Posts made by Trumpetb

I respect you ROWUK however my experience tells me something different.

There are many very similar mouthpieces that look to be exactly the same and have the same numbering in the numbering convention.

The difference often comes down to one mouthpiece allowing easier access to notes in the range and another supposedly exactly the same size makes it hard work to achieve good tone. And the harder we have to work the more prone we are experiencing difficulties.

I have played several 7c mouthpieces and each one had a different effect on my playing.

The main difference between them being the backbore the bowl shape and the throat size.

Are you honestly suggesting that a 7c with a shallower cup and a small throat plays identically to a 7c with a deeper cup and larger throat,

I am saying that different mouthpieces have a different effect on the player and the players ability to play well throughout his or her range.

And changing a mouthpiece from a c cup to a vee cup can change the response of the instrument.

If the player is having difficulty reaching a note in the range changing to a mouthpiece that suits them better can alleviate some of their problems.

Are you suggesting that Jens Lindemann doesnt know what he is talking about when he says that players often are using the wrong mouthpiece.

If players can play on the wrong mouthpiece then that means they can play on the right mouthpiece.

I personally agree with Jens and I believe that a mouthpiece makes a huge difference to playing and if a player is having problems then they should pay at least some attention to the mouthpiece they play on.

If the mouthpiece doesnt matter then lets all play on a 1c. If the mouthpiece does matter lets find out which suits us best.

When you say "our range does not change much with mouthpiece" doesnt that mean our range does change with mouthpiece.

And if the mouthpiece you play on doesnt matter why do you play on a monette.

And it appears monette agrees with me when they say "By using Monette mouthpieces with a more open, aligned, and neutral physical approach, your instrument can be played more consistently on its 'sweet spot,' resulting in a more resonant sound and improved response, range, and endurance".

So according to monette the monette mouthpiece gives a player more consistency more resonant sound and improved response improved range and improved endurance.

Or does Dave Monette not know what he is talking about.

We cannot have it all ways up either the mouthpiece is important or it is not, and both Jens Lindemann and Dave Monette say the mouthpiece is important for good playing. So I say look at the mouthpiece and address any issues there.

Im going to add something.

No mention has been made of the mouthpiece.

Thats a bit like saying I cant perform well in a race in my car and then everyone mentions the improving the engine and the transmission but nobody mentions the steering and the suspension.

The contribution Bugatti made to racing and the reason his cars won almost everything even though they were underpowered was because he treated a car as a wholistic system and addressed all elements of suspension steering brakes and power. He got the balance of everything right and his products kicked A$$

My belief is the embouchure, the mouthpiece and the instrument all form a system that delivers results when all are working correctly together.

I find that many issues are created for the player simply by choosing the wrong mouthpiece and many issues evaporate with nothing more than a simple mouthpiece change.

I am not saying this is where the issue lies but it sure is an area I would look at as well as the instrument and the embouchure.

When I have a problem the first thing I do is make sure the instrument is clean and operating correctly, if that doesnt fix it I look to myself and make sure the basics are right and I am performing well, if that doesnt work I look to the mouthpiece and see if a minor change there helps and it usually does, and can make a profound difference.

Only then do I look to blaming the instrument.

In ending I will say that I have issues everywhere but I can tell you now I have solved many issues by matching the mouthpiece and the instrument and the embouchure better.

Bach it is said encouraged his customers to drill the throats of his mouthpieces and even shipped a reamer with each mouthpiece to do this. His expectation was that his instruments would not perform optimally without tuning the mouthpiece to the player and the instrument. If this is true he understood the importance of getting the mouthpiece right.

In short these are the areas that cause problems and the order they strike.

1 Dirt and gunge in a clogged instrument
2 Poor playing
3 poor embouchure
4 poor technique
5 damaged mouthpiece
6 poor mouthpiece choice
7 damaged instrument
8 poor instrument design

As you can see the player is right at the top and the instrument is right at the bottom.

I wouldnt monkey around with the instrument at this stage. Give it a really good clean check it is operating correctly, or better still have that checked for you.

Then look to yourself

Then look to the mouthpiece

Finally look to the instrument.

There speaks a humble man

Great advice from ROWUK again but I want to add this.

