Watch how 4 young musicians navigate their way through Europe armed with 2 video cameras, the instruments on their back, a pad full of Christmas tunes and their trusty steed; The Flash.

This years tour route sees the young Quarter Tones Brass Quartet travel to Berlin, Prague, Slazburg, Luxembourg and London.

Episode 1 Begins with controversy in London’s Covent Garden, the Flash’s race against time to the ferry, the first of a BRAND NEW FEATURE and an interesting journey to Berlin. All in all not a great start to the trip for us but an entertaining first Episode for you.

So enjoy Episode I of Series II

If you enjoyed this episode please leave me a comment, we love to hear what you think!

Episode II – Released Next Week (27/11/09)

This boldly titled post, which has proved to be one of my most controversial, takes a slightly satirical poke at the trumpets made by Taylor. This particular post discusses my views, opinions and experiences of this particular make of trumpet and is written in a pretty light hearted manner in order to promote discussion. Which I’m very pleased to say it has and did.

Which left me a little surprised when I received the following email from Mr Andy Taylor himself.

Dear Matt.

Mind telling me where you get off on all this personal slagging off stuff??

I read your rant with interest. Pity you didn’t have the good grace to pick up the phone and address this to me. What is it with some players who think ‘all’ instrument makers are fair game to be insulted at will? We are a small band of guys who pretty much all know each other, so this is not new, or big, or useful. We exchange stories and sometimes have a good laugh about them, and sometimes not. Believe me there are number of players out there who some would like to see put against a wall for far less!

Next time, face your accuser and stop hiding behind the blog veneer. You are obviously still young and relatively inexperienced, so I shall put your rudeness down to that and hope you learn some humility in time.

Kindest regards.

Andy Taylor.

First of all I’d like to say what a shame it is that you have taken this so personally Andy. But I’d like to answer some of the issues you’ve brought up in your email.

I don’t appreciate you’re opening line as that seems to start off your email as a ‘rant’ and as a personal attack on me, however, that aside I’m glad that you read my post and I hope you enjoyed the rest of my site. I’d like to say that I have plenty of good grace thank you but if I picked up the phone and laid into all the manufacturers and service providers that I wasn’t a fan of I think it’d waste a lot of time and come over as quite rude.

However I would like to say that I am sorry if my post insulted you personally. If you carried on to read the many comments you’ll see that I’ve tried to be fair and state over and over again that these are my opinions. You are clearly very proud of your work to be so passionate and respond in the way you have. That’s great! Unfortunately it doesn’t change the way I feel about your trumpets. But then again, what do I know? I can’t make a trumpet! But I can play one. And I know what makes a good trumpet for me. Let me restate that last point; I know what makes a good trumpet FOR ME.

As for your final unfounded statement…

Next time, face your accuser and stop hiding behind the blog veneer

I’m not sure of whom my “accuser” is but I’d like to point out that if you continued to read the post you could have seen the comments of pro-Taylor players. Some were quite forceful with their views but following a post like this one I can understand why. That’s why the least I could do was write back. Please take time to read the comments and see that I am not hiding in any way. If I was I wouldn’t have put up the post in the first place.

I hope that this addresses the issues that you brought up in your email.

I think you might be right in saying that you can forget there are people who create these trumpets who might read a post like this and feel a certain amount of resentment and hurt. I hope you understand a little more now that my post isn’t a personal attack. It was perhaps a little insensitive but by the same token you can see that there are a fair few pro-Taylor comments there too. That should make you feel better about the debate.

I hope that you will leave your own comment on the post (providing that it’s not too rude or confrontational so that you can put your own views across in the right context. All the best Mr Taylor!!

Back to regular blogging; I hope to find the time to write a post on what I’ve been up to over the past few weeks over the weekend although things have been and are very busy with gigs. I’ll try my best to get something online soon!!

Here I go. Off to Abu Dhabi for my New Years Eve gig at The Emirates Palace Hotel.
I’m finally packed, I’ve dug out the hard-case for my Callichio and I’ve removed anything that can be used to make a bomb, such as water bottles and deodorant, from my hand luggage. Yet I’m allowed to take my trumpet onto the plane with me.
You’d have thought that it would be more dangerous to bash someone with a blunt piece of metal than a bottle of water but I’m not complaining as it’s not traveling in the hold!!

