Best posts made by Trumpetb

I think there are two issues and the two issues are being conflated.

One is the unsociability of Miles and his unwillingness to deal respectfully with others.

The other is the unsociability of musicians who butt into performances and disrupt the performance.

There is no excuse for a musician to unexpectedly go on stage mid performance and spoil a performance.

I have had to deal with this many times. Mid phrase a musician suddenly starts playing his instrument and the performance is ruined.

I have dealt with it like Miles did, end the music and tell him to sod off.

In some cases the audience cat called the intruder and told him they loved me and he had spoiled their enjoyment.

Would Thelonious Monk have allowed another pianist to climb on stage and sit at his piano uninvited mid performance. No he would not.

Would the Boston Philharmonic allow a hic with a violin to get on stage and play with them during a performance of Mahlers Fifth. No they would not.

Just 2 days ago during a performance a hip hop musician decided to jump in and disrupt my performance which was going great, he disrupted it made it sound pathetic and then demanded that I play the piece faster.

This is ridiculous.

Wynton was being ridiculous.

If Miles had invited Wynton to play on stage with him there would be no issue, but mid performance to hog the stage when Miles had a performance, had a planned set and the audience had paid to hear Miles and not Wynton, is quire wrong and bordering on abusive.

Are you really telling me that any performer anywhere is fair game to have you mount the stage and start playing with them unrehearsed when they never asked you up.

I have been invited up many times and performed with the band when I did, that was cool and it always went great. But I have also been told by audience members to mount the stage during someone elses act who had not asked me up.

I was not part of the act so I had no business being on stage.

I would never do such a thing.

Or am I reading this right, you guys would have seen nothing wrong with walking up to Doc Severinsen during the Tonight show and trying to play uninvited and unexpected. The floor manager would have you thrown out of the studio. I would have you banned for it.

I respect you guys but be honest, how many performances have you guys really barged in on.

You dont know what they will play next, you have not rehearsed with them, you were not expected to perform, the audience dont want or expect you. A performance can go south real fast.

Wynton was being nasty and objectionable and Miles was having none of it.

I have great concerns about the past and the records of my past.

The internet is littered with records of me and I wince when I see them, I was so inept as a player in those days.

This site has comments I have made in the past some were worth making but some have not stood the test of time, and I apologise for them.

Before the internet people only saw us when we presented ourselves and as we grew and matured and improved people and audiences only saw us at our most developed and matured on the day they saw us. Unless we released a track a single or appeared in a movie where we had the opportunity to make it the best we could at the time.

In the studio we rarely simply play and publish and be damned whatever we play warts and all.

In movies we might make one take 5 takes 10 takes or a hundred. Only the best makes it onto the screen. That is the way it should be.

And when we released a track we could make sure that we showed ourselves well. If you come in late you do it again if you hit a wrong note or sound like a strangled cat you do it again and make it right. Then you cut a disk or a cd or a whatever.

Now instead the public publish whatever they record and then we have a record in perpetuity that will live forever of whatever they recorded and they dont care if we sound or look good.

I and many others appear on the internet having had no opportunity to reject poor sound poor playing poor cinematography.

I have worked in the studio and we spent time polishing and refining until we sounded the way we wanted, until we sounded professional.

A short clip of us taken without our knowledge or consent then published on a facebook page and then published widely or a home movie made with poor sound quality suffering from neglect or incompetence of the movie maker lives on now forever.

Am I to refuse to appear in public until I have fully developed and matured my playing and always sound great, waiting 20 years before venturing out in public in fear of being condemned forever.

We get better until we die and each performance is a snapshot of where we are, how inconsistent we are, and if we ate gorgonzola unwisely before playing and suffered with limp lips because of it.

I am far better now than I ever was as a student player, but must I be judged for once being a fool with a horn who mostly sounded like a braying goat.

The internet is a great teacher, a good school and assistance in so many ways, and yet it is also a great leveller and a bloodthirsty destroyer of careers for there is no controlling it or avoiding it.

