'm going to do with any regularity at this stage of life. Still, there's something VERY satisfying when you line up for a drive, you hit the sweet spot, and you watch that ball just rip down the fairway.
It is definitely a blow - I've wanted to visit this masterpiece since I was a kid because my mom had all of these picture books of various architectural wonders of the world - The Pyramids and Sphinx, Hagia Sophia, The Taj Mahal, and Notre Dame de Paris.
But, even though certain things can never be replaced, I know that much of it can be restored, and will be restored - not only is it a French national treasure, but it's a world treasure, and it wouldn't be the first time that the cathedral was restored and repaired. The spire was removed at one point, as were the stained glass windows - it wasn't until the mid 19th century that a major effort to renovate and repair the cathedral was made, which included restoring the original stained glass and statues based on original drawings and engravings - most of the statues were destroyed at one point for one reason or another.
I thought I'd read in that book my mom had that at one point part of it had collapsed and had to be rebuilt, but I can't seem to Google-fu that today.
The "good" news is that it will be repaired and restored to its former glory - hopefully it lasts another 800 or more years.
@manfredv said in Notre-Dame de Paris:
@trickg this is so sad, I visited Notre Dame about 5 years ago it was an extremely impressive structure, to think of how big and old it was and the artifacts that are inside. I believe it took nearly 200 years to finish construction and while they can rebuild the structure they can't replace the artifacts.
They can "replace" some of the artifacts though - they did. Many of them were recreated during a 25 year renovation initiative in the mid-1800s. Much of the artwork took heavy hits during various eras of French history, particularly the French Revolution - most of the treasures of the cathedral were either destroyed or plundered. None of the stained glass is original - it was all replaced with white glass at one point to allow more natural light to come in. The central column from the main portal was removed so carriages could be driven through - in 800+ years, it's had some ups and downs. This is definitely a down point, but I believe that it will be fully restored.
Even the spire that toppled wasn't original - from what I gather, the original spire was smaller than the one they rebuilt in the 1800s.
@BigDub said in Game of Thrones Thread:
I don’t really make it a practice to dump on people, do I? It’s more a kind of self deprecating type humor, much like my heritage of Norwegian decent. Besides, I don’t have HBO, or whatever network it shows on. So, how backward am I, right?
I honestly don’t have any opinion about the show, so how is that dumping on anyone?
More power to them. Enjoy what you like. I am truly happy for those that enjoy it. I promise I won’t march around their houses with placards or anything like that.
The way you posted your initial response was in a way bagging on anyone who felt they needed to watch the show.
"Never. Watched. One. Episode. Or clip. Or preview.
And yet, I feel fulfilled in life."
It's fine that you haven't seen it, but the way you responded makes it seem like you look down on anyone who would take the time to get into a show like "Game of Thrones." If you hadn't intended it like that, maybe you shouldn't have punctuated each word, or made the comment about feeling fulfilled in life without it. Perhaps?
As for the show being "raunchy" There is definitely some T&A and "adult" content - I'm not sure it was absolutely warranted to move the plot, but $3x sells - always has, and always will. Much of it also followed the books, so there is that. But in any case, I'm pushing 50, have been married for almost 27 years, and have two children - the stuff in GOT really isn't that much of a mystery to me.
I had hoped that this thread would be a neat discussion revolving around characters, plot points, story arcs and that kind of thing. Instead it seems that I need to defend myself for the simple fact that I (like millions of other people around the globe) choose to watch this show.
As for getting or not getting HBO, I have an HBO Now subscription - it's like Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime video - a few bucks a month and you can stream it through any smart TV, Roku or Fire Stick.
@ButchA said in Game of Thrones Thread:
I know nothing about Game of Thrones either. Never seen it, don't understand all the hub-bub about it.
Now someone earlier mentioned Star Trek. Now you're talking! I still am a HUGE Star Trek fan, and have all the original episodes on DVD, along with the 6 original movies. My family watched every single episode in the 60's and every single one of us got hooked, and never missed it!
Some would probably say the same thing about Star Trek - they don't know what all the hub-bub is about. 
Again, and I say with all sincerity, (and I've seen a good bit of the Star Trek offerings too - at least all the major motion pictures and and all of the original "Next Generation" series) that Game of Thrones is some of the best cinematic entertainment I've ever seen. The plot-lines are solid, because they aren't written for the show specifically, but rather they revolve around the books (initially with very few deviations) which were well written. The settings and cinematography are breathtaking. The special effects take the very best of what today's world of CGI enhanced special effects have to offer, and it has wonderful, colorful characters.
The story arcs I think I've most enjoyed are Tyrion's and Arya's. Robtrx mentioned how people can be redeemed. I HATED Sansa's character for the first 3-4 seasons, but she's come a long long way, and her story arc has gotten much more interesting.
The show has 5 episodes left, and I have no idea how things are going to end - it's a show where you can't count on any character surviving the next 5 minutes, never mind the remainder of the series.
