Upcoming Clifford Brown Symposium and Concert Series

Clifford Brown passed over the rainbow at an early age in a year before I was born. His life was cut very short but his music remains and thankfully lives on. If you have not had the privilege to hear the magic he created with his horn, please give a listen to the MP3 I’ve inserted here. Of course, if you can attend the Symposium entitled, ‘Brownie Speaks’ which is being held in the Philadelphia area October 30th through November 1st, by all means please do!
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Ear Training

One aspect of being a musician that is extremely important, but too often overlooked by teachers and students, is learning and practicing to hear music in your head. This aural skill can be acquired through practice and is referred to as ear training. Ear training is where musicians learn to identify all the basic elements of music, such as intervals, chords, and rhythms intuitively without reading it from the sheet music. This is a good skill to begin developing as soon as possible. Ludwig van Beethoven began to lose his hearing in his twenties and ultimately became completely deaf, but he had developed the ability to hear the music he created in his head to a great extent. This skill will not only help with your sight reading abilities, but also your improvisational creativity and of course, any composing work you ultimately pursue. While the use of a keyboard will aid in this endeavor, practicing this with your voice is very helpful too. Singing out what it is you’d like to play on your horns first is something I always recommend anyway. To begin this process there are several good resources you can purchase and I recommend you do so. I have added many of these to my superstore and have placed a good one for you to start with here. Start practicing!

Conn Vintage One

Since the Conn Vintage One (aka Wicked Connie) is the trumpet I have chosen to play, I figured it would be a good place to start my equipment writings. This horn is sweet, combining the best of classic CG Conn trumpets with a modern design. It has a 459” bore size (11.66mm), hand lapped monel pistons, a patented Modular Valve Weight (MVW) system kit, a 1-1/2 CKB mouthpiece, a deluxe double case and carries a Five year warranty.

The Vintage Ones all come with an annealed one-piece hand hammered bell and can be purchased with a variety of bell materials and horn finishes. The bells come in yellow brass, rose brass bell or sterling silver.

Vintage One Brochure (requires Adobe Reader for viewing)

A purchaser had this to say about the Vintage One, “I own several trumpets as do most pro players and I found myself gravitating to the Vintage One over all the others (which include a vintage Benge, Martin, Yamaha, and Schilke). These are all great horns but the Conn Vintage One combines the intonation and slotting of a Schilke with the rich warm sound of a Martin. It plays clear and colorful in all registers and really sings. I love the fast short throw valves.”

The Vintage One is available to you through my online Trumpet Superstore. Buy one today, you’ll be glad you did!

New Trumpet Store & More, Here For You Now!

Trumpet Dude is pleased to announce the grand opening of its Trumpet Superstore. You may enter this store at anytime of the day or night, seven days a week. How cool is that? This store carries all the top brands of the highest quality and the best deals anywhere. [Read more]

2,3, Bopdoodle-ooo

In the last doodle, I began talking about jazz improvisation as its own language and conversation. It is just that, but of course there has to be more than questions and answers. As ‘jazzheads’ we need to be able to make statements, sentences and paragraphs. A statement can be thought of as any ‘phrase’ that is longer than two bars. [Read more]

Wicked Connie

As Doc Severinsen has correctly pointed out, practice and how we practice is essential to how well we play. However, a quality instrument can make a world of difference in the finished playing produced. Some of the earliest types of trumpets dating to around 1500 BC, although quite inventive and interesting, were likely very difficult to play well. In comparison to the historic trumpets our predecessors played, the old ad proclaiming ‘you’ve come a long way baby’, should ring out. In fact, some of the horns on the market today are downright pieces of art and beauty!
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