Tuning Slide #5.26- What You May Not Know

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.

— Miles Davis

What you may never have known about the trumpet.

I needed a break from all that serious, professional stuff I’ve been writing about here. So I went digging for trumpet history and trivia. I found it at a couple different sites including 20 Facts about the Trumpet You Should Know and Top 10 Little Known Facts about the Trumpet. I did some editing and came up with these 12:

◆ The trumpet has been around since 1500 BC
The first metal trumpets were made around 1500 BC. Before that, silver and bronze trumpets (or trumpet-like instruments) existed and have been found all over the world, including places like Asia, Scandinavia, and South America. In fact, archeologists found bronze and silver trumpets in King Tut’s grave.

◆ Trumpets contain more than 6 feet of tubing!
Trombones, by the way, have 9 feet of tubing and tubas have between 12 and 16 feet of tubing. Originally, many primitive trumpets were made of wood or even conch shells.

◆ The longest trumpet fanfare line consisted of 91 trumpeters
Ninety-one trumpeters, all in military uniform, played the Wedding Fanfare in England during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. They could be heard all across the city.

◆ The oldest playable trumpet is over 3,000 years old
In 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter discovered a pair of trumpets from King Tut’s tomb. The trumpets are engraved with depictions of Egyptian gods and were made with silver and copper. In 1939, the trumpets were played live and broadcasted through BBC radio.

◆ There is a trumpet-playing robot!
In 2005, Toyota debuted a trumpet-playing robot – and it sounds better than you’d expect! There is also a robot that can play drums and violin.

◆ Trumpets are part of the aerophone family
Aerophones are a type of instrument that uses airflow to vibrate the instrument in order to make a sound. Aerophones are some of the most complex instruments and include trumpets, french horns, oboes, flutes, and other wind instruments.

◆ The trumpet’s cylindrical bore is what gives it its unique and vibrant sound
Essentially, this means that the diameter of the tubing stays the same width throughout its entirety until you get to the bell flare.

◆ A trumpet can play 45 different notes [or many more]
A trumpet might only have three valves, but it can play an impressive range of notes. A B-flat trumpet can play from F#3 to F#6, not counting pedal tones. Did Maynard go higher than that? Of course. According to Yamaha:

But there are ways to produce even higher notes. It’s actually not a question of the highest note that a trumpet can physically produce, but a matter of the highest note that can be played. In fact, performances by skilled musicians often extend up to two octaves higher than the instrument’s “highest” note.

◆ Trumpets are more than “just” musical instruments.
Trumpets are known for being used in bands and orchestras, but they also have a military component. Armies dating back to medieval times have used the trumpet as a signal device because of its loud, rich tone that can be heard over long distances.

◆ They have not always had valves.
The early precursors to the trumpet, cornetto and natural trumpet, didn’t have valves or keys.

◆ They are not the same as cornets or flugelhorns
Unlike the trumpet, cornets and flugelhorns have conical bores. The tubing diameter of these instruments gradually gets larger towards the end of the instrument.

◆ Famous people who (you might not know) played the trumpet
Richard Gere (Actor)
James Wood (Actor)
Steven Tyler (Aerosmith)
Samuel L Jackson (Actor)
Paul McCartney (The Beatles!)
Jayne Mansfield (Actress)
Clint Eastwood (well Flugelhorn anyway!)

Well, to expand my horizons after that, I looked for trivial facts about music and found some at Best Life online in 40 Facts About Music:

These include:
✓ In 2016, Mozart Sold More CDs than Beyoncé
✓ Finland Has the Most Metal Bands Per Capita
✓ The British Navy Uses Britney Spears Songs to Scare Off Pirates (Culture clash)
✓ Barry Manilow Didn't Write "I Write the Songs"
✓ Loud Music Causes You to Drink More in Less Time
✓ Cows Produce More Milk When Listening to Slow Music
✓ Heavy Metal and Classical Music Fans Have Similar Personality Traits (Creative, at ease with themselves, and introverted)
✓ Monaco's Army is Smaller Than Its Military Orchestra
✓ Prince Played 27 Instruments on His Debut Album

And a few from Music Radar just to round things out:
✓ In 1996, Ringo Starr appeared in a Japanese advertisement for apple sauce, which is what "Ringo" means in Japanese.
✓ Pete Townshend has smashed more than 90 guitars in his Who career, including at least 23 Fender Stratocasters, 12 Gibson Les Pauls, and 21 Gibson SGs.

