To my readers, this might come as a surprise for I have played this humbling instrument from my fourth grade days till now. You may ask why I have decided to forgo the trumpet and this is the purpose of this Blog.
My decision to change comes from several different reasons and I will share with you those reasons.
1.Due to my heart attack several years ago, I was not able to get back my full vital capacity of air which, as we all know is important to a wind player. The large and even the Medium large horns which I have collected through the years began to wear me down and technical issues began to surface.
2.Without my normal air behind each note. I needed to keep my chops up every day with regular practice. This is not practical with all the arranging I am doing now. Practice takes time and as requests for more ensemble arrangements continue to increase, I do not have the time for regular practice sessions.
3.Due to the fact that all of my recordings on line for listening examples need to be offered, I was faced with a big decision and the only solution was to downsize my bore size and changed to a Cornet for all my playing.
I have a beautiful Bach cornet with a M bore which has become my favorite instrument of attack these days. The lack of air as I was used to has been helped with the smaller bore and the back pressure has lessened my struggle with air running out before the ends of phrases. My range has also increased because of the added resistance.
4.I have always loved the tone quality of my cornets and playing the old, and still important cornet literature has brought back many fond memories of playing solos when I was a member of the Moline Boys Choir.
5.So, I have traded in my Trumpet for a Cornet and love it. For the older set of trumpet players, if you are suffering from similar physical limitation, you might consider trying the old standard, the Cornet.
Hello Bruce, what a fascinating passion. I have always loved the majestic sound of the trumpet (can’t help thinking of Purcell’s “Sound the trumpet“), but unfortunately never been able to play one. But u found your blog while googling for a schoolfriend of mine from over half a century ago, whose name I found on your blog and who I believe to be the very person I was searching from the picture on your website. I hope you can help me with his email address. Kind regards,
P
Sorry, I forgot to mention: his name is Felice Sobrero