So, You Want To Play A Shofar?

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  Now that question does not come up often but if and when it does, you need to be prepared. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- “A shofar (pron. pronounced (Sho-far)  is an ancient musical horn typically made of a  rams’s horn, used for Jewish religious purposes. Like the modern  bugle, the shofar lacks  pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player’s  embouchure. The shofar is blown in synagogue services on  Rash Hashanah and at the very end of  Yom Kippur, and is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah. Shofars come in a…

Preparing for Chair Placement in Your Band This Fall- Part #4

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By continuing in this series I hope to give you alternate views of how to prepare for an audition, whether for a chair placement or an All State tryout. You will find attached several pages of exercises which will give you alternate ways of practicing from which most players adhere. Each exercise is approached with a more concentrated view to fully understand and perform the audition material. The Allegro exercise is practiced at different tempi, keys as well as alternate articulation which help decrease the monotony usually associated with this type of exercise. The Moderato exercise begins with the last…

Danger ! Danger- Do Not Use………..

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Slide Creams are all alike…..Right? No About a month ago I noticed that my flugle horn’s tuning slide was working a little hard and because I had just lubricated my trombone slide with some Yamaha Slide Cream, I thought it wise to lubricate my flugle horn’s tuning slide before I put my equipment away. Bad decision. When I tuned with our organist for a church service this morning, I found that the tuning slide in my recently lubricated flugle horn could not be budged. No matter what I did, I could not move the slide. When I got home, I…

5 Areas Where Most Trumpet Players Go Wrong- #4 Tone

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Tone is like barbecue sauce in Texas. Everyone has their own opinion. Some listeners prefer the sound coming out of the bell of Miles Davis. Others prefer the trumpet tone of Arturo Sandoval while others prefer the tone produced by Al Hurt. To each his/her own. There is one thing that we all agree upon is that our sound or tone, is all we have to give our listeners. The listener doesn’t care what horn or mouthpiece you are playing on. Their only way to evaluate your tone is what they hear, like it or not. So how can anyone…

Revisiting Room Sound Insulation Ideas

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From time to time we receive material from our readers which needs to be included on our site and this issue includes a fine example of contributing thoughts and helpful information from our good friend Bailey Chauner from Seattle, Washington. In previous posts we have addressed the importance of sound insulating your practice area in order to make life more pleasant for your family and neighbors. I think you will find Bailey’s ideas to be very helpful and for that reason we have included his contribution today. The Science of Soundproofing: Simple Tips for the Trumpeter’s Home Whether you’re a…

Product Report- Wind Wynder

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Our last post introduced many of you to something I ran across on the web a couple weeks ago and wanted more information about. Once mine arrived, I decided to immediately attach it to my music stand and begin using it every day. I will describe the unit itself a little later in this post but testing under fire was my first thought. It went with me to Church that next Sunday and worked as advertised. Each page turn was positive without any hang-ups. Its size makes it very easy to hide from the audience which was important. My accompanist…

So… You Would Like To Double?

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So… You Would Like To Double? When musician speak of doubling, they are not speaking of playing bridge. Doubling, as most of you know is the act of playing more than one instrument. For a woodwind player, this is much easier for the mouthpiece, read and fingering are much the same among the woodwinds. Obviously the flute is one exception. For trumpet players we have a similar situation in that the mouthpiece and fingering among the members of the trumpet/flugel horn/cornet family are again very similar. But what I will be addressing here is the possibility of doubling on trombone;…

The Best $19.97 You Will Ever Spend!

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With all of the advertising on the Internet and television it is hard to believe that such a small amount of money could make such a difference in your trumpet playing. For $19.97 you can send for vacuum cleaners, power drills, combat flash lights and a dozen other miraculous products which will totally change your life. So why is this $19.97 product so different? The answer to that question is defined below. TRUMPET LESSONS ON LINE “Improve Your Trumpet Playing Today” Testimonials “I am an 80 year old come back player after a long layoff. Your videos and information is…

Patriotic Transposition Study

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Transposition sometimes is required for trumpet players. It most often occurs while playing in an orchestral setting but can surface in other venues such as reading out of a Fake Book, transposing from a hymnal or working with bad singers. To a younger player this can be a shock and for that reason I have included this study which uses a melody everyone should be familiar with and in a range most players will feel comfortable. Remember to use your eyes first and if your melody goes astray, your ears will guide you. Eyes first! Ears second! Patriotic Transposition Study

Starting Over…..again. Part 5

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“VB70G. Sound Blankets Producers Choice* did as advertised”. After a simple installation of 5 heavy duty hooks, all I had to do was hang the blanket over the window. After checking the sound level at the curb, in front of our home, we decided that the amount of transferred trumpet sound had been reduced by 90% which I feel is adequate for my taste as well as my neighbors. This sound blanket comes with one side white in color and the other black which worked for me very well. The Texas Summer sun will be warming the front of our…