What he said.
S.
Search
- Wed Jun 14, 2017 8:36 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
Is it better to go slightly smaller or slightly bigger? - Replies: 12
- Views: 5259
Is it better to go slightly smaller or slightly bigger?
What he said.
S.
- Wed Jun 14, 2017 8:34 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
Does a 1.01 rim take away from a good .500 to .508 horn - Replies: 11
- Views: 4707
Does a 1.01 rim take away from a good .500 to .508 horn
What he said. Try some of his different cups and shanks, too.
S.
P.S. That said...I personally have not yet found any smallbore m'pce that sounds characteristically "right" as a lead m'pce in jazz, latin and most "commercial" large ensembles with a rim larger than a 7C. I have had m'pces that should work in those areas...11C-ish ones particularly...altered so that they use 6-ish rims. No good. Not for me, anyway. I have nothing but years of extended attempts at finding m'pces for all sizes of horn to back up what I am about to say here, but...I think rim diameter and cup depth/shape have a balance point kind of relationship. Too large a rim on a smallish m'pce or too small a rim on a larger one...things get unbalanced. Soundwise, above all. I know that Doug espouses a "one rim" approach, and he gets great results with it. I find it easier to find my own balance point on mainstream rim sizes for a given cup size area and then learn how to maintain that balance, myself.
Whatever works?
- Wed Jun 21, 2017 9:24 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Instruments
- Topic:
Shires Gold Brass Hand Slides - Replies: 13
- Views: 5439
Shires Gold Brass Hand Slides
You cannot get better info.
Bet on it.
Later...
S.
- Sat Jun 17, 2017 4:03 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Instruments
- Topic:
Shires Gold Brass Hand Slides - Replies: 13
- Views: 5439
Shires Gold Brass Hand Slides
Compared to the other slides I tried (Nickel, Brass, Red) I think I picked it out because of the others it responded quickest with what matches my personal sound concept. I adjust to horns relatively quickly and make them sound like me... it felt like this one already played that way so I didn't have to try so hard.
Sound wise, it's a little darker, had a bit more "near" feel. When I play on the "high end of the spectrum" it tends to keep the dark mid range better.
Harder to get "blatty" on - I've held onto it because it's my favorite horn to record on. Takes the rough edges off.
In sections, this horn was awesome.
Some of my peers who play more on the classical side of things than I do have remarked that this setup fits me really well, but they wouldn't personally do it. It is easier for me to get what I call the "clone tone" on a Bach 42 or a Shires with a regular weight brass slide.
I…
- Wed Jun 28, 2017 4:52 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
Their vocalizations seem like about 4 hz and it sounds like about a C or D to me. Some of them are lower and I might identifying the "pitch" as a G below. I never really thought about low pitches like that before.
There is a line between frequencies that we identify as pitches and those that we identify as tempos. I haven't done or seen any hard scientific research on this, but my guess is that it is an individual thing exactly where that line may be. If you're interested in the ramifications of this as far as musicians are concerned, go read
S.
- Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:16 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
How could a player like Lindberg become the best solo trombone player in the world without doing any buzzing? Since he have done nearly everything that is possible and not possible on a trombone, could he been doing more if he had been buzzing the mouthpiece? Seems to me he got max out of the trombone?
Leif
He could have been even better. With or without m'pce buzzing.
None of us ever even approach "perfection."
Bet on it.
Carmine Caruso...over and over again:
Quote We're only human!!!
- Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:08 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
I believe William Shakespeare commented on this topic some years ago.
"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 1928
Cosmic!!!
The human condition in a nutshell!!!
Except for say artists on the level of Bach and Mozart and Beethoven and...you know...down the line to people like Jascha Heifetz, Charlie Parker and other musical masters of performance.
But it does not pertain here.
"...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Perhaps we…
- Tue Jun 20, 2017 7:55 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
In January, I had a lesson, via skype, with Doug Elliott.
It occurs to me that I haven't buzzed a mouthpiece since that lesson. Not even once.
Doug gave me some exercises to focus on, including freebuzzing, and pointed out some other physical movements that were specific to me. For now, if something goes awry in my playing, my focus goes straight to Doug's suggestions.
Perhaps I will start to add some mouthpiece buzzing back into my process, to see if it can still be of some use to me. But for the now, I'm not missing it.
Andrew
i believe that Doug's approach...the whole Reinhardt concept, done right...brings one to pretty much the same place as does mine.
