Featuring: Stomvi S14A VR Vs, Bob Reeves 41/dF Flugelhorn Mouthpiece, Lynn Nicholson XPiece and Reversible Rim Every few months, I plan to make a post such as this one titled, The Buzz . Here I will summarize any recent gear acquisitions, things I am testing, and brief thoughts on such things. This month I have been working via phone and email with K.O. Skinsnes of Stomvi USA on a new mouthpiece purchase. K.O. knows a thing or two about mouthpieces and mouthpiece design having worked with/for the great Bob Reeves in the past. I really like K.O.'s approach to mouthpiece design and the way he works to find the best match for a given person. I initially spent about 45 minutes on the phone with him (incredibly generous that he spent that kind of time with me) explaining my needs and my history, both successes and failures, specifically with previous mouthpieces. Like just about everyone else, I wanted to increase my endurance/efficiency. After chatting a while, ...

As I've mentioned previously, I've been having a discussion with a brass guru, Charlie Melk, regarding the possibility of having my favorite trumpet fully restored. Today he asked for some photos to get an idea of the work involved outside of the obvious: replacing the leadpipe which has red rot. So this evening after I returned home from work, I pulled the old girl out of the mothballs, so to speak. Now, you have to realize that the last time this horn saw the light of day was roughly 22 years ago. I was more than a little apprehensive of what I would find when I opened its case. Was it black with tarnish? Were the slides stuck? My biggest fear was frozen valves since they had always been one of my favorite features. I took a deep breath and opened the case... To my surprise, she hadn't turned to dust like the irrational part of my brain kept telling me to expect. In fact, the tarnish didn't even look that bad. I tugged on the main tuning slide and, after a mom...

Other than teaching myself guitar over the last ten years or so, I've been away from music. Music was once a huge part of my life, and the thing I most looked forward to on a daily basis. Gradually, and for a number of reasons, it became less and less so over the years. I seem to require some degree of external stimulus to stay engaged with something, and while I enjoy playing guitar and reached some modestly useful degree of musicianship with it, I've never really felt the way I used to when I played trumpet. This is particularly true when I consider that I also miss playing as part of an ensemble. True, I could form or join some sort of a band, but the voice of the guitar typically stands alone or is at most part of a two person unit in a band. I miss blending with two, three, six, twelve, or three-hundred trumpets. Yes, I was part of a three-hundred trumpet group that performed at halftime of a football game at the University of Kentucky during their "Trumpet Day...

Around the time I discovered red rot in the leadpipe of my favorite and sole (soul?) trumpet, I was giving private lessons to the son of one of my coworkers. My teachers always had their horns at the ready during my private lessons with them, so it was at least somewhat out of obligation that I felt I needed to find a suitable replacement. I was not playing in any local bands (the brass scene where I lived at that time was abysmal), and any other playing was purely for my own amusement and upkeep. Teaching at least kept me somewhat motivated. The place locally that had the best reputation for having just about anything on the market was Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center. My wife of about seven years at the time, formerly a flute player who also just happened to be interested in learning to play trumpet, accompanied me. I'd always heard great things about Levin's, and I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, my experience there did not turn out how I had expe...

I will talk more about where I am now once I've spent at least a little time documenting from where I've come. After all, it's difficult to really understand one's progress during a comeback if there is no basis for comparison. To begin, I'll answer the inevitable question that all musicians frequently hear, even when he or she is an absolute beginner: "What [kind/brand/model] of horn do you play?" At the top of my blog is a link to the "My Gear" page which I will keep updated if/when things change. However, things are going to be static for a while as I am fairly happy with my current setup. My first trumpet was a used (probably late 1960s or early '70s era) student model King Cleveland 600 in lacquer which my parents rented and then subsequently purchased. I played it for roughly five years before I seemed to outgrow it. I don't have any particularly fond memories of this trumpet; it was just a "tool" to me. I particularly r...