Speaking of the population as a whole, we value something by the investment we make in it.

If someone struggles for years and achieves something, they value it more than those other things that come more easily.

If we have to travel to another continent to sit at the feet of a teacher and learn from him we value that immensely

If we have to travel to a school or conservatory and spend years there we value that highly

If we travel to our local town and study under a teacher we value that less highly

If we are given tuition over the internet without even leaving home for it we value that very little.

If the quality of teaching is the same, we nonetheless value it less when it cost us less.

Students throw away the things that cost them little. And this is one reason why internet tuition is worth less than other forms.

If a teacher in person lays down the law, the student obeys

If a teacher on the internet lays down the law the student is likely to go elsewhere to find a "nicer" teacher.

With a hundred teachers on the internet to choose from the nicest teachers end up with the students and the strictest teachers end up in a different profession.

That does not mean a teacher can insult shame or bully that is not teaching that is abuse.

Make ROWUKs words your bible. This last post by him is gospel if ever there was a trumpet gospel.

Yes to "What is appropriate is whatever works"

Yes to " My goal is not a six-pack in our face and an industrial level compressor with the lungs"

These are the golden nuggets that we should use as a foundation to our beliefs.

Add to that others great advice such as "All we have is our sound" always always always work on your tone make it the most beautiful humanly possible by using ROWUKS words "What is appropriate is whatever works"

Read every other post of ROWUK the man knows what he is talking about.

I have reached many of the same conclusions as he states in here but it has taken me a very long time to reach that position.

Read absorb digest his words and become all the better as a performer for the doing of that.

@Richard-III I am totally on board with your post sir

Been through this bought the tee shirt.

This is my take on it.

1 a tight slotting instrument is incredibly easy to play in tune compared to a loose slotting instrument as long as you accept that the in tune notes will not really be in tune for the reasons you have explained.

2 a tight slotting instrument is far easier to play in tune and hit the notes centred when tired and in pieces requiring endurance

3 a loose slotting instrument feels slippery as heck and at first almost impossible to centre notes and centre them well

4 it takes a lot of effort to play loose slotting instruments well and centre the notes consistently.

5 mouthpiece choice is critical and a loose slotting instrument demands a good match of mouthpiece, in other words the mouthpiece can add to the loose slotting or make the slotting tighter.

In all a loose slotting instrument is much more of a crapshoot but at the same time is far more rewarding when playing jazz or blues and trying to create emotion in a piece.

For these reasons it is no surprise to me that classical players and legit players prefer tight slotting instruments and jazz players prefer loose slotting instruments.

There are many other considerations at play that complicate the issue, for example many instruments are not in tune with themselves others do not resonate well or resonate erratically through the registers. Others play with high or low resistance.

Personally having played both types I have no preference they each have their advantages.

I would add this if you are a weaker player then a tight slotting instrument is a help, if you are a monster player then a loose slotting instrument can sing in your hands.

As a personal note poorer players or sloppy players who rely on the instrument to centre the notes for them are the ones who have difficulties with loose slotting instruments. strong players who create the pitches correctly in their embouchure have less trouble with loose slotting instruments.

This is entirely my own personal opinion and I expect that many good players will disagree with me on this.

Heres a question for you if you have to play a huge glissando in rhapsody in blue would you prefer a tight slotting instrument or a loose slotting instrument.

Real playing demands compromises we simply need to decide which compromises suit us the best.

I think we can easily be presented with so many areas to work on that we quickly become overwhelmed with the huge amount of work we then face, and we never seem to have time to reach any of our goals.

I would suggest deciding on where you want to go, then looking honestly at where you are now and then you will know the gap that you must cross, select just those offerings that will take you across that gap.

A great start is the ROWUK post, but our needs vary over time and it is always a good idea to often review and judge if what you are doing is still fit for purpose and will still yield the results you look for.

I know it is hard but the only true failures are those who give up before realising their goals.

@Dr-GO
I love your descriptions of those instruments, one of my aspirations is to own both a committee and a Harrelson, - amongst others but we cannot own them all and I suspect I have too many instruments already

I am totally with you on the merits of each of those very desirable instruments.

I feel that the unique tonalities of a shawm, a serpent a cornetto are quite different to instruments such as a modern trumpet a modern cornet flugel or tenor horn.

