Within the last couple weeks, I came across two horns that I couldn't refuse. The first I found on eBay. Coincidentally, I recognized the name of the seller who is a brass repairman that has a channel on YouTube which I've watched a few times. It looked to be in pretty good physical shape with the original lacquer and at a fair price. The fact that it was also one of my "bucket list" trumpets made the decision for me. What was it? An F.E. Olds & Son R-10 Recording from likely 1954 based on the serial number. After playing it for about an hour when I received it, I can now see exactly why these are so revered. It is a very capable trumpet across almost all genres. I tend toward liking more commercial sounding horns, but this trumpet covers that sort of work as well as jazz and pops/orchestral work, particularly with the right mouthpiece. You know that initial, triumphant B♭ blared out by Maurice Murphy of the London Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of Star Wars...

So, apparently I used to be a blogger that wrote about trumpets, accessories, and music/pedagogy material. Who knew? *cough* OK, OK; so I didn't develop a case of amnesia and spend the last two years rediscovering my former identity. I did, however, get sidetracked by life, going through a work change and two relocations. Meanwhile I had to pause progress on my comeback practice, but by the beginning of 2020 things were getting back to normal. Normal... Anyone remember what the hell "normal" means? Beginning with February 2020, this is going to be one of those points in history that everyone recalls for a long, long time. 2020 will no doubt be remembered as a truly horrible confluence of politics, medicine, science, pseudo-science, capitalism, racial strife, and radicalism. And to think I was excited to leave my personal turmoil of 2019 behind! Well, regardless, my practice has resumed and progress is being made. Enough so that I feel comfortable enough to sell or trade s...

Time flies, doesn't it? This blog has been sorely neglected over the last few months as I have had numerous changes, events, and responsibilities with which to deal. Primary among these was changing employers and jumping through all of the employment hoops that accompany that sort of thing. Related to that, and my career as a contractor, I also underwent a change of contract and work location. Then there was taxes to deal with, including having to file my father's final taxes. Fun. However, my trumpet playing did not fall off a cliff this time, and I have been working with a specific set of Schlossberg's Daily Drills and Technical Studies which has been prescribed over the years to help people rebuild embouchures. Why did I start doing it? Well... As I was progressing in my comeback, I developed a pronounced problem. I suddenly was having trouble playing from G above the staff up to about B. Oddly, everything above that was still there, so I had what is termed a "...

Featuring: Reunion Blues Continental Triple Trumpet Case qPress Charlier's 36 Plus After realizing that I was rapidly running out of real estate when it comes to trumpet cases I decided to do some looking around for a more compact alternative. I needed something that would hold at least two trumpets, but preferably three with good protection and without placing a lot of stress on the instruments. Options are all over the map in terms of size, shape, protection, and the factor that many of us really care about most: cost. A quick search and, like mouthpieces, I'm besieged with manufacturers: Marcus Bonna, Torpedo, WolfPak, Protec, Bags of Spain, Gard, Glenn Cronkhite Eastman, SKB... and arguably the very first manufacturer of professional trumpet gig bags, Reunion Blues. After looking at the offerings from all of the aforementioned, I settled on the Reunion Blues Continental Triple Trumpet Case. The interior is a light blue quilted velvet which is flexibly partit...

Featuring: Legends Brass Mouthpieces and Backbores Kelly Mouthpieces I haven't had the opportunity to post lately due to the holidays, but the last few months have been busy from an acquisition perspective so I will be doing this in two parts. I was able to find some fantastically good bargains over the holidays, so I went a little more nuts than usual. I was also able to pick up some trumpets that I've always wanted to try from Ebay at prices that, frankly, made me feel like I stole them from someone. The horns I picked up were a 1974 Benge (L.A.) 3x (ML), a 2016 XO 1600iS, and a 1963 King Super 20 Symphony Balanced Silversonic DB otherwise and more simply known as the "Modified Harry James Model". I'll go into each one of these in separate posts in the future, but for now I will say that I am extremely happy with them all. Now, on to The Buzz... First up, let's talk mouthpieces for a bit. It seems like there are a million manufacturers out there...

A few days ago I was perusing eBay when I stumbled across something that caught my eye. Of course, you already know that I am likely talking about a trumpet and you would, of course, be correct in that assumption. Now before I go letting the cat out of the proverbial bag, I should mention that I've never been much of a vintage trumpet kinda guy regardless of the fact that my favorite horn is from the mid-'70s. What I am talking about is something at least 10 years older than me. My fear with a vintage horn is that it might be too vintage: parts that might be difficult to replace, wear that would require installing non-original parts, or a leadpipe that would require an unusual matching mouthpiece configuration. That's probably why when it comes to vintage that I tend to look at mid-20th Century stuff. Post WWII modernization and industry bridged the gap to what we consider contemporary today, so many things are still in great shape and are perfectly compatible with the m...

