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Honkie
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 3:36 am    Post subject: Facial hair Reply with quote

OK I am NOT a teenager -- I am a middle-aged man. But somehow, I've never had a moustache or beard, I've always shaved since puberty.

Well now this summer, I just let it grow for some reason, and it's very new and exciting and I don't know how to handle it.

So let's pretend I am a teenage trumpet player with his first facial hair.
Specific tips or strategies for grooming for trumpeters?
YEA or NAY on facial hair in general, for trumpeters?
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Tuningbell
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 6:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ron Romm, Fred Mills, Doc Severinsen, Al Hirt, they were/are all OK players.. Seriously Ron Romm addressed this in a masterclass once. As long as it is trimmed above the red or you have a "notch" shaped in for your embouchure you should be good to go.

I have played with and without and as long I I keet ot trimmed above the "red" I am OK.
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falado
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi, I trim the area around the mouthpiece and use an electric razor to shave on the lip where the mouthpiece rests.
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crzytptman
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 6:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have had a mustache since after boot camp, about 40 years. I don't do any of the above. I trim to keep it out of my mouth. Trumpet mpc slides under, and I have a little cow lick from all the years. Trombone mpc just sits on top.
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starkadder
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a beard and mustache and I do no special grooming for trumpet playing. If you can kiss your wife, you won't have any problem seating the mouthpiece.

Do trim if the beard gets long enough to get caught in the first valve slide (I've not gotten to that point).
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mavrian22
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another great trumpet playing stash is Charlie Geyer's. I have a beard, it doesn't require any special maintenance to play the trumpet.
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Brad361
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have had a beard and moustache, now just the moustache. Never had any difficulty, though I do trim above the red, as others have said. But even if I don't, as Nate said, the mouthpiece just slides in under the hair.

Brad
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Honkie
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 4:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brothers, thanks for the replies. Trimming the stache make sense. I was sometimes getting bristles in the 'piece and a resulting "fuzzy" tone, haha.
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Mike Sailors
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 5:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

crzytptman wrote:
I have had a mustache since after boot camp, about 40 years. I don't do any of the above. I trim to keep it out of my mouth. Trumpet mpc slides under, and I have a little cow lick from all the years. Trombone mpc just sits on top.


Same.
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crzytptman
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You must have been that hairy gleam in a fathers eye that joined The Corps back then. We were darn impressed.
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LakeTahoeTrpt
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You know, the first "soul patch" I ever saw was on my first private trumpet teacher, who was in his 60's when I began studying with him. I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that lots of old-timers thought that shaving around the lips would weaken the chops.
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auraaura
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:15 pm    Post subject: Re: Facial hair Reply with quote

Honkie wrote:
OK I am NOT a teenager -- I am a middle-aged man. But somehow, I've never had a moustache or beard, I've always shaved since puberty.

Well now this summer, I just let it grow for some reason, and it's very new and exciting and I don't know how to handle it.

So let's pretend I am a teenage trumpet player with his first facial hair.
Specific tips or strategies for grooming for trumpeters?
YEA or NAY on facial hair in general, for trumpeters?


Beard growth is roughly divided into five stages. The most uncomfortable is the second stage, you will feel itchy beard and want to give them up. Don't worry, this is normal, use care products and stick to it. By the third stage, your beard will grow quickly.
Relax and understand how it grows: https://www.gearhunder.com/beard-growth-stages/
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zaferis
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Trim as you like to the look you're going for.. dealing with a little hair is way easier than dealing with shaving and raw/chapped skin....
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THE BD
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It used to bother me and be very uncomfortable when hairs sat in the rim of the mouthpiece, but as I got used to it over the years it has really become a non issue. I can shave or not and it makes no difference.
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bean_counter
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wear a handlebar moustache and chin strap/poof - aka a "Napoleon III". Lots of wax to keep the moustache in the right place, and the hair away from my mouth.
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kehaulani
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 12:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've had a beard since '92 (End of military service +1). I haven't noticed its interfering with how I play. Like above, I keep it from going across my lips.

Oh, BTW about shaping the beard. If you let it grow long, the longer it gets the deeper and more resonating your low notes get.
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Tom LeCompte
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tuningbell wrote:
Ron Romm, Fred Mills, Doc Severinsen, Al Hirt, they were/are all OK players..


George Rabbai.
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cbtj51
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LakeTahoeTrpt wrote:
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that lots of old-timers thought that shaving around the lips would weaken the chops.


I remember hearing that way back in the late 60s. Can't dispute one way or the other...I grew my first mustache during the summer between high school and college 1969 (youthful vanity), added the "soul patch" after my Uncle Sam/Army Band time (rebellious? vanity) and eventually a beard (maybe onsetting insanity). My wife always hated the beard (I think that fact only encouraged me), but I still have it at 71 (definitely insanity). Does it have any effect on my playing? Honestly, I never thought about it but it does a very good job of hiding the very present mouthpiece induced topography (definitely misplaced vanity, did I mention that I'm 71)!

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Mike
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steve0930
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2022 2:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello Trumpet players
An alternate view.
Clean shaven pretty much all my life but 2 months ago on the urging of my 23yr old Son I switched from electric shave to wet (Feather blade delivered by Mercur razor.) I tend to shave after my first 2or3 practices on the horn..somehow the ultra smoothness of skin then gives my playing a lift!
Cheers and stay safe
Steve in Helsinki..
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Bill_Bumps
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2022 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a short beard and mustache (hey, it was the Seventies, and if you didn't have facial hair, you weren't "cool"). Lately I was having some embouchure problems with keeping my mouthpiece high enough on my upper lip. Then I noticed that Harry James trimmed a little circumflex "V" into his mustache, so I tried doing the same.

I can't say it instantly made me play like Harry James, but it definitely does help me keep the mouthpiece where it belongs.
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