wiseone2

I have NEVER seen a double C on a gig that I played. There were high Cs on the piccolo trumpet in "Crazy for You," but I have never been asked to play those notes anywhere else.
I have never understood the fixation on high notes that seems to be in vogue today. It has been my privilege to play with some legends, many did NOT play double Cs.
Music is much more complex than just playing high notes.
Each day I work on sound, articulation and musical awareness. I work on playing the horn from bottom to top. The top notes are only part of the whole picture.
Work on the "Top Tones" book to see what I mean
Wilmer

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Bear

Wilmer, such great posts as always. We value your insight, wisdom, and stories of past days. Thank you. Now that I buttered you up... HA. I have seen written DHC's in some of the books I play (especially the CHASE books). However, almost ALWAYS the DHC is in parenthesis and another note is notated to be acceptable. I agree with you that for 99.999% of the work out there, a player will never even see a notated DHC. I also agree with you that the insatisfiable curisosity of young players and high notes are leading us down the wrong road.
I recently ran into a 14 year old who had amazing sound and chops from high C to DHC... but no articulation, no tone below high C, horrible phrasing, and no dynamics. It was like listening to a 40 ton train slamming on it's brakes on your head!!! Horrible.
People please listen to the posts of older sages around here. To be a complete musician (notice I did not say "trumpet player") you have to have it all. In todays world, you must be able to play it all... jazz, classical, chamber groups, orchestral lit, etc. High-low-loud-soft-long-short, etc. Jobs are competitive, so have a backup plan in case your BM in Music performance from no-name school China, doesn't land you the LA studio gig you've always wanted! Lol.
Anyways, I'm rambling. Top Tones is a fun book. Wilmer for Prez!! lol

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The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.
-C. S. Lewis

Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die. -Tom Clancy

And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
-Revelation 8:6

Bear

Double post... please delete

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The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.
-C. S. Lewis

Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die. -Tom Clancy

And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
-Revelation 8:6

Ed Kennedy

What Wilmer said. I studied with a guy who Wilmer probably knew, Leon Merian. Leon could play double c's but almost never did. (the definition of a gentlman?) He stressed the same things that Wilmer talks about (he studied with Walter Smith while Top Tones were being written.) Sound, articulation, initial attack, phrasing, musicality. When he spoke of the great players he admired and had worked with, Bernie Glow was always at the top of the list along with Billy Butterfield and Charlie Shavers.

Solar Bell

Our swing library is over 900 tunes, most from the big band era.

We have no charts with DHC and only two charts with a G above high C.

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The Willard of Oz


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When seconds count....the police are only minutes away.

Darthsunshine

Wise words indeed.

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1977 LA Benge 3C
1976 LA Benge 3X+
1972 LA Benge 5x
1963 Burbank Benge Eb/D
1959 Olds Amb. cornet w/ Getzen shep crook bell

miles71

Between lessons right now and just had a discussion with an 8th grade student about "usable range".

As a music educator and trumpet player I often wonder what happened to all the nice music. Stuff that demands musicality over fashion....................

TD

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www.domenicomusic.com

ChaseFan

I heard an ancient audio recording of Herbert Clark playing a Double High C.

In the early 1900's Louis Armstrong was famous for playing his High F's.

So playing high notes is not something new.

And nobody ever said that playing high notes is the sole ability of a great trumpet player, or that every trumpet player should play high notes.

But what is said is that when a trumpet player develops the ability to play high notes along with all of his other abilities, that additional ability opens up job opportunites that did not exist before.

Johnny Weismuller of "Tarzan" fame won a gold medal for swimming in the Olympic games of the 1920's.
By the end of the century there were teenage girls swimming fater than Weismuller's record.

The same is true of high note playing on trumpet.
50 to 75 years ago there were few trumpet players who could play well above High C, much less play a Double C.
But today there are 1st chair High School students who are being commanded to play High F's, as seen in various threads in Trumpet Herald over the last 2 years, which means that those High School students are being commanded to exceed the range abilities of those professionals you worked with 40 years ago (commanded by the written sheet music and commanded by the High School band directors who give that sheet music to the students).
So the range demanded of trumpet professionals has greatly changed over the last half century.

Nobody said that a trumpet player should focus on high notes while neglecting other aspects of trumpet playing.
But a player who does not work to develop his upper register abilities is just as misguided as a player who focuses too much on developing high notes while neglecting other aspects of trumpet playing.

Developing one's upper register abilites is a legitimate part of trumpet playing.
It should neither be neglected nor become the sole focus of one's trumpet studies.

Dean

TrentAustin

I have to play Michael Haydn next month... that has a double c written on it (okay a double C on "A" piccolo...).

:)

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kingtrumpet

Actually I need the double High C - that is because I want to play it, and I have found that my other playing (tonguing, slurring, dynamics, musicality, and endurance) are greatly improved by doing those things in all ranges -- actually when I think about it I really need the triple C also -- but I suppose that will take another year or so.
so who needs it? only the players who desire it - and want all the notes - - from lowf# to double HC - or maybe up to triple C.
ken