pots13

Hey Manny,
In my all-city wind orchestra (run through the university of calgary), we're playing Alfred Reed's Armenian Dances part 1. I have the 1st cornet (I believe) part [it's the part with only the 2 parts per instrument instead of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd trumpets... my music's at school in my gig bag so I can't be sure ]. We managed to bring in Alfred Reed to guest conduct us last night (it was amazing), and I had to play the solo in the first section which is a really rather basic solo. :c6: :d6: :e6: :d6: :e6: :c6: :d6: etc.... all constant eighths. For some reason with the solo (and I don't know why because it's very simple), I am having trouble with the transition from the starting c to the d (it always drops down to the Bb). I've tried going over the interval over and over, using alternate fingerings, and other techniques (listening to the solo over and over, although that's just because I love the song), but I can't seem to fix it for more than a limited period of time. The concert is Saturday, and the transition of notes is really bugging me (I can play it styalistacly, Dr. Reed pretty much spelled it out to me how he wanted it when he was conducting ), and I was wondering what your advice was on how to get the notes right, plus any other styalistic thoughts if you've played this before.
Incidentally... any stories or anything you people have about Alfred Reed or working with him would be great to hear here (he's one of my favourite, if not favourite, composers).
All the best,
Pots

__________________
If you're going to make a mistake, go big.

Manny Laureano

Pots,

This problem is easily solved although I will say that it is a typical one for developing players.

There's a technical reason this happens that I'm not going to bother getting into. It's the same problem that makes the C to D trill challenging when you first learn it.

Here's what you need to do:

Grab just your mouthpiece and play the solo absolutely in pitch on just the mouthpiece. Do that three times without mistakes and perfectly in pitch. Now do it on the trumpet and you'll notice you can play it fine. The reason you can play it now is because your ear is sending the right signals to your lips instead of only your fingers.

As I say, for right now, you don't need any more explanation than that. Let your ear tell your lips what to do and enjoy musical mouthpiece buzzing.

Play well!

ML