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RonL New Member
Joined: 26 Aug 2018 Posts: 1 Location: Malvern UK
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 8:52 am Post subject: Another returning player |
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I started playing cornet at school in 1965. Played Eb Soprano in the school brass band. Left school in 1969 to join the British Army where I played Bb cornet and Bb Trumpet. I left the Army in 1976 never to play again until May this year!
I kept my Bb Cornet, a Boosy & Hawkes Sovereign and decided to give it a go again and see how it went. Progress was slow initially but after practising every day, improvements were being made.
Purchase of a Yamaha Chinese made Eb cornet was a mistake as the intonation was terrible. That was replaced very quickly with a Stomvi Titan HE Eb cornet with copper bell. Much better. For now I have settled on a BVT mouthpiece but something wider might be better.
Really coming along well now and hope to be joining a local band in a month or so when my chops are stronger. _________________ Stomvi Titan HE Eb (soprano) cornet
Yamaha student Eb cornet
Boosey & Hawkes Sovereign Bb cornet
Last edited by RonL on Sun Aug 26, 2018 8:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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GeorgeB Heavyweight Member
Joined: 20 Apr 2016 Posts: 1063 Location: New Glasgow, Nova Scotia
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Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 8:55 am Post subject: |
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I came back in 2016 after a 50 year hiatus. Not easy when you are in your 80s but it's coming better than I expected.
Good luck on your journey. _________________ 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 |
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50YrComeback Regular Member
Joined: 05 Nov 2018 Posts: 71 Location: St. Louis
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:17 am Post subject: Comeback after 49 Years 6 months |
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GeorgeB wrote: | I came back in 2016 after a 50 year hiatus. Not easy when you are in your 80s but it's coming better than I expected.
Good luck on your journey. |
George, hope you are still playing - I played for 9 years in the 60's - Last time I played was my high school graduation in 1969 - just started back within past 10 days. Endurance & range are non-existent. Tone is inconsistent, sometimes OK, sometimes very fuzzy and lower notes sharp. But fingering & sight reading a pleasant surprise. I am taking my first lesson today, just to have some sort of a plan. Overall, not as bad as I thought it would be but a long, long way to go. _________________ GaryF
"I'm probably not as good as I used to think that I was"
50 year layoff
Giardenelli 812S (a/k/a Amati ATR-604HS)
CarolBrass CPT-1000 Mini Trumpet |
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50YrComeback Regular Member
Joined: 05 Nov 2018 Posts: 71 Location: St. Louis
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:18 am Post subject: Comeback after 49 Years 6 months |
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GeorgeB wrote: | I came back in 2016 after a 50 year hiatus. Not easy when you are in your 80s but it's coming better than I expected.
Good luck on your journey. |
George, hope you are still playing - I played for 9 years in the 60's - Last time I played was my high school graduation in 1969 - just started back within past 10 days. Endurance & range are non-existent. Tone is inconsistent, sometimes OK, sometimes very fuzzy and lower notes sharp. But fingering & sight reading a pleasant surprise. I am taking my first lesson today, just to have some sort of a plan. Overall, not as bad as I thought it would be but a long, long way to go. _________________ GaryF
"I'm probably not as good as I used to think that I was"
50 year layoff
Giardenelli 812S (a/k/a Amati ATR-604HS)
CarolBrass CPT-1000 Mini Trumpet |
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50YrComeback Regular Member
Joined: 05 Nov 2018 Posts: 71 Location: St. Louis
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:21 am Post subject: Comeback after 49 Years 6 months |
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GeorgeB wrote: | I came back in 2016 after a 50 year hiatus. Not easy when you are in your 80s but it's coming better than I expected.
Good luck on your journey. |
George, hope you are still playing - I played for 9 years in the 60's - Last time I played was my high school graduation in 1969 - just started back within past 10 days. Endurance & range are non-existent. Tone is inconsistent, sometimes OK, sometimes very fuzzy and lower notes sharp. But fingering & sight reading a pleasant surprise. I am taking my first lesson today, just to have some sort of a plan. Overall, not as bad as I thought it would be but a long, long way to go. _________________ GaryF
"I'm probably not as good as I used to think that I was"
50 year layoff
Giardenelli 812S (a/k/a Amati ATR-604HS)
CarolBrass CPT-1000 Mini Trumpet |
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Eliot Veteran Member
Joined: 05 Nov 2018 Posts: 123 Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2018 1:37 am Post subject: Re: Comeback after 49 Years 6 months |
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50YrComeback wrote: |
George, hope you are still playing - I played for 9 years in the 60's - Last time I played was my high school graduation in 1969 - just started back within past 10 days. Endurance & range are non-existent. Tone is inconsistent, sometimes OK, sometimes very fuzzy and lower notes sharp. But fingering & sight reading a pleasant surprise. I am taking my first lesson today, just to have some sort of a plan. Overall, not as bad as I thought it would be but a long, long way to go. |
Reckon I know this feeling ...