All roads lead to Rome.
Except of course the ones that don't.
- Tue Jun 20, 2017 7:49 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
Why do I tell this? Well just for fun I guess. It is true though!
Precisely.
Thank you, Svenne.
When you get down to it, every frequency...every measurement of repeated vibration in time...is a "note." Some entities...depending on their…
- Tue Jun 20, 2017 7:42 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
---snip---
The fact is, on most mouthpiece the pitch you get on most mp is not the same get by playing the same mp and same embouchure setup/tension on your instrument.
---snip---
No, Nick. The real "fact" is that which mouthpiece you are using has little or nothing to do with the commonly experienced pitch change when a m'pce buzz is transferred into the horn. Most of us have to learn how to m'pce buzz in a manner that is similar to the way we play on the horn. That single learning experience made such a difference in my playing that I cannot begin to tell you about it. Everything got better. Quickly. And...I have seen it work for many students as well.
On all brass instruments.
It's a sort of epiphany experience. Like "OH!!! That's what you've been talking about!!!"
I repeat...it is not necessary to learn this technique to become a fine player, and if one is satisfied with how things are going on the horn it is just presents more unnecessary work to learn how to play...slightly differently. But satisfaction is a…
- Mon Jun 19, 2017 2:36 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
-Yoda
I know who your teacher is!
Nope.
You don't.
Not even close.
Sorry...
S.
- Mon Jun 19, 2017 1:30 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
I own your book, have checked out both of your videos, and read a lot of what you have offered online through your website, and various forums. Fascinating stuff. Some of your ideas are certainly not for me, (as I imagine mine wouldn't be for you), but, I can respect, acknowledge and appreciate that what you do works for you personally, and at a very high level, as per your impressive resume, etc. At the very least, you've opened my mind up to new perspectives and possibilities.
As for trying to "prove" what you can do, I totally get where you are coming from. Time & money....and the effort vs reward ratio...but, you are claiming something here that I've not heard anyone else even suggest, let alone heard anyone actually attempt it. Free-buzzing several octaves below the piano? It's well beyond my imagination, hence, I'd be curious to hear it.
As for a visit? If I ever find myself in your neck of the woods, first beer is on me...bet on it
- Sun Jun 18, 2017 7:31 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
Have you ever ever made a recording of yourself completing this (or similar) exercise? I'd be curious to hear it.
No. Not successfully. I tried on my iPhone but the sound quality was unacceptable. I don't spend much time (or money) trying to "prove" what I am doing to others...I'm really way too busy simply doing it on any number of levels...and on the evidence of the general lack of wide acceptance of my really quite thorough, 245 page book on what I am doing and the several YouTube videos (also fairly low quality) that I put up a number of years ago, the doubters would continue to doubt no matter what I did.
I present my results on a few websites. A few people pick up on them; a few more come to see me to hear exactly what I am doing live and in the flesh, and the rest?
Best of luck to them.
As a teacher who really influenced me more that any other used to say...he didn't much like having his named bandied about so I do not identify him publicly, but he was not known as a "music" teacher..."You…
- Sun Jun 18, 2017 10:27 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
220 bps =
110 bps =
55 bps = pedal A
27.5 bps = double pedal A
13.75 bps = triple pedal A
6.87 bps = quadruple pedal A
3.435 bps = quintuple pedal A = bpm 206.1 = All The Things You Are?
Svenne-Thanks for he math.
I just freebuzzed an A major scale starting at A=220 bps…
- Sun Jun 18, 2017 10:03 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
It is hard to imagine "buzzing" that low. If I take it to THE most ridiculous extreme and manually cause the lips to go out and back in at a rate of about once a second (or even slower!) simply by expelling a small puff of air, is that even a note? I'm wondering at what point the movement of the lips no longer produces a wave.
I'm also wondering if you have recorded yourself "buzzing" at the very lowest frequencies and then speeding it up via a wave editor to determine if you can make the pitches go up in tune by intervals?
Conversely, it might be fun and maybe even enlightening to record yourself fine-buzzing (or mosquito-buzzing, as I like to call it) in the altissimo range and then slow it down by octaves to see if the pitches hold true.
In both cases above, the slowed-down or sped-up pitches will not have the same timbre as other true pitches due to lack of overtones.
...Geezer
I hear the pitches quite clearly, right on up and right on down. Do they sound "like" the…
- Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:12 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
Freebuzzing 5 octaves below 'the pedals'?
