Trumpet

When I was shopping around for trumpets a few years ago I had the unfortunate experience’s of trying a Taylor.

It was like playing a Picasso, NOT like a work of art, rather like playing a piece of cubism.

It looked like at had been cannibalized out of 5 different trumpets. Rose tinted bell, brass valve block and silver lead pipe. It literally looked like it had been taken straight out of the world of Picasso’s "Three Musicians" and blew like a stone.

If you’re a trumpet player and you’ve never come across a these terrible Taylor Trumpets before please check out their website. And then look at the Monnette site.

It’s like comparing an Aston Martin to a Boot*

*I’d like to make it clear that this isn’t just any boot. It’s a boot whose wife has left him and run off with a stiletto, subsequently leaving him with a kid that hates him and has since been taken away by shoe services. Since then the boot has hit the bottle, lost his job, his home and is currently being sewed for a failed suicide attempt where he jumped from a building and landed on a high court judge.

To further back up this comparison look for yourself:

I’m sure you can see that the trumpet on the left is hand made by skilled

and master instrument manufactures.

The one on the right looks like a badly designed novelty

piece of rubbish that’s been run over by a car.

The trumpet on the left is played by the worlds best trumpet players.

(Vizzutti, Marsalis, Maynard and many more.)

I wouldn’t like to speculate on those who play Taylor Trumpets.

I think you’ll find this review is fair and impartial if you’ve ever seen or tried the above trumpets.

Tomorrow I start my first Big Band with pupils from the school I work at. Of course the trumpet section is made up of my pupils but it’s the first time that I’ve had a complete horn and rhythm section at my disposal!!

…I like to think of them as a small army…

Anyway, I spent most of the weekend arranging a Big Band piece, simplifying it for them and mixing some play along CD’s for them on my Macbook. So I’ll get to see how that goes down tomorrow.

It’s quite challenging stuff bearing in mind that they are between the age of 8 and 11 but have a look at the marks my last 10 year old got on his grade 4 and the age of my grade 8 student on my Tuition Page and you’ll see I like to challenge my pupils.

Of course there’s Plan B in the form of All Blues. Good Old Miles Davis!!

Now I am aware that in using the phrase “Money Muscle” that I might have inadvertently attracted a few new people looking at my blog for all the wrong reasons. Sorry, but you might want to look somewhere else.

I know for a fact that my friends Paul and Ash who run a professional horn section called The Enormous Horns have had similar issues with people who look at their website.

However if you are a brass player READ ON.

At college I over played to an extreme and payed the price for it. By overplaying it left my muscles weak and damaged. Thankfully I realized what I was doing before I was left with any permanent damage.

So here are a few pointers for those who want to be able to play in 5 years time and advance as a brass player:

1) If it hurts to play STOP, you’ve already gone way past the point that you should have called it a day.

2) If it’s a rehearsal, that’s exactly what it is. Give them the best that you can but don’t give it more than you have. Stopping BEFORE the point of damage and exhaustion will build up your stamina.

You won’t see sportsman run themselves into the ground in training!! So why should you?!

3) If you are rehearsing before a gig, leave more than enough in the tank. Better chill in the rehearsal and be killer on the gig than the other way around.

Playing High

1) If someone’s screaming at you “loader, higher, louder, higher!”- Don’t rise to it if you don’t feel you can. It’s easy for them to do that but you only have one set of chops. It takes more courage to put your instrument down and not play than to attempt to carry on and wish you hadn’t.

2) There are no short cuts. We all know that playing high is the action the tires you out the fastest. Pressure (or “screwing on”) is not the solution when you’re feeling tired!! Simply take a break or take it down until you recover or even until the end of the rehearsal/ gig. There are times when it just doesn’t matter about putting a few phrases up, it’s just decoration.

3) If you are in a situation where you CANNOT stop or take it down then you are not ready to be in that position. If you look at Allen Vizzuti, Derick Watkins, Wynton and any other top player, do they look phased or that they’re piling on pressure and stress to reach notes? Does it sound like it?

Don’t be disheartened! If you’re serious about what you do you’ll get the guidance you need, do the research and the practice to strengthen your technique so you can play the way you want. But pressure and non stop playing with poor technique will destroy your chops forever. I’ve seen it happen.

It’s important that you respect your body enough to know it’s limits. If you’re not happy about those limits then do as I’ve suggested and increase them through guidance, knowledge and practicing the right things.

It appears as though I’m advocating musicians to randomly stop playing in gigs and rehearsals. This is not the case. Fatigue will set in towards the end of a session (this is where my advice should be used) and if it sets in earlier then you need to look at yourself and find out why this is.