I love the internet and I hate it, I wish there was a time machine where my present day self can travel back to my earliest days and show the world what I would eventually become.

We musicians start out as the worst example of what we can be and become over several decades the best we can be. Must we live forever with our worst and always be judged for it.

All we can really say is Que sera sera whatever will be will be and suck it up. Be the best we can be on the day and let the chips fall where they will.

This ability to play a single sustained note for 59 minutes is a game changer for me,

I thought I had too few tunes in my set when gigging, I see now that I dont need more tunes I just need longer notes.

Circular breathing opens the door to 30 minute notes for me and a larger paycheck for less effort.

I could make a tune last 24 hours with this approach.

I may pick up the drum sticks and repeat the 2370 beats per minute of that 10 year old who beat the old record, Who needs to learn rhythm when you can kick out almost 3000 beats per minute.

This performance and the 59 minute sustained note are clearly pushing the boundaries of music.

Some say we have lost real music to the sideshow but I say I cant wait until we have the 3 hour sustained note and the 10,000 beats per minute drum solo,

In your dreams Buddy Rich and Miles you guys hadnt got a clue about real music.

There are many reasons why this could be happening, but lets assume the instrument should play and you have the right valves for the instrument.

I assume from your post that the air is being blocked somehow so I will address that.

There could be some blockage in for example the ports between the valves.

Let us first try to make sure the valves are in the right chambers.

Remove all the valves.

Now blow into the mouthpipe and see if air freely exits the mouthpipe into the third chamber with no restriction.

If it does place the third valve in its chamber and secure it with valve guide located. Then blow again into the mouthpipe. If the air is blocked then you have a wrong valve or a valve wrongly fitted.

Reseat the valve 180 degrees apart and see if the air now blows through.

If you cannot get the air to blow through then it is probably a wrong valve try the others and see if the air will blow through.

If the air blows through with the third valve fitted then move on to the second.

Fit the second valve and try to blow through, if you cannot blow through then try the valve 180 degrees the other way.

If you can blow through then fit the first valve and try to blow through.

I know it sounds a bit daft but this method should reveal if the air will move through the instrument with no valves pressed, and also will check all ports between valves are clear.

Once the air blows through you can test there is no blockage in the valve slides by blowing through and then as you blow press a valve.

Once you have made sure air passes through the instrument with no valves pressed and with each valve pressed then there is no blockages.

I assume that one of these tests will reveal a blockage somewhere.

If no blockages exists then you should have the valves all correctly fitted and the instrument should then play.

If this excellent recording by the Leningrad brass sounds this good and this powerful due to their use of home made poorly manufactured instruments made from old car and truck parts then let us all play on such instruments.

I have seen so called musicians complain that they have never managed to get a decent sound out of any bach instrument and likewise other musicians say similar things of shilke or martin or conn.

I have also seen a good musician deliver a superb performance from a so called communist wall-hangar ornament.

I also believe that the communist regime were obsessed by a need to show the superiority of the communist workers over the decadent west and if the instruments really were compromising the performance and making the musicians task impossible then they would have corrected that situation.

I believe that a great musician can make even a stove pipe sound great.

A brass instrument is just a tube, it is the musician that is the heart and soul of a great performance, he does not need some thirty thousand dollar instrument to sound great. The instrument just makes it easier to sound great.

Ancient instruments often look dated and weird however when played well in a small ensemble in a drawing room or modest sized concert hall they usually sound intimate reserved gentle and angelic.

What have we lost in the last 500 years by abandoning utter beauty in our endevours to sound modern progressive and robust

Thank you Steve, Zzorse, and Barliman

I have owned many instruments and one was a peashooter.

The peashooter was often used in dance bands for 3 possible reasons in my opinion.

1 Because they typically had a very tight wrap and were slim and racy looking and audiences loved that.

2 They typically had art deco engravings that looked very progressive and up to date in the 1920s

and 3 They often had a very small bell diameter and this kept the bell flare tight.