I started practising again about four weeks ago after almost, if not 20 years basically away from the trumpet.
Same great difficulty in tone, in range, in effort, and in endurance. BUT it's coming back.
Have been doing exercises from an old Boosey & Hawkes (UK) "The Universal Band Primer (for 1st Eb Horn!) and from "My First Clarke" technical studies and exercises.
Happy to report vast improvement in all dimensions. Have checked out a couple of video clips and noticed an error in embouchure formation, so now am working on that also. Have managed to put in mostly an hour or more a day, most of the time on the exercises, and also on hymns from our church groups hymn book. Got through the 695 (old and new and familiar) hymns in last three weeks. Some very different assortment of "tunes" included.
I am fortunate to have an "office" that doubles as my practice "studio" as well as a large family room with 8 foot ceiling (not high) but with polished timber floors. Very good for appreciating tone and reverb. Office is basically neutral, fortunately not "dead" acoustically.
So far, one happy chappy. |
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GeorgeB Heavyweight Member
Joined: 20 Apr 2016 Posts: 1063 Location: New Glasgow, Nova Scotia
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:51 am Post subject: Re: Comeback after 49 Years 6 months |
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50YrComeback wrote: | George, hope you are still playing - I played for 9 years in the 60's - Last time I played was my high school graduation in 1969 - just started back within past 10 days. Endurance & range are non-existent. Tone is inconsistent, sometimes OK, sometimes very fuzzy and lower notes sharp. But fingering & sight reading a pleasant surprise. I am taking my first lesson today, just to have some sort of a plan. Overall, not as bad as I thought it would be but a long, long way to go. |
Yep, still playing, Gary. Although I am not required to play much of anything above a G above the staff in the band I play with, I regularly play 2 octave scales during my daily practice sessions, so range isn't a problem.
But endurance is another story. It is the only area where my gains are painfully slow. I guess 82 year old facial muscles don't leave you much to work with. In the early stages of my comeback, 20 minutes was a stretch. I gradually increased that to the present 90 minutes or so, that really hasn't changed in the past year. I think I've probably plateaued.
Getting a teacher is certainly a good thing, but I had 12 years of playing under my belt and had good teachers at both the conservatory and private levels so I just worked at it alone for the comeback. Stick with it, Gary. There will be good days and there will be bad days but the good days will outnumber the bad in time and man, there is nothing better than a good day on the horn. _________________ 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 |
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50YrComeback Regular Member
Joined: 05 Nov 2018 Posts: 71 Location: St. Louis
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2018 5:40 am Post subject: Comeback after 49 Years 6 months |
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Elliot & George - Thanks for the words of encouragement and ideas. I was all amped up for my first comeback lesson yesterday and my lesson was canceled as the teacher was stuck in a rehearsal. Darn!! Am traveling next week so lesson not until week after. However, lot's of good things out of the internet. I think am going to focus mostly on embouchure & getting a good buzz out of the MPC and then some long tones. Its hard not to jump ahead when you can read and play real songs (albeit, not pretty) but I want to get re-started with good mechanics, if possible. Funny, its been so long, I forgot how I learned originally. Seems like I just woke up one day in the 6th grade (after a couple of years playing) to this big beautiful tone that came out of nowhere, but obviously that wasn't the case! _________________ GaryF
"I'm probably not as good as I used to think that I was"
50 year layoff
Giardenelli 812S (a/k/a Amati ATR-604HS)
CarolBrass CPT-1000 Mini Trumpet |
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GeorgeB Heavyweight Member
Joined: 20 Apr 2016 Posts: 1063 Location: New Glasgow, Nova Scotia
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Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2018 7:15 am Post subject: |
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I used a trumpet/cornet tutor textbook by Everett James ( yep, Harry's dad ) that my pro player/teacher recommended. I went back to the beginning and worked my way through to the end. The first things you play are long tones. I still do 56 bars of these every day. And like you, Gary, I was just biting at the bit to start playing tunes again. These days I do an hour of technical stuff every morning and an hour of playing just tunes every afternoon. After all, playing tunes is what this is all about, isn't it.
PS: I played between 1953 and 1965 . I started again in March, 2016 at 80 years of age. _________________ 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 |
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