And in case you think I have abandoned the trumpet altogether, a final trivia:

✓ The oldest artist to top the UK singles chart was Louis Armstrong (aged 66 years and 10 months) in 1968 with What A Wonderful World.

“So what?” you ask.
“Why not? I respond.

Here's why?

Trivia questions are very good for your memory. Trivia keeps us smart and engaged. Just like your body benefits from exercise, so does the brain. ... Trivia is great because you are trying to recall information from inside your brain that you don't use a lot.
— Being Better Humans

See you next week.

Tuning Slide 4.36- Innovation in the Trumpet Field

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

A dream will not become an innovation if there is no realization.
-- Ciputra

I was doing some Internet surfing the other day and came across a journal I had never seen before. The Journal of Brilliant New Inventions from Technological Advances is a little known publication that itself digs into the deep recesses of technological development. They then report on what seems to them to be particularly interesting possibilities. They do give a disclaimer that many of these ideas are many years down the road. Well, I found one that might be of interest to many of us. A small group in California is working on an electric trumpet. Here is part of the introduction to the article that explains its origins and ideas. I have ignored the more highly technical electronics and acoustics to just center on the basics:

The idea of being able to play a trumpet without actually blowing into the mouthpiece seems like a dream filled with nonsense, a fools errand, a desire of only the laziest among musicians. But it has its roots in another instrument from the last century- the electric guitar. As has been explained in a number of histories of the guitar in modern music, the traditional acoustic guitar had a serious flaw- it wasn’t loud enough. However, with the addition of a microphone-type pickup, or a mike set in front of the sound hole, the sound could be amplified.

But only to a point. That point was the feedback point caused by sound waves entering and being recycled due to the hollow body of the acoustic guitar. To make a long story short, the development of a solid body guitar solved the feedback- and volume limits- of guitars. Electric guitars could now be played at a volume unheard of before. They were now able to be utilized in far more types of bands where they could soar above the other instruments.

Mention “volume” to a trumpet player and you will see eyes light up. There will be this dreamy moment when the trumpet musician will think of all the possibilities that even Maynard Ferguson would never have had the imagination to plan for. Yes, a trumpet can be miked, but, like the hollow-body acoustic guitar, there is a limit, that old devil- the feedback loop.

Jeffrey D. One of the inventors, explained the purpose this way.
Just like the electric guitar giving new possibilities to an old instrument, the electric trumpet turns this original and ancient brass instrument into a 21st Century marvel. We have worked to be able to get the electric trumpet into an almost endless set of possibilities.

With the solid-body electric guitar, the guitarist naturally still had to pluck the strings, but it no longer required a great deal of effort to get the volume up. The strings didn’t need to make much sound- the pickups did all that work.

The inventor of the eTrumpet compared that to the way he expects this new trumpet to require similar skills to the acoustic trumpet.

Just because it is electronic and will not require the level of air pressure to produce sounds does not mean it will be easier to play. An eTrumpeter will need to develop the same dexterity of fingering that an acoustic player has to have. There will not, however, be the same development of embouchure and therefore will not take the same level of physical stamina. Things like the “whammy bar” and then the electronic pedals and effects added never before heard sounds to the guitarists repertoire. Some trumpet players, especially in jazz, have been successfully experimenting with similar effects in live performances. It would appear that this new electric trumpet will bring that new sound into the hands of more people.

The inventor did not go into a great deal of detail on the electronics or how different octaves would be produced since most of that does occur with air pressure and embouchure. The prototype he displayed for the journal article seemed to indicate that an octave switch would be on the left side of the horn where the left thumb could be used to move up the scale. He did not plan on the early versions going below the normal lower F# below the staff or the high C above the staff.