The tight bell flare made for a very piercing tone that projected very strongly and powerfully and was said to be able to strip paint from the far wall when played.

I believe this strong projection was helpful in a large dance hall with large band with audiences dancing around and making a lot of noise.

The brighter tone was acceptable as it helped the player rise above all the other instruments much as the lead players do today playing higher brighter and louder.

The drive towards smoother richer and more lyrical instruments through the 40s 50s and 60s I believe led to the abandonment of the pea shooter as dance bands did not need such bright and strident instruments and players found they could achieve much the same effect by a sensible choice of mouthpiece for lead playing.

Peashooter says it all for me, - a thin tube with not much flare resulting in strong projection.

Ok first of all dont panic it may be that the instrument is gunged up and needs a really good clean.

I would also suggest that the corks are falling apart, and the water valves corks are probably leaking.

Bad or leaking corks can make an instrument sound strangled. I would take it to a good tech and ask them to make it playable, basically a cork and felt replacement and that should only cost a few dollars and will make a world of difference.

Also they will check the valves are all seated correctly and working correctly.

The instrument sounds like a Reynolds Medalist trumpet these were a premier student trumpet from a great manufacturer and they had many features of professional instruments. It sounds like you have a very good instrument there that is well worth having a tech check it over and it will help you to develop for many years.

@ROWUK

Again we do not disagree

My perspective is that my musical taste is classical jazz blues reggae pop baroque folk choral.

My tastes are eclectic and I love it all.

I love barbeque I love burgers I love cordon bleu I love hearty farmhouse meals and party food.

Strawberries are a wonderful end to a meal but I would not eat strawberries all the day long.

I love modern instruments I love ancient instruments I love a sprinkling of Cornetto amongst a diet of more modern fare.

My own experience shows that BIX can stand as an equal next to Chuck Berry or BB King or Black Sabbath

I am quite happy with a mix of all styles without needing 3 hours of BIX on his own.

But you know a sprinkling of BIX among more contemporary music sounds wonderful and yes I dare to say it, a medley of blues jazz rock pop and choral sounds great to audiences.

Yesterday I played a 1925 BIX composition on a period trumpet from 1924 with a period mouthpiece from 1892 and it was totally loved.

And I do believe that if I had played a Serpent or a Shawm or a Cornetto that would have been loved just as much as any 2022 acoustic guitar.

It is not what you do it is the way that you do it, thats what gets results.

I have seen too many ancient instruments that take a great deal of perseverance to sound anything other than a cow breaking wind.

I have also seen unsophisticated unpracticed members of the public pick up a wonderful modern brass instrument that is capable of great beauty, and they blow as hard and as loud as they can making a wonderful instrument sound like a pigs rear end.

A good player can make a bad instrument sound great, a bad player can make a great instrument sound bad.

That is all that is happening here.

Back in 2010 gorillas decided to blow the heck out of a tube they called a vuvuzella with the intent to sound as bad as humanly possible, and they achieved that quite outstandingly.

They get drunk and then they use aerosol powered fog horns to make as much noise as possible at football matches.

Was there any doubt that the vuvuzella would sound anything other than abominable in their hands.

I rest my case.

I am sorry but I have to speak up

I know that some players use WD40 as a lubricant but WD 40 is not a lubricant. In fact it is a complex mix of chemicals some of which are dangerous to health

The contents of WD40 read like a recipe from a chemists lab

These are a list of the published ingredients of WD40 and I hope that players will abandon it as a lubricant