The way ancient instruments sound is not the way modern instruments sound, and that is not simply a result of the manner in which they are played, it is a mixture of the responsiveness of the instrument the way the notes articulate the softness and dynamics.

It is a little like the difference between a Piano Forte, and a Forte Piano. The Forte Piano responds differently to the Piano Forte.

The Piano Forte has an iron frame robust strings and felt covered hammers, the Forte Piano has a wooden frame thin harpsichord strings and leather covered hammers.

These differences make the two instruments sound quite different and yet they are both pianos.

To abandon the Forte Piano to history and never play it is to lose the unique sound of the Forte Piano.

Equally the vihuella and the guitar sound quite different but I think there is a case for playing a vihuella in a small ensemble in a modest venue.

I believe there is a case for preserving all instruments that have and offer a unique tonal palette as ROWUK puts it.

When I select a trumpet or cornet for a gig I also select the mouthpiece. I match the mouthpiece and the instrument to the music and what I am attempting to present in my performance.

We can mold our tone and our sound from the huge palette available to us.

In brass instruments I have broadly speaking 168 choices of tonal palette at my fingertips.

That means I can be very expressive in a wide range of compositions.

Keeping the ancient instruments and using them simply adds more options to our palette.

I can for example make a trumpet sound like a cornet, simply by manipulating my tone, but it makes sense to play on a cornet when I want to sound like a cornet and save the effort.

If you want to sound like you are playing a shawm get a shawm.

On the other hand if you do not value the ancient tone or sound then play exclusively on modern gear.

@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.

@Dr-GO

Hi Dr GO, its like if we talk about fruit for example

If we stop eating pomegranates, because other fruit is easier to eat and less messy.

Yes the modern fruit is easier to eat and less messy and less effort, but the unique taste of pomegranate is now lost to modern generations who dont taste the pomegranate.

many modern instruments and the Cornetto in particular have a unique sound that is simply unavailable in any other instrument.

What have we lost, we have lost the sound of the old instruments that we cannot hear at all anywhere else.

Do they sound good or bad, if they sound bad then good riddance to them but if they sound unique and beautiful it would be folly to abandon them.

Are we right to abandon these old instruments and never hear them or play them, that is a personal choice.

But it is like Apples, many varieties that taste wonderful have been abandoned over the last 100 years, and now they are being rediscovered and people find they prefer the older apple varieties that are more difficult to grow and crop less.

If you abandon something unique you lose it.

That is what we have lost, the unique sounds of ancient instruments.

And sound is what we musicians should be defending, all we have is our sound.

We should be defending unique and beautiful sounding instruments and they should sit alongside modern instruments if we choose to place them so.

I do not disagree with anything you have posted ROWUK however for myself I hear great beauty in ancient instruments.

You mentioned the Cornetto and I have some experience and knowledge of these instruments so I feel I can speak on the topic.

For example a Cornetto played in its traditional setting in a church or a cathedral with an organ accompaniment is a beautiful thing.

There is a seductive sweetness and beauty in the tone of a well played Cornetto that I have never heard in any other instrument.

Of course modern instruments are wonderful and highly developed and sit well together in an ensemble and sound wonderful in a modern setting and playing from a modern score.

But my point was and is that the ephemeral gentle and sweet alluring tone of the ancient instrument appears to have been lost in the shuffle over the last 300 years.

Is the modern instrument better, yes it is, it is in tune with itself it is consistent in tone across its range it is relatively easy to play well in all registers and its wide dynamics are helpful in developing expression.

The old instruments have issues with inconsistency of tone difficulties in controlling pitches and dynamics and sometimes it feels they fight us. But that was not really the point these inconsistencies are part of the charm of the instrument.

For all their faults the music made on these instruments is compelling and addictive. I have played recordings of ancient instruments to various members of the public and without exception they have declared the ancient instruments to have great beauty of tone.

Today for example I played a cornetto recording to a lady of advanced years and she told me that her hairs stood up on end when she heard the instrument and it touched her in her soul.

I also played a recording to a young man of around 17 or 18 and he declared it to be surprisingly beautiful.

Of course that can happen with modern instruments but it happens repeatedly and often with the ancient instruments.

