| After some technical difficulties in figuring out how to record on Benny’s MD player, we were just about ready to start. I spent some time to give Benny an overview of the idea of my “sound experiment”. I showed him my picture and told him my premise about what the microphone would be “hearing” at our ears versus the microphone at the other end of the room.
Then I gave him an overview of what we were going to be playing. I’ve been thinking about this for the past week, and I decided that the best way to be consistent would be to play some standard exercises from the James Thompson Buzzing Basics (BB) book (#5, #11, and #12) while listening to the recorded tracks on my iPod and earphones. I also had scheduled a standard orchestral excerpt (opening to Pictures at an Exhibition).
The one last detail before we started was to write down some details about the project:
Horns and Mouthpieces used for Buzzing Basics exercises:
Benny:
Mount Vernon Model 37 Bb Stradivarius (S/N 26,XXX)
Park-Hagstrom 24 Throat, Schmidt Backbore
Derek:
Elkart Model 37 Bb Stradivarius (S/N 154,XXX)
Monette B1-1 (I think with an 18 throat)
For the excerpt (since my Monette is in the shop for the next 6 weeks), we used his new Yamaha Chicago Model C trumpet. What a great instrument!
Last details: It was 64F for the high temperature, it was cloudy all day, we started recording about 5:10 PM, and the lesson was in Tempe, Arizona.
I played first. The close microphone was just to my right side (a little more than an arms length away) and the microphone across the room was exactly 26 feet from my bell. I played very well and feel that this is a very representative snapshot of my playing. Benny sounded great as usual, but this is the first time that he had read through the Thompson exercises while hooked up to an iPod. He was a VERY good sport!
A brief description of the exercises is probably worthwhile for those of you that aren’t familiar with the book. BB#5 begins on a low C half note, slurs up to a second line G half note, and then up to a whole note 3rd space C, and then 4 beats of rest. This pattern continues down chromatically to Low F. The dynamic begins at p on the low C and crescendo to a mf on the 3rd space C.
BB#11 is in eighth notes with the last note being 3 and a half counts long. I’ll try to include a sound clip here if I can figure out how the putfile.com site works. The pattern is all open harmonics, starts on 2nd line G, goes up to 4th space E, down to low C, and then up to the top of the staff G. It continues down chromatically to a starting note on low C.
BB#12 is in eighth notes as well, with the last note being a half note. All open, low C, 2nd line G, C-G up an octave 3 times, and then down slurring down to a low G and ending on a low C. Then continues up by half steps to a starting note on a 3rd space Bb.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona |