I like playing long tones with no distractions. Frequently I'll start with a "ghost" tone, getting the lips to buzz so softly that the tone doesn't project from the bell. It kind of stays "stuck" in the bell flare. I crescendo from there and try to fill the room with sound (not loudness) and as a thought experiment will listen for the space vibrating. I'll then crescendo until the sound almost breaks, then diminuendo to nothing.
Sort of my sequence doing long tones.
I don't start on C.
My trumpet professor, Gerald Webster, noted that if we start off the day with our mouthpiece and play a middle high, middle low, middle loud, middle soft "natural" pitch it tends to be the same each time. He called it the "Heimatton," and everyone's is individual. I start my expanding long tone sequence with my Heimatton (Eb) and work from there. The high notes don't seem as high and the low notes not so low.
Q: Do you play the Trumpet Voluntary?
A: No, my parents made me do it.
How I earned my way through college. On C trumpet.
Our sax player was from Mississippi, and it took around six months to understand his talk.
@Dr-GO I'm thinking something stronger some days. The beer takes care of the inflammation, but sometimes the pain persists. Doesn't cocaine have pain-killing properties?
It's not just my back though. After the Viagra you sent me I developed carpal-tunnel syndrome.
When can we meet under the bridge in Spokane again, Dr. GO? My back's been bothering me...
Explore the blues scale.
Most piccolo mouthpieces have a bigger backbore than an A4a. Generally, except for monster players who play the same mouthpiece for all horns, we go smaller or shallower or both with the cup with a pretty open backbore.
What would I do if I won a million dollars?
Continue to play gigs until the money ran out.