My bacterial respiratory infection started to finally clear up about a week ago but, as is typical when your immune system is compromised, a head cold decided to take up residence on its heels. I had one day of feeling decent and getting some sleep and then it was right back into not being able to breathe for another 4 or 5 days. However, by the time the weekend came around, I felt well enough to head over to Baltimore Brass to see if they had anything of interest in stock. This was my first visit to this particular store and they had roughly 50 or so new and used trumpets on display. In particular, their website indicated they had an Edwards Generation II, a 1963 King Super 20, and an Adams A4L, all of which I was looking forward to trying. I walked in, figured out where the trumpet section was and quickly sized up the display. The first one I tried was the Super 20 and I have to say it made a very favorable impression on me. In fact, I played it the longest of the three. It ...

Everyone knows that certain notes on the trumpet are problematic; it is a consequence of the physics of trumpet design. Much has been written on the topic, but I only recently found a good description of the actual mathematics behind the phenomenon , written in 2003 by Joseph Monzo. I encourage you to read it. It is a generalized model, but it should apply in varying degrees to all Bb trumpets. One weakness of the otherwise awesome write-up is that the data is never really rendered in a way that is easily digestible for a trumpet player. The following table is my attempt to distill his information into a simplified format. The left-hand column starts with the trumpet-player's "C" above the staff and descends chromatically down to the lowest non-pedal note, "F#". All fingerings for each note are placed in the table relative to the sharpness/flatness for that pitch (slightly sharp/flat, sharp/flat, very sharp/flat) . Interestingly, based on this information, t...

Just what does a brass player do when he's sick? A few days ago, I could tell that something was up: fatigued, not sleeping well, feeling congested upon waking up, headache. It finally caught up to me last night when I got no sleep while dealing with the persistent feeling of a ten-pound weight sitting on my chest. Unfortunately, I've always been susceptible to respiratory illness, and pneumonia nearly killed me when I was age six. As a trumpet player, this kind of thing is really disheartening. I've been making a lot of progress lately with my rehabilitation after not playing for almost two decades. I'm happy with my tone, although I occasionally have my "airy" days, up to A above the staff. My pedal tones have never been better, so that gives me hope that I can stretch my upper register up to E/F above the staff with power (which was my limit in college). I can reach those notes now, but not with what I feel is a good, full tone. Ascending past the A above...

Ok, so the title for this post is pretty melodramatic, but there is more than a little about it that is fitting. Two days ago my long-forgotten favorite trumpet came back into my hands after an overhaul by Charlie Melk. To say I was excited to see her again is an understatement. I unwrapped her with some serious nervousness. And then, there she was... After marveling at how amazing she looked from various angles for a few minutes, I went about my routine of checking all valves and slides in preparation for a test playing. Man, the slides were immaculate and slid so smoothly! I noted that the 1st valve slide was no longer out of round and the 3rd slide had been appropriately tightened a bit as I'd requested. I think the valves looked better than when I'd first bought the trumpet from the original owner back in 1983. Charlie had mentioned that he'd replaced the springs with a stronger batch, and indeed the valves felt quick and sure. If you've never played a set of G...

After a thorough examination of my old Getzen Eterna Severinsen Large Bore Model trumpet, Charlie Melk, of Charlie's Brass Works in Georgia, provided me with two options: partial restoration with spot-plating as necessary, or complete restoration and re-plating. Both options were about what I expected for a job of this nature. Charlie said the horn was in good shape for its age and it only had plating wear in a few places. All of the rest of the work was going to be pretty ordinary repair work with the exception of the leadpipe since those of that era have not been made in a long time, and current Getzen replacement leadpipes are simply not the same. He mentioned mine was probably one of the last of that particular style, as well, even though the Severinsen Model was manufactured quite a few more years after mine. Given all of this information, it really boiled down to going the extra mile to have it look like a new trumpet with a complete re-plating job or just clean it thoro...

I did not expect to have anything else in terms of gear to talk about this month, but an arrival today is worth mentioning. If you have never heard of Messina Covers, I'm not surprised -- it's a small Ebay business. What do they make? They simply make the best leadpipe and mouthpiece covers and bags! Their bags are made out of durable cordura with 3/4 inch foam. They come in single, duel, triple, quadruple, quintuple, and hextuple in a variety of colors with prices ranging from $10 to $25 (shipping is a reasonable $2). The best part is they will embroider your initials on the bags for free  in either block or script letters in a color of your choice. The bags provide tough padding and are divided to keep your mouthpieces from clanging into one another. Today I received my second Messina Covers mouthpiece bag (a quintuple) to go along with my quad which I got a few months ago. I am absolutely thrilled with how great these bags are and I highly recommend them if you are lo...

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...

Way back in the late 1970s, I learned how to play trumpet. Like all people, I had my ups and my downs, but by about 1984 I'd become the 1st chair and lead in my high school's concert, jazz, and marching bands. I suppose I'd reached an average to above-average level of capability for someone my age. I got lucky when it came to band directors as my first two were both trumpet players first, and both had great chops, technique and tone. I learned a lot from them. As a junior in high school, I qualified for the Northern Kentucky High School Select Band after what I thought was a good audition. However, I had won eighth chair in a section of nine. (A week later I'd discovered that the head judge was from the high school with trumpet players that won 1st, 2nd, and 4th chairs. Oh well.) As depressed as I was about it, something very gratifying happened during my time with that ensemble. On about the 4th day of rehearsals we were playing something dark and orchestral-sou...