I firmly believe that we have lost something precious by leaving these instruments in their cases and exclusively playing on modern instruments.

You are right ROWUK we have gained a great deal in the development of our modern instruments but we have also lost something.

It is however easily fixable by our simply obtaining examples of these instruments and including them in our practice, and I intend to do this and I hope that perhaps other members might consider doing the same.

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

This is something we simply must live with and I pay it no mind these days

It is enough that I have brought this behaviour to the attention of the members, dont be surprised when you discover several or several hundred recordings of you littering the internet.

The internet is great and powerful but with great power comes great responsibility.

Social media has made it normal for the public to record their lives and then publish these clips and we are a part of the publics lives.

Andy Warhol has predicted, 'everyone in the world will get a chance to be famous for 15 minutes. Social media made that a reality and the cat is out of the proverbial bag and cannot now be stuffed back into it.

Welcome to the new world.

Wow

Great articulation but I question one thing

How on earth are we going to march with that puppy

I think we see eye to eye Dale great comment

Thank you

Apologies this will be another long one

@robertwerntz great attitude and my respect to you you know the reality of a performing professional.

@a-j-trumpet that is the truly the reality the frustrations of the modern world, the recordings made with poor equipment that we have no control over are pathetic and yet these we have to live with.

But to both of you while agreeing that both you guys know exactly what is going on and have a clear knowledge of the problems we face,

I would repeat myself that the unpalatable truth that I object to and want to warn members of is the modern habit of recordings made of us in secret with unsuitable equipment of our playing that is not a performance we have rehearsed but are instead our worst practice sessions and are published without our knowledge.

Several times I have been recognised by members of the public and they said to me oh I saw you on the internet and they mention me being viral or facebook or some other widely published social media recording of me and all recordings made on mobile phones without my knowledge or permission.

Some people have made a great deal of money from secret recordings they have made of me that went viral and they were monetised. And I got nothing from it but a bad reputation.

It is a form of theft that destroys the victim.

I want editorial control I want to make sure that recordings of me are recordings of me playing well and entertaining, not selected highlights of me messing up during practice or during rehearsals.

"Oh wasn't that funny ha ha ha give my page more likes everybody and I will show you more musicians messing up".

It is underhanded unreasonable and immoral.

Many is the time I have been told that these pathetic recordings will make me famous, my reply is always, I already am famous go away.

They think that making a very poor recording of me failing in practice sessions will somehow make me anything other than a figure of ridicule.

We professionals need good press and good recordings that honestly reflect our abilities and the quality we deliver to audiences on stage.

In short we need to let people know the quality of what they can expect to hear if they pay to hear us.

We work hard polishing our abilities and our acts until we give close to perfection when and where it counts, and then we discover some sneaky individual has illicitly recorded us on a bad day in a practice session and published those poor and unmusical practice sessions.

It is like supermodels being photographed by paparazzi at the beach when they have no makeup no hair no great outfit and they look comical and pathetic, then these semi abusive images are published globally with evil comments, look at ugly old whatshername pretending to be a model.

They make sales the public gets to laugh over their breakfast paper the TV stations and Tv commentators get an item, then they all move on but the supermodels career is forever harmed.

Supermodels should be in control of what people see of them, their looks are their value, and professional musicians should be in control of what people hear of them, what we sound like is our value, if we are unfairly made to sound bad careers are forever harmed.

If I mess up on stage in a performance then I deserve to be reproached or admonished.

But I dont deserve to be reproached or admonished if I never mess up on stage.

We might put 1000 hours in rehearsals to finally sound great for a 1 hour stage appearance, we should not have to see the worst of that 1000 hours published as a comical feature on the internet page of a pathetic individual who has no life beyond making fun on facebook of people they meet.

People should only see that 1 hour of our polished superb performance that they paid to see and that we are paid for and that is where it counts.

If I am learning a new work to eventually appear in my set, I dont want my mistakes made while learning it to be forever used against me.

Libel is defined as "a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation"

Defamation is "a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury".

We are talking about doing things that are damaging to musicians and that are against the laws of Libel and Defamation, but so far it remains unlitigated and untested in law possibly because it is so very common and so recent.