I’ve packed my camera to snap lots of photos so that I can bring back some cool stuff to show you.

I’m swinging by Neil’s at 4:30am so I’m turning in nice and early. As always there’s lots to see on my site (documentaries, animations, music samples and podcasts) so I hope it’ll keep you entertained until I get back.

Matt Returns on the 2nd of January… until then, Happy New Years!

Hey Jason,

Thanks for sending me your email Jason. That’s a pretty hard question to answer but I’ll do my best : ).

I guess I can just tell you the things that I find tricky between the 2 genres. I think that you will have to draw your own conclusions based on your own strength as a trumpet player.

Orchestral – The discipline needed to be a good orchestral player is different from the discipline you need on the jazz side. You have to be an incredibly consistent player. Sometimes you can wait for 10 minutes with nothing to do and then out of nowhere you have to hit a phrase, first time, no splits no mistakes, one chance – It can be pretty high pressure. I can get the job done in an orchestra thanks to my training at college but I wouldn’t say that I was the worlds most fantastic orchestral player.

My friend Chris; who was the only other trumpet in my year at college and now working with The Royal Shakespeare Company – I think?, was an ace orchestral player. 100% reliable, had the right feel for the music (which can easily be overlooked) and a great deal of confidence to back it all up. (However he wouldn’t mind me saying that he wouldn’t go near improvising or jazz playing with a barge pole : P) .

Key Skills

Consistency – Getting it right the first time and every time.

Accuracy – Getting every not perfect

Confidence – Knowing that no splits shall leave your bell : )

Discipline – Making every single note as beautiful as possible.
Strong Technique – To support the music that you play.

Big Band – There are two main types of trumpet player in Big Bands and these ARE NOT mutually exclusive.

Lead Players – This takes years of practice and a great deal of understanding on how the body works and how notes are formed. The key factors are research along side trial and error. Playing high needs the knowledge of how to achieve a solid technique whilst still having the drive to pursue it. You’ll find that a lot of the top books (Arban, Dr Collins, Vizzutti) tend to tell you the same things but explain the process in a slightly different way. I find myself drifting away form your question but I think you have to understand that building yourself into a lead player takes a different approach to the sheer grafting that classical and improvisers do. I’ve been on this road for a couple of years and am very envious of those people who fell into this ability by luck or biology (i.e. the way there body is built). Still, they don’t know how they do it so they can’t teach it : ) (or fix it if it goes wrong) .

Improviser – These guys graft harder than any other trumpet player. Often not strong at reading but with an incredible ear and ability to duplicate phrases at first listen. A slightly more mathematical brain is required to be an improviser (in my opinion). Unfortunately you also have to put up with the unfounded reasonings of some who think that improvising is easy because ‘you make it up as go along’. However great trumpeters have an ability to strip the music away to it’s essences and effetely compose live music over the top of it. – Pretty cool.

Simply I think the Key Skills for a well rounded Big Band Player are:

Understanding – Reading into and reasoning why things happen when you play.

Dedication – To build on the knowledge you’ve attained

(Whether it is biological factors for playing high or to listening to new albums, transcribing and applying what you’ve learnt)

Confidence – Togo for the solo’s or the money notes

Discipline – Backing off when you need to (Lead), leaving space when you play (Impro)

Strong Technique – Giving you the abilities you need to us (lead), Enhancing the sound and range of your solos giving you more that you can do.

Summary

Well I hope that wasn’t to confusing for you and that you might find something useful in this post. In my experience no genre is easier or harder, only the approach to mastering them differs. Unfortunately I think that there’s not enough trumpet players who appreciate that both Jazz and Classical training is mutually beneficial. Wouldn’t it be great to have the control, consistency and discipline of a classical player whilst having the knowledge (both musical and physical), range and imagination of a jazz player.

This is what I strive for in my playing. Whether I’ll every achieve it doesn’t really matter. All I can do is try and improve along the way. That’s all you can do to.

All the best Jason.

So in an effort to re-inspire and pick myself back up I will be trying a 30 day run of a new technique inspired by a fantastic trumpet player (to be named in an up and coming post).

