I might be sick of my Bach Strad

musicmork · Heavyweight Member Joined: 13 Mar 2004 Posts: 1530

I dunno...maybe my chops are just lame. After all... I rarely practice my trumpet because I play keyboards 95% of the time. Well... I have several gigs coming up where I'll be playing in my 4 piece band but I plan on playing more trumpet this time around. The weird thing is I was learning some horn licks tonight and I noticed that my playing sucked worse than a Paris Hilton TV Special. So now what? I am thinking that maybe my Bach Strad is too stuffy to play "Chicago" and "Motown" licks. Am I just being hard on myself? I dunno. I miss all my Getzen Severinsen's. They were always a great all around horn and for ME and they played more open than any Olds I have had..and yes I have had some awesome Olds horns. So WHY AM I HANGING ONTO MY BACH?
Weird though...in the past everytime I had a "playoff" between my Strad and any other horn..the Strad ALWAYS won. BUt....the Getzen's came close and beat out the strad for upper register play.
Damn ...I'm a mess.
_________________
MARK /aka "musicmork"/ aka " The Creator "
TRUMPET: Getzen , Olds
MOUTHPIECES Bach 3-C, Schilke 13a4a
CORNET: Holton Galaxy (Awesome horn)
KEYBOARDS: Kurzweil PC88MX,Yamaha S-30, Casio Privia 575R

m4 · Heavyweight Member Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 567

Don`t be too hard on yourself. You say that you play keyboards most of the time. Unfortunately, as you well know, the trumpet isn`t as forgiving. I`m sure the Bach is just fine.

Some friendly words:

Why don`t you just sit down with the instrument and have absolutely no expectations at all as to what you can do. There is nothing worse thne our minds screwing up muc. memory. Just buzz on the mouth piece for a while. With one hand, play major scales on the piano and with the other hand buzz the notes consious of your breath, and pitch, and time. Try doing this form middle C chromatically up to high C. Then REST. Drink a beer, whatever. Then come back to the horn and play some famimiar melodies that are easy and give you a feeling of self-confidence. Then REST, drink another beer or something (you may need a case of beer before this is over!!) Then try playing some easy slurs softly and with as much control as you can muster ala Schloshberg. Then REST (its Miller time!!) Thyen I would try a few reps of longtones with a metronome, REST (Guess what its time for!!) and thne I would play some scales, major, minor, whatever you feel good about. After a few days of this, I think you`ll feel a whole lot better about the trumpet and that bach of yours.

Just some ideas that might work for you. Best, m4

alanbach · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 12:00 am Post subject:

Buy an Eclipse............all your worries will fly out of the window

deleted_user_c11c97e · New Member Joined: 03 Apr 1996 Posts: 0

Even on the eclipse it is easy to blame the horn when the chops are out of shape. If there were a horn that would make you not suffer the effects of not enough practice everyone would have one...

I would reccommend putting these feelings about your strad on the back burner and give it a few days work-in time.

TonySwartz · Veteran Member Joined: 03 Sep 2002 Posts: 487

I read the thread title and thought "get a Getzen!" hah...

I just found that funny -- since you had Getzens before the Bach.

razeontherock · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 12:35 am Post subject:

My Getzen 700 Special get both darker AND brighter than the Bach Strad I bought in '78, and it was a good one. Of course I sold the Bach. The Getzen is fine as long as you don't go more than an octave over the staff.
It responds way quicker than your Severinson models, slots better, and is very open. PM me if interested as I haven't posted it yet.
You STILL need to work on your chops first!!

StradJapan · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 3:21 am Post subject:

Sounds like you just need to be practicing on your horn more.
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Peace.

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jsmn4vu · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 3:46 am Post subject:

Lots of good advice above...based on your own description, the problem isn't the horn.

_________________
John Miller
Peachtree Wind Ensemble

eb1ch

prof5 · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 8:57 am Post subject:

Playing the same style with no practice is a great recipe for boredom, and when you're bored, you don't listen. Now when you try some new stuff, you have to listen. And what you hear is a guy that is out of practice.

Some of us may go overboard with equipment fiddling, but changing horns or mouthpieces serves one very good purpose - it makes us listen! A change of horn might renew your interest, and inspire you to practice a bit more. Different is not always better, but variety keeps us interested.

Garry

woo · Veteran Member Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 128

"I can sound bad on any trumpet" Chase Sanborn.
You are only as good as you practice. Strad is a great horn. You get the picture.