rjzeller

Okay, so last Friday I had a two hour jazz set with a local band playing lead.

Now, normally, I always rely on my trusty Monette B4 for most of my playing -- except for lead playing or pep-band gigs. Then it's a Monette lead model I use to really give me that bright edge and help crank out them upper Es, Fs, and Gs.

So I'm zipping along doing my thing and about 90 minutes into the set I started to feel more tired than normal, but otherwise it's going great. I popped the Gs in a couple songs, and the Ds were no trouble as usual. But I did find a small amount of difficulty on some high Fs and Es from time to time.

I chalked it up as just being mentally unprepared (and the bucket of movie popcorn I had right before -- not a good idea). But otherwise I was pretty happy with it.

Well...one song just demands a more mellow, tamed down sound. No lead player edge allowed. So I decided to grab the B4 to warm the sound a bit.

I opened my case and found not the B4, but my lead piece laying there. I had already been playing the entire evening on my bigger piece. And this was not just getting the high notes, I was getting the same piercing tone I like to have for some charts, the same in-your-face blazing sound. I even managed my usual glass-shattering POP on one particular chart that calls for a high, loud, and accented note in the middle of nowhere. You would have had no clue that I didn't have my normal "lead" piece.

It just goes to show how powerful the mind is and what a great thing you can do if you forego the crutches and trust the brain and body to do what it needs to do to give you that ideal sound you're after. Previously, I would never have thought I could play into that register on that mouthpiece and have that kind of sound!

Now if I could just get myself to do that when I DO know which mouthpiece I'm really using.

Z

__________________
There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who do not.

W Scott

Which once again goes to show that there is no such thing as a 'lead' mouthpiece. There's just a mouthpiece that works for you!

__________________
Gabriel is NOT a woodwind player!

kadleck

Z -

Yes, the mind sure is powerful. I had a similar experience several years ago. Played a whole set of lead parts on a 1 1/2C. Ouch!

Tony

cornetguy

It's as Mr. Jacobs used to say, "we play two trumpets, the one in the head and the one in the hand."

I tell the methods class students that Professor Hill had the right idea with the "Think Method."

__________________
Per aspera ad astra

John P

I met a guy that marched Blue Devils in 2000. He played the whole upper lead book on a Bach 1C!

__________________
JP

trumpetdiva1

I had a similar experience to yours the other day, except not in a rehearsal or performance, but in my practice session. I usually play a Monette B4L because I am basically a lead player. However, I am also interested in working on jazz playing. So, like you I have a Monette B4 that I switch to. The B4L is almost always in the lead pipe ready to play, as I leave my trumpet on a stand. However, I must have forgotten to put the B4 piece back. So, I ended up playing my warm-up on a B4. The last exercise was a chromatic scale from low C to G above high C and back down to low C in one breath. I played through it several times. It was not a problem. Later in my practice, I had thought about switching to the B4 because I wanted to work on an Art Farmer solo. So, I go to pick it up and find out that I was playing on the B4 all this time. I did not know that I could play high G’s on this mouthpiece because it is supposed to be for dark sounding jazz playing. Yes, the mind sure is powerful!

Janell

__________________
Janell Carter

NickD

Now how about trying to learn how to play legit on the smaller mouthpiece?



Should the reverse thinking also work? It might make work a bit easier.

Things to make you go... hmmmmmmm...

Peace.

ND

__________________

NickD
"Free Online Lessons in Extreme Trumpet Playing"
http://www.nickdrozdoff.com
http://www.newyorktrumpetcompany.com/
http://www.myspace.com/nickdrozdoff

trpt2345

Byron Stripling plays lead on a 1C. But then again he has the biggest chops in the observed universe.

Michael McLaughlin

If my films make one more person miserable, I'll feel I have done my job.
Woody Allen

__________________
Chicago MM

Liad Bar-EL

Ouch is right!! I still have mine and that small thin rim and gapping cup brings back a lot of tortuous memories.

You must have had that good Bach cornet sound though.

rowuk

If I am not mistaken, Timofei Dokshizer (as legit a trumpet player as has ever been) played a 7E - it must work.
Here is also a quote from Karl Sievers at the Bach web site: "Herseth played a 7C when he won the Chicago job in the 50's and only went to the 1 rim after a car wreck gave him a scar on his lip!"(http://www.bachbrass.com)

__________________
Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.