He admitted to some criticism already being aimed at him. He refused to get into any arguments about the “honesty” of the sound or the “sense of cheating” that some have said his instrument would engender. “Anyone can get a sound out of an electric guitar more easily than an acoustic, but that does not make them into an Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix overnight,” he added. In saying this he also made clear that this is not going to be just a toy, but rather a sophisticated and whole new musical instrument.

— Link

The original release date of the commercial version of the eTrumpet was to be this week, but some obstacles needed to be cleared. It is now projected that the release date will be one year from today. And if you did not follow the above link, well, one year from today will also be an April 1.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
— Alexander Pope

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

4.26- Tuning Slide- Halfway in a Tuning Slide Year

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Believe you can and you're halfway there.
— Theodore Roosevelt

Well, we’ve made it to post #26 in this year’s Tuning Slide. That means we’re halfway there. Which says a great deal about music. Believe it and you are on the right road. I have spent the last several years believing that

1. An old dog can learn new tricks
2. Making music is fun, and
3. They both go together to make life even more joyous than it otherwise would be.

I got my first trumpet when I was in 8th grade in 1961. I was thirteen-years old. There have been very few years in the past 57 when I haven’t played trumpet for something. I went through all kinds of times of not practicing much (if at all) for months and months. I may even have gone a year or or so when I didn’t touch the trumpet. It was always there calling me, reminding me of its joy and wonder. I never stopped being a trumpet player- and for that I am extremely grateful. It is how I live my life.

When I started on this part of my trumpet/musical journey in the last ten years and then connected with the amazing musicians at the Shell Lake Arts Center/UW-Eau Claire, new doors opened that enhanced, then multiplied the wonder of making music and how it relates to my life.

I am the kind of person who likes to share what I learn. As I have been learning I have been writing; as I have been doing research I have been telling you about it; as I have been playing more music more often I can’t help but share it. That is what the Tuning Slide has been all about. Nothing is changing about that.

This post is at mid-point of year four. Lots of things have been covered, some more than once. The whole idea of the “inner game” has been at the heart of what I talk about. Mindfulness and deepening awareness are an essential of that. Trusting Self Two and quieting Self One build into that. The joy of playing is one of the results.

As I look at the next six months of this year’s Tuning Slide here is what I plan to work on. I confess it here, by the way, to keep myself accountable. Even though it will change, at least I am setting it down for me- and all- to see.

First, I am currently working on “precision.” I am not a precise trumpet player. I tend to have that “jazz” sound that never quite lands the note the same way every time. (I don’t think that is an excuse, by the way, but more on that in February, I think.) What this boils down to is awareness of sound. It is always sound, so I am back at that level, playing the single-tongue Arban’s and Getchell exercises in slower, more precise ways. (When in doubt, always go back to Arban and Getchell.)

Second, I am working on being more relaxed in my improvisation. I will be doing more with iReal Pro and Aebersold in the next couple months. (I also hope to do some more composing. That should go together with the improvisation as well.)

Third, as always I will be expanding what I know about the Inner Game. Always being a student, working on improving whatever it takes to be better, continuing to take the time to keep moving and not get stuck in any one spot.

So to get started, here is something I found posted on Facebook. It will be a good thing to think about in the next week as I settle in to the second half of this Tuning Slide year. It is a reminder of the Inner Game:

And, so as to not take ourselves too seriously, here is a list from The Trumpet Blog. Here are a few of them.

1. Trumpets most often play the melody so everyone knows if we play the wrong notes. Unlike the Bassoon, which plays notes that only Canada geese can hear, the trumpet is expected to play every note the way it was intended.

4. Trumpet players rely on their air to sustain a long slow, painful phrase, while an organist could place a book on the keys and go out for lunch and no one would know the difference.

6. The fingering of a trumpet is very complex. For a clarinet player to play a corresponding scale, the clarinet fingerings are simplified because of their use of nine fingers. The trumpet play is limited to only three and is expected to be able to play the same notes.