My advice is to be selfish. A band can live without a top F at the end of Foggy Day or double G’s in last bars of Feeling Good. The big picture is that it doesn’t matter. What does is you and your chops!!

The reason I’ve written this is because I’ve made a lot of these mistakes. So that you don’t have to!!!

I hope you find it useful.

Before Christmas I dug out my Monette mouthpiece I used to play on before the conversion the Conservatoire forced on me.

The difference is massive and I’m finding it so much easier to play on.

It’s a B4S that monette made especially for me. This was because when I moved from my Callet to Calicchio the shank on the mouth piece meant it wouldn’t fit in the lead pipe properly. Monette made me the same mouthpiece without the shank.

Top Guys!!!!

Easier to slot, playing long, higher, stronger. Why did I ever leave it !!!

Long Live Monette!!!!

(Most likely todays Blog will only be of interest to Brass and Trumpet players)

I have a lot to say about this topic. However this is just a mention of the stuff I’m currently using in my everyday practice. Here’s a breakdown of my routine at the moment:

Technique Building (lip slurs, tonguing an finger exercises)
Studies (Looking over The Arban, Bitsch etc - practical outlet of My Tech. Build)
Jazz Theory - I now have time to work on patterns and their application. (Scales, modes and Patterns)
Upper Register - This needs to be done everyday but NOT OVER DONE!! Damaging your Lip will mess up your practice routine!

I’m currently playing Arp’s and a few exercises from Jerome Callet Super Chops. (Again, more scales). I’ve found improvement comes after controlling every note in these exercises, remaining completely relaxed (with no though of screwing on) and holding the upper notes before coming back down.

I’ll keep an update of how this is going for any trumpet/brass players who might be interested.

I’m currently in Liverpool and attemptin to restart an old project with a few musicians here.

It’s refrehing to get some time to play and more importantyly not to play. Since I left college Im on the up. I think this is due to the fact that I’m well rested and not destroying my chops on a weekly basis. For example; in my second year I had a day where I would play for the Jazz course Big Band in the Morning (2hrs), Wind Band in the afternoon (2:00 hrs) and then play lead in the BMus Big Band (2hrs. After which I would jump on a train to a Big Band outside of college (2hrs).

I would be destroyed at the end of it. And because I was an idiot I’d be in the practice room at the next day at 8 o’clock getting frustrated about bad chops!

Being able to rest is helping a massive amount. I was quite happily popping out F’s and F sharps at a big band rehearsal the other night and I had a nice string of well controlled double G’s. So I’m well on track to get my double A’s back.

Good Times.

This is a group a play with run by Chris Lydon. The line up varies from a small band  to the a doubled up horn section for bigger works.

The gig is sold out tonight and accompanied by a meal but it’s a hell of a blow. We rehearse for 2 hours before and then play a 3-4 hour gig finishing in the early hours of the morning. So it’s a bit like running a marathon. Great fun all the same!!

I will make sure that I post up the next public gig we do so if you’re around you can have a look.

I love my Jerome Callet Soloist and it’s still one of the best trumpets I’ve ever played. And although I’ve been playing my Callichio more and more I can’t bare to part with my Callet.

I bought it with my old trumpet teacher and good friend Ashley Morgan, many years ago from Myatts.

It was basically brand new at a fraction of the price. For some reason the person who had owned it needed a fast sale and when I looked at it in Myatts it still had its plastic wrapping around the trumpet itself.

Worth £1400 I got it in the region of £700!! Bargain of the Millennium!!!!

It’s free blowing, has a nice tone and definitely has something great about it that it’s difficult to express unless you have played one.

The Jerome Callet Trumpets are getting more and more difficult to get hold of due to Callet’s business situation but I have heard that there are only 3 Jerome Callet Soloists in the UK in working and playing condition. I know that I have one and so does Neil Yates.

If you have one or know of someone who has one please let me know.

(I’ll post a less Trumpet and Rant Based Post for tomorrow)

I’m sure there are certain hot buttons for everyone.

Not holding the trumpet properly and needless accessories are a couple of mine.

Accessories such as the leather strap that some players have around their value casing. When I asked my mate why he uses it he said it was to protect his valve block from the acid in his hands. - I asked him if that’s was what the bloke that sold it him said? He laughed and said; actually it was.

In fact the strap actually traps corrosive materials against the lacquer/ plating and does more damage than just cleaning it when it’s dirty.

Please feel free to add any comments with accessories that you have had a positive or negative experience with, or things that agitate you when you look at other trumpet players.