It may be great. It may be crap. But in my experience you can always walk away with something valuable by exploring the techniques and mind sets of trumpet players you admire.

The flaw in this plan is that the technique book I need is currently in Liverpool and I am not. So rather than waste time I want to get my chops back on track, hence; The 1 to 7 Arban Challenge.

I have set myself the first of 2 Arban challenges. That means over the next 2 weeks I’ll be hammering out the first 7 Arban studies with a view to record them for the site in the near future. Not the most difficult of studies to play, but I think they’re some of the hardest to play well.

It was there I met serious trumpet players in and out of college. This gave me the chance to try a whole range of mutes and find what suited me with experience rather than luck and the critique of others.

I play on a Jo Ral copper-based straight. As with the harmon that I reviewed previously, the straight mute stays in-tune whilst retaining its strong tone. It blows easily with very little resistance even in the upper register. The tone blends well with other straights, so it isn’t an overspecialized mute.

Mute Base

The difference between the full aluminum mute and the copper-based mute its tone.  The copper base gives the mute a heavier and more penetrating sound. Perhaps this is a little more suited for the harder blowing of big band (yet still isn’t out of place in an orchestra).

I would recommend that if you consider yourself a classical trumpet player you might find yourself more at home with the softer blending and less edgy aluminum straight.

For rounded trumpet player who spans both the Jazz and Classical genres like myself I would recommend the strong copper-base straight mute.

Don’t forget to email me with anything you’d like Dave and I to talk about on our up and coming Podcast.
Send your emails to me: matt@mattrobertsmusic.com

Some do one better than the other but it’s Blue Juice that seems to be get it right

1) It’s slick
(The whole purpose of the oil, making your valves move freely and quickly

2) It stays on the valves
(If it didn’t you would need continuous reapplication

I’ve been using Blue Juice for 8 years now and doubt I’ll every change my valve oil again. It’s reliability is second to none and my valves have never stuck since I started using it

Of course they’ve slowed a little from time to time, but this is a sign that I haven’t oiled my valves in a couple of weeks and I need to reapply

Serious players will know the difference between ‘stuck’ and ‘slow’. It’s the difference between screwing up in front of an audience and thinking “I could do with some oil”

The best valve oils are the ones that you rarely have to think about, that just do their job and can be forgotten about

This is why Blue Juice is the Valve Oil of Kings.

This is why I will dedicate one post a week to writing about my experiences with these different things. Good to Bad, Recommendations to Warnings.

If you have anything to add, whether you agree with what I say or not, please leave your comments.

If you have experience with the subject matter I would like to hear your views!!

(I’m having some trouble with creating new Categories at the moment so until the issues are resolved these posts can be found under : Trumpet) 

In my opinion, the best harmon mute there is.

It keeps its tuning with a fantastic sound whereas other mutes usually compramise in one or both these areas. The copper mute in particular has a darker and rich sound. You’ll also find that most harmon mutes have a quiet tone that restrict your air-flow when playing. This is not the case with the Jo-Ral harmon mute as they are exceptionally free blowing and generate a suprisingly big sound.

These factors make them ideally suited for soling with in a small band or in a recital (especially when used with a mic.).

The draw back to this mute is:

It’s Size

If your trumpet has a larger bell the mute may not fit properly and have to be held in by hand. These larger bell trumpets include Caliccho’s – Ultra Heavy Weight in particular – and Monette’s.

It’s Weight (copper mute)

The copper mute is so heavy there is always the feeling it will fall out whilst playing.

Eddie Severn once told me that he stopped using the copper mutes because he was playing at a wedding for his friend when his mute fell out in the church and bounced down the stone steps he was standing on. It wasn’t a good moment.

I have both these problems but since it fits well enough to get a great sound I hold the harmon mute whilst I play and therefore don’t need to worry bout it falling. So despite these problems I still consider it the best harmon mute around.

If you are not so keen on the idea of holding the mute whilst you play there is an aluminium version. For me the aluminium body is still a great mute but the darker sound is sacrificed for the lighter weight.

For more information go to www.jo-ral.com and have a look around Google for more reviews.