Intro from Massachusetts

[steveleblanc]

Greetings and hello from North Central Massachusetts. My name is Steve, and I am a newbie to the board and a "comeback kid" from what I can tell. I'm 66, almost 67 years old and started playing in the 2nd grade in a grammar school program and played until I completed my 2nd year of high school. I just recently bought a old student Yamaha, and started to play again. Then very recently I came across a vintage Conn 6B early model trumpet in very good shape and bought that and and having it refurbished at Osmun music. I'm a bit of a gear head for any of my hobbies so I can see where this is going.

I put it down in my junior year of high-school as we had a very aggressive high school music director, and it was 3 days a week after school and every Saturday band practice. I loved the band, as especially the orchestra, but at 16 I wanted a car so I could date girls. Dad said, "get a job". So I quit the band and worked up until summer of 2012 when I retired from high tech.

But I'm a huge jazz fan, love the quartets and quintets and even big bands of the 40s/50s and 60s. Ellington, Miles, Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Shorter, Horace Silver, Brubeck, etc. For no particular reason I decided to start to play again.

So far I've been building my lips with scales and exercises and I bought a Real Book of about 400 standard jazz tunes, so that could keep me busy for a while. There is a great and very active local music community here and all sorts of opportunities to play with some real musicians that are very welcoming to us amateurs.

Right now my only goal is to enjoy playing again, learn some of the great tunes I loved listening too, and spend an hour or two a day playing. My wife and I hit the gym in the morning 3 days a week, I'm also a amateur photographer and ride motorcycles in the good weather and snow ski in the winter. But I've always loved music and it's great to be back.

Learning a lot here and I liked the thread in here on goals and and also some of the others.

Keep making music all!

Steve

[GeorgeB]

Good luck on the comeback, Steve.
I am an 80 year old comeback kid. Played during the 50s and 60s then gave it up in '65. I came back in March of this year. I have a reasonable range ( D over high C above the staff ) and will try for an F. Lots of playing opportunities here, especially beginning in the Fall.

Keep us informed on how you are doing.
George
_________________
GeorgeB
1960s King Super 20 Silversonic
2016 Manchester Brass Custom
1938-39 Olds Recording
1942 Buescher 400 Bb trumpet
1952 Selmer Paris 21 B
1999 Conn Vintage One B flat trumpet
2020 Getzen 490 Bb
1962 Conn Victor 5A cornet

[Turkle]

Good luck with your comeback.

Just make sure never to believe a single word anyone posts on this site, ever, for any reason!
_________________
Yamaha 8310Z trumpet
Yamaha 8310Z flugel
Curry 3.

[steveleblanc]

Thanks George and Turkle.

It's fun just rediscovering how much fun I used to have with playing. Back then the closest I ever came to jazz was playing Hello Dolly in the marching band, back in maybe 62 or 63.. now I'm playing Freddie the Freeloader and tunes like God Bless the Child and it's a hoot!

I'm surprising myself as to how quickly so much of it is coming back to me. Learning so much more with the internet and all it brings to the table, plus my much deeper appreciation for music in general.

[GeorgeB]

Good to hear that, Steve. Things didn't come back to me easily, probably due to my advanced age and some problems ( especially vision ) related to that. Remembering all the notes in the various keys, learning to stay focussed, etc., all were a problem that I still need to work on now and then.

Good luck, friend.
_________________
GeorgeB
1960s King Super 20 Silversonic
2016 Manchester Brass Custom
1938-39 Olds Recording
1942 Buescher 400 Bb trumpet
1952 Selmer Paris 21 B
1999 Conn Vintage One B flat trumpet
2020 Getzen 490 Bb
1962 Conn Victor 5A cornet

[steveleblanc]

Got a call from Osmun Music today. My Conn 6B early model trumpet is ready, and I'll be picking it up tomorrow. Excited about that. They were doing a refurb on it to fix a small dent, a stuck main tuning slide, a sticky 3rd valve. They said they would bring it back up to the day it left the factory from a performance perspective and for a 1956 horn it is in nice cosmetic condition. They do a chemical bath as standard procedure as a starting point.

From there we can determine if there is any benefit to get a PVA based on my comeback kid status.

I found this on CL one town away from me and picked it up really right. Well worth the tune-up Osmun gave it.

[steveleblanc]

Went down to Osmun and got the trumpet today. They did an absolutely remarkable job restoring this 60 year old instrument to very close to factory out the door condition.

It has a much fuller and open sound than the Yamaha student horn I had been using. I bought a Protec case as the original hard case had very questionable hinges and latches. No need to have an accident happen while pulling the instrument out of a car only to have it clang to the pavement as the latches or hinges let go.