And then the best reason I can think of (with tongue in cheek, of course, which makes it even harder to play the trumpet:)

10. Trumpets have a much more difficult time working within their section. Nowhere in music is this more challenging for every trumpet player has to put up with other trumpet players and we all know what that requires.

Take a moment and go see the whole list and the truth about why the trumpet is the most difficult instrument to play. Then pat yourself on the back for being so great! (Link)

Have a great week and we’ll kick off the second half of the year next week!

Halfway means there's no sense turning back. It is just as far back as it is to the goal.
— Unknown (Well, actually, I said it.)

Doing Nothing Rots the Brain (Not)

Just thought I would check in here with something different- a post. yes, I know that I have been less than regular this winter. This snowbird time has been one of the most easy-going, even lazy times I have spent other than when recuperating from surgery. I have been doing next to nothing. That includes writing.

I promised a few weeks ago that I would post what I disagree with over Trump's actions and policies. No, I haven't done  it yet. No energy to write about that, though I have been thinking about it.

I have been reading a lot, but that's normal. No, I haven't written about any of them.

I have been practicing my trumpet, a daily routine and playing with the local community band. That is nothing but normal daily life for me now.

I have been taking pictures and wasting time working on them and posting them on a couple websites and Facebook. It doesn't take much energy to do that. It just happens.

We've seen a number of movies and one of these days I'll get around to writing about them.

I'm thinking about doing more research on my Dad's 80th Armored Medical Battalion with the 10th Armored Division in World War II. Notice I said I'm thinking.

I guess that's all good. It has been cooler than normal here, but not as bad as in the Bold North. The Eagles won the Super Bowl. That, too, is good. I spend too many hours surfing Facebook. I don't think that is good.

So, I am hoping that this post can be a kick in the ass to get me off square zero. My brain hasn't rotted yet- it's still working and connecting with fingers writing this. So  be warned. I'm still around.

Getting a Little Less Serious

Sometimes this blog is too serious too often. Let's remedy that with some music videos.

First, from this professional 4th trumpet to all of you, this is what it sounds like at that end of the section.

Second, we trumpet players are not known for our subtlety. Which explains why there is no Trumpet Christmas like the Tuba Christmas. Yes, even a 4th trumpet wants to scream up there with Maynard et. al. Split personality? Not me. (Or me.)

Third, ever wonder what these joyous Christmas melodies would sound like in a minor key? (No, me neither.) But here's the US Army Band playing "Minor Variations." Have fun! It's the season!

On 8-4-2017

Wasn’t it just yesterday when
it was a palindromic date
8448

Now it’s pivoted on its head
and it doesn’t change.
69
Rotate it 180 upside down
69
Capsized

After all these years
Head up-
or rotate toes to the top
180 degrees- Bottoms up or down
It’s still 69.

My First Ever St. Patrick's Day

Well, sort of, kinda, maybe.




It is my first St. Patrick's Day knowing that my heritage is 6% Irish according to Ancestry.com. The majority of my ancestry is exactly what I knew it was- East European Jewish and Western European. But after that 81% comes Ireland.

• Is that why I liked the Boston Celtics when I was a kid?
• Does that explain why I felt at home in an Irish pub across the street from the Notre Dame campus?
• Does it give any insight as to why Celtic spirituality has always resonated?

No, I don't think so either, but it had to be said.

I don't know how all this stuff works, but I did find it interesting that my Great Britain level was less than 1%. Just proves what the Irish have often told us- they are not really part of Great Britain.

Since I don't drink alcoholic beverages, I will have to find a different way to celebrate my first St. Patrick's Day as part of the Irish crowd. Corned beef and cabbage? Sounds good to me. Maybe I'll get some green food coloring and put it in my water. Does McDonald's still have those green shakes?

A whole new world has opened up to me.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Oh, just for fun, here again is my short video I did for the camera club on the color green.

Just Asking...

I simply typed into Google:

• Weird Thought for the Day.

I got several web sites and a few statements that tickled my fancy. So as not to be selfish and unsharing, here are some of them:

• If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked and dry cleaners depressed?