Hydrotreated heavy naphtha: 50–60% of WD-40
Petroleum base oils: Less than 25% of WD-40
Hydrodesulfurized heavy naphtha: Less than 10% of WD-40, and contains xylene, 1,2,4-trimethyl benzene, and 1,3,5-trimethyl benzene
Mineral oil Similar to baby oil and Vaseline.
Alkanes
Decane, which helps WD-40 remain a liquid at cold temperatures
Nonane, which is water repellent
Tridecane and undecane, which are also found in stink bug scent glands
Tetradecane, another alkane
Carbon dioxide
Propels the WD-40 out of the can
Other ingredients in WD-40 may include:
Dimethyl naphthalene, a solvent
Cyclohexane, which gives WD-40 a high melting point
Solvent naphtha, petroleum, light aliphatic
Calcium sulfonate
Propane

Dimethyl napthalene is known to be dangerous

WD40 contains solvents whose primary role is to remove oils.

The WD in WD40 is there because WD40 was developed as a water remover. It displaces water.

That is why when it was first introduced it was used to displace moisture from electrical parts such as automotive ignition cables and distributors.

It does contain some 25% petroleum distillates but the rest are questionable and some are dangerous.

I recommend that anyone using it abandons it immediately.

There are wonderful alternate lubricants that are available.

Even raw paraffin is more healthy than this

This is what the industry says about WD40:-

WD-40 can be harmful to health if used incorrectly or for long periods of time. It can irritate the eyes, skin, and respiratory system.
Inhalation
Can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, and upper respiratory irritation
High concentrations can cause central nervous system effects
Prolonged exposure to fumes can cause respiratory issues
Skin contact
Can cause drying of skin and/or irritation
Prolonged and/or repeated contact may produce mild irritation and defatting with possible dermatitis
Eye contact
May cause irritation, tearing, and redness

Also:-

DANGER! Extremely Flammable Aerosol. Contains gas under pressure; may explode if heated. May be fatal if swallowed and enters airways.

In short the recommendation is to keep it away from eyes keep it away from skin do not swallow it do not breathe the fumes.

It is a dangerous product

I make no excuses for calling out this dangerous product.

I would not write it off

I have found the worst instrument can play wonderfully and sound professional with the right mouthpiece and the right player who plays in the right way.

Our tones are malleable if we are capable of it.

Even the cheapest Chinese knockoff wall hanger can sound beautiful and play well in the hands of the right player with the right mouthpiece.

Even the very best professional instrument can be condemned as worthless in the hands of the wrong player.

Our job is to adapt and conform to the instrument we use. It is not to spend our time seeking the one and only instrument that we can play well.

We are in control of our embouchure we are in control of our air support we are in control of our chops we are in control of our mouthpiece choice.

There is not one embouchure there is not one mouthpiece there is not one instrument there is not one approach to playing.

I would take this instrument and play it professionally in a heartbeat without even having held one. I hold Conn in such high regard

I once handed a cheap Chinese instrument to an older gigging professional, this instrument had been condemned as incapable of playing in tune or even playing well. I found no problem with it.

He handed it back after wowing an audience and receiving standing ovations with this supposed piece of chinese sh1t saying to do not ever sell this instrument.

It had the right mouthpiece and it was played by the right player, and it sounded fabulous.

Often it is the valves that let an instrument down, the valves are the heart of the instrument.

In my experience conn valves are among the finest valves.

Valves are let down by poor maintenance.

All of my instruments have great valves and they are all between 65 and 100 years old.

Maintain the valves well clean the instrument use the right mouthpiece adapt to the instrument, and it will repay you a thousand fold for your efforts.

When a player points a finger at an instrument and says that is crap, he or she is pointing three fingers back at themselves.

I have never had a problem finding plenty of places to play.

First of all equipment, the smallest under seat cabin bag for most international carriers can accommodate a standard trumpet.

If that doesnt work cornets fit in the smallest of bags.

I have travelled abroad internationally in passenger jets with a trumpet stowed in a cabin bag under the seat in front of me with no difficulties at all.

Dump the trumpet case, take a soft cabin bag.

This means you will never have to compromise on your equipment while travelling.

When you get to your destination, there are always parks woods streets back alleys I have never had any difficulty finding a dozen places within minutes of where I am accommodated.