Yes. I didn't believe it myself, at first. I had to write down the ranges where my freebuzz stopped and started again a number of times before I began to be able to keep track of the octaves and trust what I was doing. It's a very...involving...pursuit. The mind tends to give up at a little below the double pedals. But freebuzzed triple pedals are normal now, and sometimes...when the stars are right...I just keep on going down using Caruso interval exercises into the Never-Never Lands of controlled horse lip flapping...but quite identifiable...pitches.
I know...it sounds like wasted effort at best.
But it's not.
Bet on it.
At the very least it is a great lip massage.
Bet on that as well.
S.
- Sat Jun 17, 2017 2:36 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
It's been said that free-buzzing is weight-lifting for the chops. Well, if we are working our you-know-whats off on our horns, how much more weight-lifting do we need? What I need most after a hard play session is REST, people! lol
So if we temporarily drop the "free-buzzing is weight-lifting for the chops" meme, then why do it at all? The only answer I can come up with is that it could help us focus the tiny muscles of our embouchure and therefor air stream for high-range building. Looking at it from that angle, a very little bit would go a very long way; as in maybe 10-20 SECONDS of it, twice a day or so - not for building strength so much as for building control.
Otherwise, if we are on vacation or unable to play our horns, then I see free-buzzing - and for that matter, mpc-buzzing - as a dual purpose endeavor; an exercise…
- Sat Jun 17, 2017 3:41 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
On Mouthpiece Buzzing - Replies: 69
- Views: 26466
On Mouthpiece Buzzing
---snip---
I buzz the m'pce exactly like I play the horn through almost all of my ranges. Same angle, same setting on the chops, same air. In and out. No change.
And...I freebuzz into the m'pce (or horn and m'pce) throughout the ranges and volumes with as little change as it is possible for me to manage. I have been doing so in daily practice for over 30 years, so I've gotten pretty good as it. It is indeed "possible to do so." Is it necessary to do so? No. Will it help one become a better player? If done right, yes. But it's not a necessity by any means.
S.
- Wed Jun 21, 2017 9:27 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
Slide technique practice out of facetime? - Replies: 26
- Views: 14856
Slide technique practice out of facetime?
Sam: able to leap tall intervals in a single jump, can multiple-tongue faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, can bend notes with his bare chops. And who, disguised as a mild-manner NYC freelancer, fights a never-ending battle on The Trombone Forum for truth, justice and the Do Whatever Works way!
P.S. I think Sam actually IS a super man on the trombone. Anyone living in the NYC area who doesn't seek him out for private instruction is missing a golden opportunity!
...Geezer
Hardly a Superman, Geezer.
Tall buildings?
Tall intervals?
Hell, I still have trouble jumping some fifths!!!
But...
I do…
- Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:30 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
Slide technique practice out of facetime? - Replies: 26
- Views: 14856
Slide technique practice out of facetime?
---snip---
No.
Not really.
Is it possible to practice running or shooting a basketball without running or shooting a basketball?
No.
Playing a musical instrument is a physical act. It is what the Germans call a gestalt
Of course, one can visualize the act of playing a given set of phrases without holding or playing the horn. I do that all the time when learning tunes...especially in different keys that require extended positions, for instance. I often move my right arm in a semblance of the slide movements as well while doing this.
But where the rubber actually meets the road? No. Gotta do it, not think about doing it.
Later...
S.
- Tue Jul 04, 2017 8:58 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
Started on Conn 12C small shank, need advice for choosing new moutpiece - Replies: 14
- Views: 6202
Started on Conn 12C small shank, need advice for choosing new moutpiece
I am generally in agreement here, except for one aspect. Young players usually have only one horn...and would likely be confused by learning how to play two horns initially...yet they are asked to play parts that would be better on smaller equipment and other parts that would be better on larger equipment. The 6.5 AL and 6.5A m'pces are great compromises on a .500 or .508 bore instrument. There's plenty of time later on to get more focused, but...except for really high level undergraduate work in fine conservatories...a 6-ish m'pce can pretty much cover all of the bases required of most high school and even college-level players.
12C? Nasty down low when played by all but the real pros. 11C? 7C? Better, but no…
- Mon Jul 03, 2017 10:25 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
Started on Conn 12C small shank, need advice for choosing new moutpiece - Replies: 14
- Views: 6202
Started on Conn 12C small shank, need advice for choosing new moutpiece
Me too.