Many see no harm in it or think it pointless for musicians to object. What harm could it do to smear a musicians reputation, grow a backbone mr musician.

But I see a future where musicians dont practice much for fear of it being used against them, they then employ bouncers who guard them against illicit recordings every moment of the day or they simply give up music and take up painting instead or some other hobby where they aren't so easily ridiculed.

We get gigs because audiences want to hear us, they want to hear us because they believe they will hear something wonderful. If all people hear of me is some amateurish sounding recordings full of errors and wrong notes on the internet made on mobile phones audiences will not pay to see me live.

This is my life this is the world to me. People judge me on what they see and hear.

Am I upset about this, of course I am and you should be too.

These people harm our careers and harm our earning power. And they do it simply for internet likes on facebook and that is unforgiveable.

And they do it in secret so it will cost them nothing and they will get some juicy content for their social media page.

It makes people laugh but humour is always based upon victimising someone.

Let us not be the victim here and see our careers go down the toilet for some idiots social media likes.

We create, we create beauty and make the world a better place.

These people who do this are parasites and destroyers of beauty.

Be aware it is happening and protect yourselves from it if you can, for some it may be too late, this bad press lives forever.

I love it.

Never before has the small print of a contract been so rewarding.

@ROWUK

Well structured comment and correct as far as it goes but you entirely miss my point.

We are not talking about my publishing recordings and taking responsibility for those recordings which I publicise at the time.

We are talking about passers by making recordings of practice sessions they happen to hear in the distance when I am working on the problems I have in my playing.

I liken this to those recordings of Chet Baker who was practicing in his prison cell and were made by unscrupulous music publishers who sat outside the prison wall with recording equipment.

Chet had no knowledge of it he made no money from them and as far as Chet was concerned he was just working on his technique

Chet had no idea they were there, he was practicing what he was working on. We dont practice what we are good at and sound great at we practice the things we are weak at if we are diligent. Then at length we improve and eventually sound good at those areas.

Chet had no control over what was recorded as I have no control over passers by recording my practice sessions and then publishing those recordings without my knowledge or permission.

They dont care if I sound awful, its practice for me, all they care about is their facebook presence. In fact I would go further the worst I sound the happier they are to publish because it sounds comical to them and their followers.

It is pretty disgusting when you think about it.

In some rare cases I was asked if they can record me and I told them no you may not and they tell me they are not recording, but they record me anyway. This shows the truth of what they do. They are immoral and liars. They simply want to use people.

Would you ROWUK be happy as a teacher for a passer by to record your personal practice sessions where you are working on a weak area in your playing and you fail repeatedly at a difficult phrase you are trying to master.

And then your failures in your practice sessions are published widely on the internet as ROWUK playing his trumpet. This would reflect very badly on your reputation as a teacher, and suggest that ROWUK is incompetent to possible future students.

If your failures which we all have and work on are published widely on the internet you get a reputation as a failure and your students will then evaporate because students want to study with a teacher who can play well.

My practice sessions and failures are published and I am judged on those.

I do not publish any of my own performances.

Sure I have appeared on stage, with bands, and before politicians, and in movies.

My performances I have always been told are great, but my practice sessions and my failures during practices are published without my knowledge. They are where the warts are.

Yesterday I practiced a difficult piece faster and faster pushing it way up above 220 beats per minute practicing until I failed and had great fun doing it.

But people record this kind of stuff and then edit out the good playing at 220 beats and below and publish the 300 plus beats failure because it makes them laugh and I appear again on the internet as a failure with a horn.

And you cannot argue that these recordings stay on the one facebook page I have seen the recordings being passed around freely.

I stand by what I said, I am recorded during practice sessions and I have no knowledge and no control over what they do with those recordings. They dont know that I was practicing something I am bad at and they dont care, they do it for likes on their page.

Would you be content for Chets failures to be published as Chet Baker playing. Dizzy said some days the horn wins, so he clearly would not have wanted a cd of Dizzys failure days to be published, Dizzy wanted Dizzys successes to be published.

ROWUKS failures are not to be celebrated and published for all to see, ROWUKS successes are to be celebrated and rightly you are a talent as a teacher and a player.

I sound great in Live performances because I work hard on my poor areas and make them great, but those great performances do not appear on the internet.

