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If you could play like Rafael Mendez, Harry James, Al Hirt, Doc Severinsen, Bud Herseth, Manny Laureano, Allen Vizzutti, Jon Faddis, Dizzy Gillespie, Jerry Hey, Darren Barret, Joe Shepley, Clark Terry, Phil Driscoll, W.C. Handy, Maurice André, Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis, Maynard, the arc-angel Gabriel, Herb Albert, Arturo Sandoval, Luis "Perico" Ortiz, (and anyone else you can think of), all rolled into one player, you!, and all you had to do was take steroids (anabolic steroids); would you?


For the record, my answer is not only NO, but HAIL NO!

bigaggietrumpet

What're you talking about...I already DO play like those guys!




















Like...maybe when they first picked up the horn...maybe....

JackD

If only it was that easy

Manny Laureano

Okay, so now you got me thinking...

Have you ever seen those body builders that are able to blow apart a hot water bottle?

What if you could teach one of those guys to get a decent sound out of a trumpet and then said "Go ahead and play the loudest sound you can".

I wonder what that would be like? Would they be so muscle-bound that they wouldn't get any bigger sound than someone else with tight abs? Or would that ability to blow up a freaking thick rubber hot water bottle come into play and allow them to produce some super-human sound?

You see, this is what comes from having Chuck Lazarus in the section. Whenever he plays second to me, he breaks up any tedium with a bizarre scenario usually starting with "Okay, so what about this...?"

ML

Skip

Manny,

I'd just be happy, make that ecstatic, if I could play like you (but no steroids thanks).

But being famous, and connected, I'm sure that you can find one of these H2O bottle maniacs (ask Arnold next time you're in CA), teach him some basics, and please report back your findings. Extra points for sound clips too! Thanks.

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Manny Laureano

Here is a clip of the next winner of a major trumpet chair position:



http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/hodge.htm#videos

go to the first choice labeled blowing up hot water bottles...

Boy, you really can find anything on the net, can't you?

ML

Pedal C

Um...jeez. You gotta wonder about the first guy to think of doing that. It must make one hell of a bang!

Mikey

Manny, don't let our wives see those pics!

I have mine convinced that soft and pudgy is sexier than steroid-pumped muscles.........

Didn't Jake say that "Strength is your enemy; weakness is your friend?"

I'm weak..........

Skip

Gee,

Ya think there may be just a little stanazolol in that body?

Those are the guys that the military needs to send to Iraq.

dizforprez

so what you are asking is; would you take a short cut to be a world class trumpet player if you knew that the short cut would possible affect your health?

to be honest. I have been practicing my tail off for 4-6 hours a day for almost a decade of my life with some of the best teachers in the area and i am no where near being able to play the trumpet well.

So if there was a magic wand that could give it all to me now, I would say yes...everything else be damned.