S.
- Wed Jul 19, 2017 6:07 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
How do you get more core in the sound? - Replies: 42
- Views: 18110
How do you get more core in the sound?
A #1: Long tones
A #2: Relatively slow melodic playing
A #3: A well-balanced embouchure/air/support mechanism, including an open throat and not too much back of the tongue action
A #4: Well chosen, well balanced equipment. The right equipment and size(s) for your own particular tonal preferences
A #5: Not neglecting the middle and lower ranges
A #6: More long tones
S.
- Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:22 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
My mouthpiece travels - Replies: 31
- Views: 9873
My mouthpiece travels
Hats off, Sam. I'd be interested to see what you have to say about switching from your .547 setup straight into your smallest tenor setup. If there is any difference or if you just practiced switching. Your approach and perspective is so unique.
I play my .547 least often of all of my horns, and almost never in combination with any others. I am least comfortable on it as well. I feel as if my chop falls into the m'pce no matter how well balanced I start out. On the rare occasion when I play it several days in a row, that feeling goes away. But...I cannot remember the last time I used it more than one day at a time. Pretty much ditto my .485/12C combo in terms of frequency of use. But this several days I am practicing on 5 different tenors for upcoming gigs over the next couple of weeks (starting tomorrow) where I will have to use each one. The horns + m'pces are:
1-A '30s Conn 24H (485) w/a NY 11C. (I spent a couple of hours yesterday trying m'pces on it...I must have 20 historic era m'pces…
- Sat Jul 08, 2017 7:04 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
My mouthpiece travels - Replies: 31
- Views: 9873
My mouthpiece travels
Indeed, Nick. But...some players need a shift to get those notes on a small rim. Britt Woodman certainly did. Take a look at the YouTube vid of Britt playing "Hank Cinq" w/Ellington on his 11C/2B equipment. Plain as day.
A short story:
When I first started doing jingles in NYC I was playing 6-ish rims on .508 bore equipment. One day I was called to play a jingle along with two other trombonists...truly world-class players. Hall of Famers. I was playing third. At the end of the jingle we had a unison 2nd partial F whole note marked FF. We played it, and the producer asked for more. We did it again and he still wanted more. So we played a real FF...maybe even FFF. I had noticed that the other two players were not sounding…
- Fri Jul 07, 2017 8:21 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
My mouthpiece travels - Replies: 31
- Views: 9873
My mouthpiece travels
---snip---
But if this thread is all about Sam's and no one but Sam's personal mpc travels, then I guess it will be a short thread and we do digress.
...Geezer
That was not necessarily my intent. Discuss on. Please.
S.
- Thu Jul 06, 2017 3:40 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
My mouthpiece travels - Replies: 31
- Views: 9873
My mouthpiece travels
QuoteI know you play exclusively on Shires, but after lots of search I don't find what mouthpieces you use.
What have you tried that you like?
I answered, and then thought that pethaps it might be useful to post that answer on the site.
So...here it is:
=====================================================================================
Currently:
A very small 12C Mt. Vernon on my .485 bore. For swing band styles, mostly. Especially melodic lead.
A Minick that is sort of like an 11C/7C on steroids on my .500 bore. No model name. Very deep cup for its size, fairly normal rim size, very tight backbore. It works...for me... as a good, aggressive, acoustic jazz/latin lead and solo horn. Locks great w/trumpets.
A Mt. Vernon Bach 6.5A on my .508 bore.The closest thing to an "all around" tenor I own.
A Doug Elliott D4 shank/LT D cup/LT 101 rim on my .525. Great for inner parts and solos in large and small jazz groups, also orchestral-style chamber music.
A Benge Marcellus on my .547. Standard orchestral size. If I need more volume, a Parke Jay Friedman. There are a number of them...this one has…
- Wed Jul 12, 2017 5:31 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
Is there anyone out there who tongues with the syllable "thu"? - Replies: 31
- Views: 11957
Is there anyone out there who tongues with the syllable "thu"?
Q: Is there anyone out there who tongues with the syllable "thu"?
A: Yeth.
There are loths and loths of them.
S.
P.S. Thorry...I couldn't rethisth.
P.P.S. Serious answer?
Maybe.
I don't know of any, mythelf.
- Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:20 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
Andrew
Yes. It was. First of all, there is a different rim feel. I've always played on Bach-ish rims, and although this rim is around 6.5 size, it feels less...rounded...to me. Not harshly so, but definitely different. Maybe more radically rounded, maybe a littler flatter. Whatever...it feels like there is less rim actually touching my face. Plus, the initial sounds and connections through the registers were radically different from any m'pce that I have ever played. But...when and where it was good, it was so good that I decided to try to learn how to play it. Luckily, I have had a fairly slow month in which to do so. If during the first two weeks or so of playing this m'pce I were to have had to play a strenuous and exposed lead gig? I dunno if I could have made it w/out switching to back to my Minick. Now? I think I'll be ok on a gig like that. I'll find out for sure later in…
- Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:35 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
I await the challenge. If it's as good in ensembles playing lead parts and solos as it is in my practice room, it's a keeper!!!
Thanks, Luke and Tony....for your patience as well as for the m'pce design. As I have found with other modular equipment systems, I might make some more experiments after a couple of months of use, but unless I simply can't handle it on stressful multi-set gigs...it's the endurance thing that can make a difference...I've found what I've been looking for during the past several years.
Thanks again...
S.
- Sat Jan 13, 2018 1:17 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
It's always a question for me: comfort vs sound and response. They aren't mutually exclusive; sometimes the more comfortable you are, the easier you can control and adapt. But sometimes what's comfortable doesn't give you the best sound/response. It's such a balancing act! I played an 11C for over a year, because I found a piece that worked so well with my horn. Ultimately, I've moved on to a Mt Vernon 6.5A - it's very similar to the 11C I was playing, but just a tad more comfortable.
Anyway, that AR felt good, and sounded good too!
Not so much "kind" as truthful, Nick. And I sound quite different...at least to my ears...on those three m'pces you mention with my .500 Shires. Different shifts and different timbres through the ranges.
About the 11C/6.5-ish thing. I have always felt that 11Cs and 6.5s...especially 6.5As and even more especially with…
- Wed Jan 10, 2018 9:11 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
25.40 60 V+ cup, 60 43 10 5 shank.
QuoteIve tried a V+ cup with the 25.4mm rim and it wasnt quite right on my .525 Edwards, and didnt really feel like a lead piece on my .508 either. Ive got the standard cup 24.8mm rim too which I like but it lacks a bit of fullness to the sound compared to my Reeves 11c. But perhaps I just need to spend some more time on it.
I tried that above V+ combo on my .525 and .508 for short time also. Initial results? It felt good on the .525, not so good on he .508. Go figure.
It's all a mystery as far as I am concerned. I just keep trying stuff and keep what works.
Later...
S.
- Tue Jan 09, 2018 9:39 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
Anyway, yesterday I was sitting next to a colleague during a rehearsal, and he had an AR similar to the one I had tried from Luke (except with a V+ cup and different backbore). I put it in my horn for a few tunes and WOW! All of the positives I remembered about the piece were there, but everything felt loose - the slots were looser, and I was able to more or less make the sound I wanted without being as locked in.
I still have a few variables I'd like to change, but I was really impressed!
I was "the colleague." And I have been…
- Fri Dec 29, 2017 4:59 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
I've messed with it, Ben. The whole m'pce is a little longer than the ones I am used to laying, so backing the m'pce out a little is pretty much not an option...too flat for my extended 1st position preferernces. And...since I am not going to take down the shanks on m'pces I have on spec or mess with my leadpipes, putting it in further won't work either.
The dues of equipment search...
- Thu Dec 21, 2017 3:43 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
I found the C+ to not work for me. I've tried a bunch and it just is a little too dull. I'm using a 43 shank on the V+ and now a 46 on the C. The slightly bigger opens it up for me. I'm curious if there's a V of similar depth/style to the standard C...
Hmmmm...I'm using a 46 11 shank on the C and it's still not as good below middle Bb as I need. Even my NY 11C is better down there, as are of course the NY Clarke S and Mt. Vernon 6.5A too.
S.
- Thu Dec 21, 2017 9:48 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
WOW.
Totally blows my best Mt. Vernon 6 1/2AL out of the water. I've gravitated more toward the V+; it's a little easier to blow through the harmonic series of the horn. A little more slippery, which I like. The C+ has more bounce but grips more. I'm waiting to try some of the other backbores before making a final determination, i think the right backbore could make the C+ a good "lead" piece for me. I'm hooked.