The only place there has ever been any issue or restriction
was a Mall. And their heads were so far up their rear ends they outlawed their customers from singing or humming to themselves in the Mall.

The problem you will most likely face is turning people down who want you to play for them.

The main problem I expect you to suffer is there being too many places to play and practice in rather than there being too few.

What I have seen in the past in forums is trumpet players who insist on buying a pocket trumpet when there is no need, and then they insist upon playing it in their hotel room and suffering intonation issues from unfamiliar gear and complaints from the hotels guests.

Take a trumpet with you, walk to a park, alley, street, and you will be astounded by the good will and respect the citizens there who are staved of live music, will give you for your efforts.

What better high is there for a musician than spontaneous applause and cheers for what amounts to doing a bit of practice to preserve your chops.

One thing I would suggest is learning a few simple tunes that you can play easily that local audiences might like, but I suspect you dont need that being an experienced player.

People want to hear you, so let them and have a ball doing it.

@Kehaulani

Or maybe we dont perform as well as we used to.

I think there are lots of reasons, I like your direct and no messing about way of expressing yourself Kehaulani, it is very refreshing.

You got me on a technicality

Interesting comments about the causes of red rot

My understanding is this, and I am not claiming to be an expert, however I have worked in construction engineering, automotive engineering, and several other engineering disciplines. My last role was as a principal engineer.

As we move a brass instrument from a cold environment into a warm environment and breathe into it as we play the moist air from our lungs is brought in contact with the inner surface of the instrument.

This can cause condensation and the closest area to the mouthpiece is the mouthpipe.

The mouthpipe then gathers the most condensation.

If the player has not brushed their teeth before playing then particles of food from the last meal accompany the moist air into the instrument.

The mouthpipe is then covered in a coating of moisture plus some food debris.

Brass is a mixture of copper and zinc with a very small amount of lead added.

Zinc is soluble in water, lead also is soluble in water.

The debris from the mouth carries with it droplets of saliva from the mouth. Saliva is slightly alkaline.

Water with alkaline forms an electrolyte as does water with acid and electrolytes support the electrolytic corrosion of metals.

What happens next is small microcurrents are created within the droplets of water sitting in the electrolytes on the inner surface of the brass of the mouthpipe and electrolytic corrosion begins.

This electrolytic corrosion breaks down the brass mixture into its individual elements parts of copper zinc and lead.

Now we have the perfect conditions for erosion of the brass.

The microcurrents attacking the brass liberate zinc from the metal and the zinc enters the electrolyte as dissolved zinc.

Then the action of physically cleaning the mouthpipe cleans away the electrolyte the debris and the dissolved zinc.

All that is left behind is brass with microholes where the zinc used to be.

This is a long process that takes decades for the holes to migrate completely through the brass and the holes in the brass slowly migrate deeper into the brass until appearing as holes in the external surface of the brass surrounded by darker copper.

The characteristic appearance of red rot is then present, several small holes in yellow brass with each hole surrounded by red copper.

In my mind there is no doubt and no uncertainty.

Moisture plus accreted debris if allowed to remain clinging to the internal surface of the instrument will result in red rot.

Frequent internal cleaning of the mouthpipe will remove the condensation, the debris, and the electrolytes and stop red rot dead..

Internal oiling of the mouthpipe holds the promise that a coating of oil would prevent the moisture from reaching the brass and therefore the electrolytic action that decomposes brass and results in red rot will be stopped.

I recommend research on dezincification of brass in water

I also recommend research on the solubility of lead in water

There are many documents revealing evidence of the dissolving of both Zinc and of Lead in water.

Water is called the universal solvent.

@Dale-Proctor

That is very interesting and very revealing Dale

I guess that examining the mid 1800's at which time, with the recent invention and application of the perinet valve in 1838, the recent creation of the cornet and the lack of any standardisation in pitch makes for huge uncertainties as to what is and what is not a true authentic cornet sound.

