Category: Music in general
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Keyed Trumpet Lecture Recital at 2024 ITG Conference
This Thursday (May 30, 2024), I will get to present a lecture recital program at the 2024 International Trumpet Guild Conference. Robert Apple, an American music historian specializing in the keyed trumpet repertoire and history, will give lecture notes throughout the recital. Tim Burns, a piano colleague of mine at Colorado State University, will collaborate…
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New, authentic horizons
I recently rolled off being president of the Historic Brass Society. This was a wonderful, demanding position that I essentially did for three years. Two years officially as president and one year before that as vice president. This was also a time when I was finalizing my portfolio for promotion and tenure as an applied…
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Make a trifold mirror for your studio!
Most teachers have a mirror on their wall, so that their students can look at themselves when playing. But would you like to offer up a side view to your students? If so, you would need a trifold mirror. If you shop for one on the Internet, already made, you are looking at about $800-900.…
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The trumpet of the Greek games
It’s important to remember during the Tokyo Olympic games this summer, that in ancient games, starting in the 96th Olympiad (396 BC), the trumpet was introduced as a competitive discipline. The trumpet, called the salpinx in Greek, had already been used to announce the winners of the various athletic categories in prior games, but starting…
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Ain’t no mountain high enough…
Last week, I did a small vacation with my 17-year-old son in Summit County, Colorado. We decided at the last minute to try hiking to the top of Gray’s Peak, a “14-er” (a mountain that is more than 14,000 feet high). There was one major problem with our plans: the three-mile road leading up to…
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Let’s talk tone: the mouthpiece according to Bach
In the last two blog posts, I talked about the trumpet itself as a factor in tone production. Today, I want to address the equipment that probably has the most effect on tone. The mouthpiece. It doesn’t seem right, does it? If you sink $4,000 into a trumpet and only $100 in a mouthpiece, the…