Everything is so stable, extremely easy to play in all ranges of the horn. It doesn't have the same 'pop' up top as the standard C cup up high, but it's thicker and richer below middle Bb.
Ben
Hello Ben. I am finding the same thing w/the standard C cup...great above middle Bb, progressively less good...for me...on the way down from there. What shanks are you using on the C+ and V+?
- Sat Nov 04, 2017 9:43 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
Playing characteristics of the V+ is as different as a 12C to a 6 1/2AL. The 25.1 C cup I have feels punchy and supportive, and a crushing upper register. The V+ and C+ definitely have more room and feel larger. More air is needed to support. I keep coming back to a 6 1/2AL comparison and I feel it's apt. But it feels rounder and more supported than any 6 1/2 I've played. The sound doesn't get away from you. Does that make sense?
The C+ is a different animal that I haven't completely figured out. It has some of the punch of the normal "C" cup, but it doesn't move as easily…
- Wed Oct 18, 2017 9:17 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
I gravitated toward the 25.1 and 24.8 tops. My lips touch the sides/bottom of the 25.4 and 25.7, which didn't work too well for me. I have a Bach Corp. 11C with a 6 1/2 rim threaded on and I don't bottom out on that one. Your mileage may vary (They're making me up a 25.4 with a C+ cup now). My lips tend to protrude a bit farther into the cup on larger rim sizes.
Overall impression: this is a very stable mouthpiece with punch and power. Bright, crisp sound. In recordings I'm surprised at how much cleaner this mouthpiece sounds than most others I'm using. I'm using it as a lead/commercial and Dixieland piece. It feels a lot like a Greg Black 11C that I…
- Sat Sep 16, 2017 1:24 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
AR Resonance Mouthpieces - Replies: 122
- Views: 326373
AR Resonance Mouthpieces
S.
- Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:43 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
Double buzz - please help - Replies: 42
- Views: 24641
Double buzz - please help
Comments?
...Geezer
To simplify:
Double buzz is like a singer having trouble transitioning from an upper register setting to a lower register one. Bel Canto-style vocal teaching speaks of three voices...head voice, mixed voice and chest voice. A high register setting, a low register setting and an area in between those two where one can sing in either voice...a transitional register, perhaps over time becoming even becoming another register of its own. Every brass player that I have ever seen and had them do a diagnostic crossover-the-registers type of test...beginners right through masters... has had not one but multiple sets of easily discerned head-mixed-chest/higher-mixed-lower settings. Not necessarily problematic, but there for the seeing if you know how to look.
The most common areas on trombone are:
1-Around 12th partial F
2-Around 10th partial D
3-Around 7th (or 8th) partial G/Ab
4-Somewhere in the lower part of the 4th partial
5-Somewhere in the lower part…
- Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:20 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Instruments
- Topic:
Horn weight preference - Replies: 13
- Views: 5082
Horn weight preference
What Gary said.
Maybe modified a little...heavy slide, not too light a bell.
That goes only for primarily acoustic playing. Projection, ability to hold together a good, core sound at volume, pronounced attacks...they are all better (for me) with that formula. And...at lesser volumes, I find very little difference in weights.
Recording?
Recordings lie.
That's a good thing, sometimes. Just sayin'...
But seriously...if…
- Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:16 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
High range switching between instruments - Replies: 10
- Views: 4238
High range switching between instruments
When you go back to the modern horn/m'pce, you start playing it with the embouchure setting/air support/whole tongue positioning approach that you use on the older horn/m'pce. But the timbral/stylistic aims that you have for the modern equipment are different, and you quickly revert to that set of physical approaches.
I really have no quick fixes to offer except perhaps for this one...you say both m'pces are 4-ish. How different are they in terms of both rim size and general resistance, especially in the backbore and throat? Does the Schmidt Bambula 4 1/2 fit into the modern horn and vice versa? Do the range charactertistics remain the same if they do? It could be as simple as the difference in the rim sizes and shapes...but I doubt that's all of it.
I have had limited experience with German-style horns and m'pces, but what experience I have had suggests to me that they require much less air than do most modern horns. In fact, they not only require less air, they reject too much air. I know for a fact that many great high range players who play small bore horns in jazz idioms use very little air in any ranges...witness Bill Watrous for more on that account. Their whole basic setup is much…
- Sat Oct 14, 2017 1:36 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
How do you spend your practice breaks? - Replies: 20
- Views: 6316
How do you spend your practice breaks?
