Posts made by Walter.SK

I have a new Harrelson entry level H Series trumpet, and have a question about the second valve slide. It was almost impossible to remove, and came off only after pulling a cloth through and twisting it to pull on, using all of my strength. I cleaned the parts that go into the horn, and the holes, with alcohol and then greased the threads with Hetman 10 grease.

Much to my surprise when I put each end of the slide, one at a time, into the holes and rotated to distribute the grease, the fit was perfect and it was easy to turn the slide. However, again to my surprise, it was very difficult to install the slide, and almost impossible again to remove. The slide appeared too rigid and small to have been bent. The only reason I could come up with is that it had to be made incorrectly for this trumpet. Any thoughts on this?

I”m a ex music professor 80 yrs old, and played trumpet badly for a couple of years 50 years ago. I have a new Bach Strad and 7C, 6C, 5C, and 3E mouthpieces. I’ve studied several YouTube videos on embouchure and aperture and have been getting good, full tone from G on the staff down to the F# below as well as the pedals. But I had not been able, after several weeks, to get any results above the G. The mouthpieces I have best results with ar the 6C and 3E. Today,just for the heck of it, I moved the mouthpiece half its width to the right on my lips. To my shock, blowing softly and with just enough pressure to seal the mouthpiece to my lips, I was able to lip slur from the bottom C through the high Bb and C 2 octaves above and back down, hitting each overtone solidly and with good tone.

Am I correct in interpreting that to suggest I need a wider mouthpiece and probably the same cup depth?