Now it's up to me to make beautiful sound with it.

[razeontherock]

Gorgeous! Conn sure did things right, and WAY early in the development of the instrument.

Not many of us avid skiers here, but I skied the Berklees (Brody Mountain, was it?) blizzard of '78, having saved my pennies from shoveling snow and visited my Sister who was attending Williams.

Welcome to TH!

Ray
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"And this is life: that you know the Son, and the One who sent Him." The rest is just details

[steveleblanc]

[James Becker]

Thank you Steve for your business, and for sharing your positive experience with the TH community. Enthusiasts like yourself make our job so much fun. This is my 40th year repairing brasswinds, I love my job!
_________________
James Becker
Brass Repair Specialist Since 1977
Osmun Music Inc.
77 Powdermill Road Rt.62
Acton, MA 01720
www.osmun.com

Our workshop is as close as your nearest UPS store https://www.ups.com/dropoff?loc=en_US

[steveleblanc]

[steveleblanc]

Playing at least an hour to 90 minutes a day. Taking after my gym regimen I am documenting my exercises and keeping some short notes on my progress. My range with good tone is below the staff G to top of staff E, higher notes are iffy, still but I see progress weekly which is a good motivator.

Doing exercises out of a Colin book that was in the Conn 6B case when I bought it. I can see where it is helpful. I am mentally "hearing" the note before I play it, aka Adam's style from a thread I got here which has been helpful.

I'm also having some fun with the Real Book, and some of the easier ones there, including Freddie Freeloader (pretty and easy), God Bless the Child, Always, 502 Blues, a few others. Wife hasn't thrown me out yet. Although she asked me to go downstairs during a recent Red-Sox game.

Anyway, the great thing about being a beginner again, is getting to make obvious progress on a daily basis.

It feels great to have the trumpet in my hands again, and I'm paying more attention to music reading than I ever did before. Also discovering some new music in the Real Book that is feeding right into my love of jazz and hi-fi hobby. (still a big vinyl collector here)

[GeorgeB]

Good stuff, Steve, just stick with it. It has taken me 5 months to get to a point where I have a decent range that will allow me to play lead in pretty much any of the local community bands here. I am comfortable up to high C above the staff, and can reach D and E, but the highest any of the local band charts I've seen don't call for more than an occasional A above the staff. So I don't see any point in working at getting much more range, other than perhaps trying to play up to an F just so I can tell myself I can do it.
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GeorgeB
1960s King Super 20 Silversonic
2016 Manchester Brass Custom
1938-39 Olds Recording
1942 Buescher 400 Bb trumpet
1952 Selmer Paris 21 B
1999 Conn Vintage One B flat trumpet
2020 Getzen 490 Bb
1962 Conn Victor 5A cornet

[steveleblanc]

[GeorgeB]

[steveleblanc]

[GeorgeB]

I don't see anything wrong with the way you are practicing, Steve. Just be careful not to beat up your lips as I was doing in the beginning of my comeback.
I lost my wife 4 1/2 years ago after 56 years together, so those first two years almost destroyed me. Even though I was adjusting during the following two years, I realized I needed purpose and challenge in my everyday life. Many times I looked at an old Varsity student horn in my closet ( the one I learned to play on at the age of 16 ) and thought about taking it up again, but for one reason or another I didn't do it. Then a couple of musician friends from church convinced me to play again and on March 8th, the fourth anniversary of my wife's passing, I dug that old Varsity out of the closet, managed to get the valves working well enough to finger and blew all of 3 notes, which is pretty much all I blew the first few days, slowly adding until I was playing low C to third space C. After 4 weeks I realized that the Varsity with its sticky valves was holding me back, so I bought the new Bach.

Now 5 months later I have amazed myself at my progress. But most importantly, Steve, through the rough times and the good, playing the trumpet has become my salvation and I have no regrets about taking it up again.
_________________
GeorgeB
1960s King Super 20 Silversonic
2016 Manchester Brass Custom
1938-39 Olds Recording
1942 Buescher 400 Bb trumpet
1952 Selmer Paris 21 B
1999 Conn Vintage One B flat trumpet
2020 Getzen 490 Bb
1962 Conn Victor 5A cornet

[steveleblanc]

[Grits Burgh]

Also, thanks for the pics of the horn. Now you have me lusting to get something for Osmun Music to fix up for me.
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Bach Stradivarius 37 (1971)
Schilke HC 1
Getzen 3810 C Cornet
King Master Bb Cornet (1945)
B&S 3145 Challenger I Series Flugelhorn
Life is short; buy every horn you want and die happy.

[James Becker]