• Why is it that if someone tells you that there are 1 billion stars in the universe you will believe them, but if they tell you a wall has wet paint you will have to touch it to be sure?

• Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

• If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

And one more that is old, but always topical:

• If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

Less Serious Stuff

This blog has been wandering around the "Serious" stuff too long without any real break for fun. I order to get back to some semblance of normal while I continue my attempts at figuring out the new world, here are two videos I put together in the last two weeks.

First was an assignment for the local snowbird camera club on color. I chose green. Since I am not usually one to stick with just the facts, I put it into a 90 second video. Enjoy.





For the second one, I had been walking on the beach and noticed one of the feathered fisherfolk watching the one fisherwoman. The feathered fisher knew when she caught one and paid close attention as it was the habit of the fisherwoman to throw them back. I didn't have time to get the iPhone set for a video so I just shot a bunch of stills and put them together.

Is it Possible?

Tonight.

Game 7.

Can the Cubs really do it?

Will the Indians bring it all together?

Or will what I posted on September 18 come true?

Long time friends of these wanderings will recognize ... my scenario for the hapless, World Series Championship-less Chicago Cubs.

• It's the bottom of the ninth in game 7 of the World Series.
• The Cubs are leading and on the verge of their first championship in over a century.
• It's two outs, no one on base for the American League opponent.
• Then, as the Cubs pitcher winds up for the final strike-

• Jesus returns.

You heard it here.

All Hallow's Eve

It was a mere 499 years ago today that 

Martin Luther kicked up quite a stir in Wittenberg.
Simply 95 theses to change  the world.

Happy Reformation Day

Go post some theses- but not on a church door.
You might get arrested for that.

To satisfy your need for theses, here are 9 minus 5 "dumbed down" theses from Ph.D. dissertations. (Link)

• Does music express emotions or just elicit them? Read the next 200 pages to not find out.
• When I get rid of this gene, it messes the brain up. A lot.
• My experimental drug does NOT cure addiction.
• Sand washes away, don't build important stuff on it

Is It Possible?

Two posts on Facebook earlier in the week caught my attention.

First was a church sign that said something like:

Jesus is coming again...
Hopefully before the election.

Then the big baseball news:

The Cubs clinched the Division championship and could be on their way to the World Series.

Long time friends of these wanderings will recognize the connection that might indicate the church sign's wish will come true. My scenario for the hapless, World Series Championship-less Chicago Cubs.

It's the bottom of the ninth in game 7 of the World Series.
The Cubs are leading and on the verge of their first championship in over a century.
It's two outs, no one on base for the American League opponent.
Then, as the Cubs pitcher winds up for the final strike-

Jesus returns.

The fact that the World Series ends before election day only adds to the possibilities.

Just saying- you heard it here first.

Only in WIsconsin?

Cheese and Fireworks.

Makes sense to me.

Monday Musical Memes

Spent the weekend at a music camp.

So, here are some memes I found to go along with it.

About Swearing

Imagine my surprise while reading a book on the life of a New Yorker Magazine proofreader to come across a chapter titled:

"Chapter 9. F*ck This Sh*t” (Actual title, not censored)
(From: Mary Norris. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen.)

It was a whole chapter on profanity. Here's the opening paragraph (warning: not censored)

HAS THE CASUAL USE OF profanity in English reached a high tide? That’s a rhetorical question, but I’m going to answer it anyway: Fuck yeah.
(From: Mary Norris. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen.)

One of the great difficulties of

a) growing up in a fundamentalist Baptist Church;
b) working in radio and
c) having a 30-year career as a preacher

is that the ability to swear in many places is frowned upon. I remember a book that I got at a Baptist Revival in the early-60s that frowned (understatement) on swearing. They went so far as to say that even use of the soft words (darn, heck, and shoot, for example) was forbidden because everyone knew that they really meant something else. To use even these was part of the highway to Hell. (Capitalized, therefore indicating a place and not a swear word.)

This resulted in the fear of swearing- and when hearing a swear word- feeling ashamed for having heard it. I would take a certain guilty pleasure in church when a hymn used the word Hell. Saying a forbidden word, in church, was perhaps my entry into the life of degradation Harold Hill warned of in River City's pool hall.

I managed to stay mostly pure during my first year at college. I probably picked up an occasional damn or hell, but that was about it. Then came my real slide into damnation. During the summer between my freshman and sophomore years I worked in a local factory. The high school locker rooms were mild in comparison. I heard words in combinations I had never thought would make any sense. Like they say, when in Rome...

It was actually liberating! I discovered the joy of letting words fly. I didn't get to the level of sophistication of a couple of my co-workers who would pepper every sentence with one of the bigger words, like the two Mary Norris censored in her chapter title. I was downhill slip-sliding away!

It was no time at all until my favorite word was "Shit." (Sidenote: I still have problems writing that as my own word, not that of author Norris! Some shame dies hard.) This was, of course, the late 60s when we had that wonderful, gross as hell phrase to imagine:

Get your shit together!
(Hey, this is kind of fun.)

I know what Mary Norris means when she talks about going with friends

to see the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid over and over, and never failed to laugh at the scene when Robert Redford admits to Paul Newman that he can’t swim, but, to escape their trackers, he jumps off the cliff into the river anyway, bellowing “SHHHHHIIIIIIIIITTTT” on the way down.”
(From: Mary Norris. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen.)

I could ramble on about this, of course. I don't have any embarrassing stories that I remember. Perhaps the most difficult time was right after I was discharged from my alcohol treatment program. As one might expect in that environment the language is not what I normally heard on Sunday morning at church. Sometime in the first few months sober my wife and I were relaxing with our best friends (who were church members) and some topic or another came up. Without a moment's hesitation Mary Norris's chapter title came out.

Okay. Maybe I was a little embarrassed at that moment. But, as I quickly added,

Now you see why I don't ad lib anything in worship.

So, what's the purpose of this essay? Well, I'm not sure. Maybe the young fundamentalist ghost is getting some prurient interest in doing something "obscene" in public? Maybe the retired pastor is saying that he knows these words? Maybe I just wanted to say that these words, used in the right place and time have an important place in our language. I remember reading a few years ago that letting go with a good string of profanities when you hit your thumb with a hammer actually reduces the amount and length of the pain.

I didn't want to ask how they ethically studied that.

And of course, it's what came to mind and felt like fun to share.

In Case You Were Wondering

We have all become familiar I am sure with the fact that a lot of things need our awareness. One of the ways a lot of these come into our field-of-view is through "awareness months." You know- making a month the awareness for something in particular. So I Googled the topic and, as you might guess, Wikipedia has a page listing the commemoratives for each month. (Link)

It is interesting to note that some months are almost bereft of commemoratives. July and August each have only two. (But it is noteworthy that July is Ice Cream Awareness Month, and, well, my birthday is in August.) March has only 3 listed. Sadly, at least on the Wikipedia page, December has only one.

June is not a particularly busy month for commemorations. But at least it has some. So, in case you were wondering, my public service for today is to give you the list for June. Do your part. Go become aware.

• National Dysphagia Awareness Month
• Caribbean American Heritage Month
• LGBT Pride Month
• National Safety Month
• PTSD Awareness Month
• Hemiplegic Migraine Awareness Month
• National Migraine and Headache Awareness Month

Endnote: After I wrote and scheduled this post President Obama issued a declaration about LGBT Pride Month. Needless to say the right-wing-nuts jumped on it as another example of how bad and depraved and awful he is as a president. I feel that if Obama came out in favor of National Safety Month or PTSD Awareness they would have argued that the world is too dangerous for safety and there is one psychiatrist in the outer boondocks who says PTSD doesn't exist.

Just for Fun

Buck Owens made it a country hit.
The Beatles put it on the "B" side of Yesterday and made it big for Ringo.

Twenty-some years later Buck and Ringo did it together.

Just for some Tuesday fun!

Inspiration For Friday the 13th

It's all superstition, not reality.....

Even bad luck may simply be showing up at the wrong time...

Success- or luck- good or bad- is made not given....

But just in case.....

Mardi Gras II

Mardi Gras I