My mindless breaks are this Forum and FB. Lol Break over!
...Geezer
I don't practice like that when i am working hard gigs. I always say that if it hadn't been for the relatively slow times after the winter holidays and the dog days of summer I would have never learned how to play the trombone. On a gig day I usually just warm up at home enough to feel like I have a good balance.
Like any good athlete.
…
- Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:05 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Practice Room
- Topic:
How do you spend your practice breaks? - Replies: 20
- Views: 6316
How do you spend your practice breaks?
Works for me...average practice day, 4 or more hours.
S.
- Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:18 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Instruments
- Topic:
Want to buy new jazz horn but want to demo horns for a time, I need help! - Replies: 20
- Views: 7088
Want to buy new jazz horn but want to demo horns for a time, I need help!
A NY-centric look, I suppose.
Let me put it another way.
In all the time that I have been playing in NYC large ensembles, the only people who have sounded good to me playing lead or in a section on a 2B have been Urbie Green...and he stopped playing it to go to a bigger, less "centered" sound on his Martin Urbie Green model as things changed here...Britt Woodman, possibly Benny Powell (I'm not sure.) and Gary Valente. Britt played a certain way...it was wonderful in the idioms he played, but it was certainly not "modern." Timeless, yes. "Modern?" No. Neither was Bennie's approach, and Gary is a force unto himself. (On a '30s sterling silver 2B with a 6.5AL m'pce...a very uncommon set of equipment to say the least.) I'm sure I'm overlooking a couple of people, but the Conn 6H-ish horns, the King 3Bs and the Bach smallbores pretty…
- Fri Aug 04, 2017 4:10 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Instruments
- Topic:
Want to buy new jazz horn but want to demo horns for a time, I need help! - Replies: 20
- Views: 7088
Want to buy new jazz horn but want to demo horns for a time, I need help!
- Tue Aug 08, 2017 6:20 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Horns, Gear, and Equipment / Mouthpieces
- Topic:
best mouthpiece for jazz? - Replies: 24
- Views: 15364
best mouthpiece for jazz?
yes!!!
A solution taken by many fine NYC non-orchestral freelance players in the late '60s/early '70s. They...we, actually...came up using 6.5ALs and smallbore/medium bore horns, and when we got to NYC we found that they were just too...effortful...and not focused enough above about 9th partial C fr what were being asked to play. The next step for most of us was a 6.5A.
A good step...in the right direction,at least.
Later...
S.
- Sat Aug 19, 2017 6:47 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Beginners and Returning Trombonists
- Topic:
High note articulation - Replies: 66
- Views: 21780
High note articulation
Precisely.
Thank you.
S.
- Fri Aug 18, 2017 10:53 am
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Beginners and Returning Trombonists
- Topic:
High note articulation - Replies: 66
- Views: 21780
High note articulation
Slotting? Oh well....
Somtimes in modern nomeclature the 3 1/3 is written 3+ sometimes 3- That is funny, the + means that you add to the slide lenght, the - means to
lower the pitch, sometimes the same position is written #4 or b3.
Paul Weschke just thought the slide positions where closer the the upper positionss.
I case a G4 to D5 would be like #2 to b2.
Slotting the G5 is hard, but for me the pos 3 is the best. Higher that is just like wisthling for me, any slidepositions will do alike.
I am not suggesting that any of the above, or Sams nomeclarure is wrong or right, there are different ways to say the same thing.
My self I prefewr to say 3.5, (that is…
- Thu Aug 17, 2017 1:51 pm
- Forum: TTF Archives / TTF Archives / Teaching & Learning / Beginners and Returning Trombonists
- Topic:
High note articulation - Replies: 66
- Views: 21780
High note articulation
Is there not an F of some sort and an F# above that Eb before you get to the G? S
I didn't look for it because I already have a good one using a b2nd above the D. There's a short run of minor third intervals in this Partial, and using flat positions I've got.. !st Eb-Gb, 2nd D-F, 3rd C sharp-E. That's the E that I've mentioned.
I'm glad that in theory the these notes are where they "should" be, but I don't know how much value that they have, though apart from offering some note options for people who's horns have suspect or missing notes, like my Bach 12 with its dodgy Bb in 3rd.
First comes theory when you are not sure of things.
Then comes practice, followed by knowledge.
Sometimes "theory" is wrong. That's where practice comes in. And if in that practice you find that "theory" proves out, then you have knowledge that can be used when…