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 4.9- Recreation and Playing

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Recreation’s purpose is not to kill time, but to make life,
not to keep a person occupied, but to keep them refreshed,
not to offer an escape from life, but to provide a discovery of life.
—Unknown

I have a hunch about why, at least in English we say that we “play” music.

If you are a musician you may have wondered about the word we use in English to describe what we do when we make music with an instrument. We, of course, “play” the instrument, “play” music. What a wonderful way to describe it. We “play”! We don’t work, or stress, or force music. (Well, we may do that, but that’s what we are doing to ourselves, not the music.)

It got me to thinking about the deeper meaning of this. But first I checked out what some other languages use.

In German, it is the word spielen- to play; in French, it is jouer- to play. Both these are the same meaning for playing a game, etc. as in English.

In Spanish, though, it’s a little different. The word used with music is not the same. It is tocar- to touch, be in contact with, play (as in music.) (The word for playing games, etc. is jugar.)

I love the idea that we play when we make music. It truly is why many of us were hooked by it’s magic, lured into a lifetime of developing playing skills. It is far more than the ability to turn some marks on a page into a sound that can touch souls. (Notice the word “touch”? I’ll come back to that.) To play is to take part in something or to engage in something for enjoyment and relaxation. (Google) Why else would we spend all these hours practicing and learning, running scales and long tones? It must be fun. Since most of us will never earn a living at it, there has to be some deeper and more important thing to making music.

Not that we don’t “work” at it. Of course we do. We run the routine, do our scales, learn (and relearn again and again) the basics of something we may have been doing for decades. That has to be fun, enjoyable, entertaining, purposeful in some way, or we would have quit long ago. But we haven’t quit. We may feel like it some days when we can’t do what we did so easily last week. But we don’t. We know the truth that we haven’t yet reached our best sound, no matter how good it may be today. But it is “play.” Recreation.

But, like “play”, “recreation” is not something purposeless and inane. It is to “create again,” to “renew”. That quote for this week says it so well. Recreation (and the related, relaxation) are paths into life and discovery of wonder and renewal. We are not as good at that as we could be. There is always room for improvement that leads to many positive things. When we take time to re-create, to relax and renew there are many benefits. I went to the Mayo Clinic, Healthy Lifestyles, Stress Management Web page and found a long list of the benefits. I am putting a mark at the end of each one that can be a good example of what playing music can do: (Link)

• Slowing heart rate
• Lowering blood pressure
• Slowing your breathing rate << Playing wind instruments can help us learn how to breathe more efficiently.
• Improving digestion
• Maintaining normal blood sugar levels
• Reducing activity of stress hormones
• Increasing blood flow to major muscles << Increased oxygen from more efficient breathing.
• Reducing muscle tension and chronic pain
• Improving concentration and mood << The mindfulness and focus needed certainly carries into the rest of our lives.
• Improving sleep quality
• Lowering fatigue
• Reducing anger and frustration << Many things about playing music and practicing can help relive these tensions.
• Boosting confidence to handle problems << Being successful can only make us feel better about what we can do.

The Mayo Clinic site then gives some good suggestions about relaxation techniques that I know help improve our music playing- and will then help with stress and recreation- which will then help our music… and it just keeps on going. You will, in fact, find many musicians and books on music (such as Barry Green’s books based on the “inner game”) suggesting many of these.

• Autogenic relaxation. Autogenic means something that comes from within you. In this relaxation technique, you use both visual imagery and body awareness to reduce stress.
You repeat words or suggestions in your mind that may help you relax and reduce muscle tension. For example, you may imagine a peaceful setting and then focus on controlled, relaxing breathing, slowing your heart rate, or feeling different physical sensations, such as relaxing each arm or leg one by one.

• Progressive muscle relaxation. In this relaxation technique, you focus on slowly tensing and then relaxing each muscle group.
This can help you focus on the difference between muscle tension and relaxation. You can become more aware of physical sensations.
In one method of progressive muscle relaxation, you start by tensing and relaxing the muscles in your toes and progressively working your way up to your neck and head. You can also start with your head and neck and work down to your toes. Tense your muscles for about five seconds and then relax for 30 seconds, and repeat.

• Visualization. In this relaxation technique, you may form mental images to take a visual journey to a peaceful, calming place or situation.
To relax using visualization, try to incorporate as many senses as you can, including smell, sight, sound and touch. If you imagine relaxing at the ocean, for instance, think about the smell of salt water, the sound of crashing waves and the warmth of the sun on your body.
You may want to close your eyes, sit in a quiet spot, loosen any tight clothing, and concentrate on your breathing. Aim to focus on the present and think positive thoughts.

Other relaxation techniques may include:
• Deep breathing
• Massage
• Meditation
• Tai chi
• Yoga
• Biofeedback
• Music and art therapy
• Aromatherapy
• Hydrotherapy
(Link)

One last thing, though, which goes back to the Spanish word used for “playing” an instrument. That word, tocar, to touch or be in contact with. It is an apt description of the two-way street of making music. It touches us, moves us, gets us in contact with something greater than ourselves. Music is certainly that! But, if we stop and think about it, that is also what we do with music. We “touch” it, make “contact” with it. I can feel that contact when the music is in the groove, or in harmony, or just plain old centered. That’s what our hours of practice can lead us toward- the contact that makes music such a central part of our lives. And from that, we learn how to do that in the rest of our lives as well.

Here is a podcast about mindfulness and self-talk as relaxation and music-playing, music-touching exercises.