| Starting over
Howdy everybody.
At Christmas last year, my nephew (7th grader) was showin off "how high" he could play on his trumpet. I gently informed him that he should be concentrating on playing the BEST notes he could play, not the HIGHEST notes... Well, one thing led to another and I was suddenly hit with the challenge "OH Yeah - Well, I bet you can't do any better"... Now, I hadn't touched the horn since college (1983), but deep in my heart, I'm a TRUE trumpet player - That means I have the attitude "If you can do it, so can I". It took me several really lousey minutes, but danged if I didn't blast out the crappiest sounding High C (not a dubba C neither, just above the staff C). I sounded about the same as he did - which is really sad (Not that I was every great, but I was first chair all through high-school and had a pretty good group I played jazz with in college). I told him "Give me a year, and I'll show you how it should be played"...
Anyway, I set out to find myself a nice used Martin Comittee or Connstellation (my old "weapons" of choice). A couple really bad eBay purchased later, I settled for an Olds Ambassador, a copy of Arbans and Clarke and started my comeback.
I've reached that point in my comeback where I'm fixin to be ready to play in public again, so I made a bargain with my wife - If she would support me buyin a new horn, I would play at church. Much to my surprise, she bit on it...
I hit the internet to find me a modern day replacement with similarities to my old Martin. After several months of searching, I decided to get a C7 from Roy Lawler. I was going to buy a gold brass version, but I called several of the Dealers and found a yellow brass version in silverplate for less than Roy is asking for them in raw brass - Not one to pass up a deal, I bought it. I can't wait to get it, hopefully by the end of this week. I'll have to let you all know how it goes. This is actually the first new horn I've ever owned - All the others were used when I bought them. |