My practice sessions and failures in those sessions and my earliest practices where I sounded really bad are the recordings that people see of me.

We all sound bad when we practice the things we are bad at but why is it ok for the general public to publish all our failures that we suffer on the road to becoming great.

Look at it another way.

I am famous I have been told many times I am the best trumpet player in the North of the country I live in. That is of course complete nonsense I know it is nonsense and I know I am pretty low down in the skills area as a player.

Why do people believe I am the best trumpet player they have ever heard. I have been called Maestro many times.

They believe I am great because of one thing alone. I only show the things I am great at. Live audiences never see my failures I present greatness because I refuse to show anything other than greatness.

That is how you do it when you are in control of what people see. You protect your reputation and grow it if you can.

What I am saying is everyone carries a mobile phone, around 50% of people with phones record me and probably most of the members in here are recorded without their knowledge or control, and they do it underhandedly and in secret and they do it while we practice if they can hear us.

They then publish those very poor recordings of our practicing because these instruments carry a long way.

I have been recorded maybe a thousand times and published widely without my knowledge.

There are days where I discover a dozen recordings of me practicing. I have people in Australia USA Canada Denmark Germany Russia England France and a dozen other countries who have made recordings of me without permission.

Yesterday 3 people recorded me that I know about and I know there will be several that I dont know about.

There is no control over this, we musicians are not in control of our public face as long as the intenet exists people have phones facebook accounts and thousands of friends that they publish their life to.

Facebook accounts have a thirst for new material and we musicians are one of the sources.

There are 7 billion people on the planet, I might be on a million facebook pages by now, and you may be too without having any knowledge that this is happening,

The difference between us is I know it I am aware of it happening. We are recorded everywhere now and we have no idea it is happening until we run up against it.

How can we avoid this.

Should we give up all practicing, should we practice in a soundproof room so that we can make sure that only performances we are in control of make it onto the internet.

This is the issue and the reason for this post. It is a huge issue for all musicians and it is growing.

It is not that I have published unwisely, I have published nothing, it is that people are making recordings of my daily life my practicing my failures in practice and then publishing what they have recorded.

I am not a student asking for advice making poor recordings and publishing them and then bleating about how poor they are.

I am human I am bad at some things good at some things and great at some things. I present to audiences things I am great at I practice on the bad things to turn them into good things and eventually into great things.

But

People insist on making recordings of all that I do and publishing everything they hear, and that means publishing my faults clams and split notes.

We have no control over any of this and it is wrong, but we must live with it.

And if you do not see this happening then you may need a rethink.

Apologies for sounding very strong on this but I see it as the single most destructive thing for music today.

Do Orchestras or major bands allow smartphone recordings of performances practice sessions, do teachers allow the general public to record their students during a lesson.

Publishing everything in life means exactly that. And we suffer the consequences.

Thanks guys

Dale My respect for you grows as a fellow sufferer and we suffer a lifetime of doubt and unhappiness.

I think Dizzy said it best

Some days you try and nothing works and the horn wins. Other days you try and you win. This goes on and on and then you die and the horn finally wins.

But we are hooked like any other addict we are addicted to those monumental highs and those indescribable lows, so we keep repeating the same behaviour and always hoping for a different outcome.

I am deeply saddened by my apparent insanity.

Are we any better than the fool who tilts at windmills or the deluded one who thinks he is Napoleon.

But I do believe we are also like gladiators. We create ourselves a little more each day forging our skills in the furnace of constant hard practice, hammering ourselves against the anvil of repetition and hard work until we are forever changed and made the better for it.

I love the respect of my fans and of course the money when it appears and that justifies my hard work but these when all said and done prove to be transient and shallow.

Strangely it is the bouquets I have received that mean more to me as a sign of pure love for what I have created and delivered than the accolades and the money ever could, and this makes me humble to think that such a simple bunch of tubing with a little attitude and perseverance has the power to move the soul of the listener so profoundly.

Dr Go
You have achieved all that I strive to attain, and I hear the beauty in your playing that reveals a lifetime of effort that has made your playing so effortless.

I feel lucky to share the beautiful madness with you both and all the other lunatics nutcases and crackpots who inhabit this wonderful corner of the web.

Long may we suffer.