I think that we in the modern age are so used to very well designed and well built instruments that we assume that all earlier instruments must have played as easily and as well as our modern instruments do.

The truth is that there were many challenges and many failures in those early days of instrument design and this made playing on these early instruments quite difficult compared to todays modern instruments.

Perhaps we should not take from this any conclusions about instrument design in those early years of cornet/trumpet, but instead simply marvel at the muscianship and abilities of the players of the day in being able to play those early instruments as well as they did in the face of what are in todays terms monumental challenges.

Life today must be easy compared to life in the mid 1800's, and we truly stand musically today on the shoulders of giants.

Additionally I think we should recognise the musicianship and commitment of those modern players like yourself Dale who rise to the challenge to play successfully on those difficult early instruments and are able to recreate the authentic period music on authentic period instruments.

I deeply suspect that your conductor had no idea of your quality and that of your daily driver instrument.

Flugels I am led to believe can be somewhat skittish and variable. I must admit somewhat shamefully that I have never played on one.

Just having the name Bach or strad on an instrument is not an absolute guarantee of quality and beauty of tone even though the strad 135 is well respected, especially if the instrument is the worst for wear and has suffered a hard life.

It seems to me that if he knew about flugels he would have recognised your courtois 154r as one of the very best you can play. (going by reputation here).

I like that he reversed his decision when faced with the truth.

I would counter that there was nothing communicated throughout this clip between 0:43 to 2:41

0:43 to 0:50 was the exactly same as 1:10 to 1:30 and exactly the same as 2:10 to 2:30 in content it was the musical equivalent of repeatedly saying

Four score and 17 years ago
Four score and 17 years ago
Four score and 17 years ago
Four score and 17 years ago
Four score and 17 years ago
Four score and 17 years ago
Four score and 17 years ago
Four score and 17 years ago
Four score and 17 years ago

Yes the audience went wild but audiences have gone wild over my performances and that reaction in itself does not mean anything was communicated, other than surprise.

I can make audiences cheer due to surprising them as well as anyone but it is not an aspiration of mine to make a career from simply surprising or shocking people.

They were impressed by trombone shortys ability but there was no communication at all that I could detect beyond "I can do the same thing over and over and over and over again without stopping"

I agree trombone shorty was skillful but being skillful is not communication.

Any politician could have given a speech at ghettysburg, but Abraham Lincoln communicated a message that inspired a nation.

Just repeating the same few notes over and over again for 2 minutes or for 2 hours or for 2 days does not move me at all.

I can listen to an entire performance of The Magic Flute, that is 3 hours and 5 minutes and be entertained from beginning to end but 2 minutes of trombone shorty had me losing the will to live.

Is it possible for Bix to exist today with the internet and music resources so widely available.

Bix could not read music other than on a rudimentary level.

He was not trained in cornet or any brass instrument

He had to work out how to play and used alternate fingerings because he did not know correct fingerings

This led to a number of things, he developed a unique phrasing and style, and he did not write down his improvs or use licks.

In his last appearance he stood and was unable to play anything his improvs deserted him. If he were a modern player with licks a plenty and a strategy for jazz improv he would not have had a problem but instead would have made it through that performance.

He was replaced in the band because of being unable to play when called upon to do so.

If he were born today he would have access to theory training and software that would have moulded him to use correct technique correct fingering a huge number of licks and jazz phrases plus access to Jamey Abersold.

Would he have any chance of becoming the great man that Bix became in his lifetime.

Possibly, but I doubt it.

Students learn to be as their teacher, Bix had no teacher and was free to develop to his full potential in areas that mattered.

I believe that if he was born today Bix would not be Bix.

I believe that the saying keep a fighter hungry applies, Bix was hungry for Jazz and when he couldnt find what he needed he invented it and we all benefit from that.

Long live Bix, the musician the seeker the inventor the ground breaking Jazz man.

Forever we will be in his debt