Top Tones by Walter Smith

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

Hello all, it's been awhile since I've visited here. Life gets in the way sometimes. Anyways, I am wondering if anyone practices from the Top Tones Studies for trumpet? I like the book and try to play it all the time. Granted , as you proceed thru the material, it gets drastically more difficult, but it is a wonderful challenge. I am a composer (some of you may have even used my Charlier Accompaniments. But, back to the point: Would anyone be interested in accompaniments to the Top Tones exercises. I am currently composing arrangements for the trumpet and piano of these exercises. Would love to hear from you!

Best regards,
William Rayer

Ed Kennedy · Heavyweight Member Joined: 15 Jan 2005 Posts: 3187

I love Top Tones. I think for most of us having it in a Smart Music type format would be great for practice, education and our own amusement.

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

I don't have Smart Music. I don't believe it is supported any more. Could be wrong, but I can't find it.

Ed Kennedy · Heavyweight Member Joined: 15 Jan 2005 Posts: 3187

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

That link is for a program called Band in a Box. Use it often. Smart Music is still part of MakeMusic which I have located, but I am not a big fan of how it sounds. I am looking to publish the piano part as an accompaniment to the Top Tones (pub. Carl Fischer). It will not have the trumpet part included. It will be presumed that the buyer is already or has already purchased the Carl Fischer publication of Top Tones for Trumpet.

I have already published accompaniments for the Charlier Transcendental Studies and they can be found on my publishing site.

Just looking to see if there is any interest in a piano accompaniment for the Smith Top Tones.

Turkle · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:58 am Post subject:

Hi William,

I really enjoyed your Charlier accompaniments! They are musical and fun. But I will tell you that it was a serious challenge keeping it together with the pianist because the trumpet part wasn't in the score. I totally understand that it's copyrighted material and there's nothing you can do about that! Despite that, it really was a lot of fun to hear those old warhorse Charlier etudes in a new context. I remember you made some surprising and interesting musical choices, which really made it fun to work on. Those etudes sure do take on another dimension in a collaborative context - playing them solo, you have only yourself to be accountable to!

Those Top Tones etudes are REALLY hard! At least the later ones. Man, I'd love to hear what you come up with for those, but I doubt I could ever work those up into the sort of shape I'd be happy to perform in public! Ha.

Regarding software accompaniment, while I have never used it, many singers that I know use Appcompanist. I wonder if anything similar would be available for instrumentalists as well?

Cheers.
_________________
Yamaha 8310Z trumpet
Yamaha 8310Z flugel
Curry 3.

Didymus · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 1:29 pm Post subject: Top Tones And Other Studies

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

For anyone interested here is where you can hear the first Top Tone exercise with my accompaniment. ENJOY!

https://soundcloud.com/user3562166/top-tones-1-walter-smithwf-rayer

I am working my way through the studies and will let you know when I have finished.

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

Rapier232 · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 11:15 pm Post subject:

Ed Kennedy · Heavyweight Member Joined: 15 Jan 2005 Posts: 3187

Just an interesting aside: My teacher, Leon Merian, studied with Walter Smith during the time the Top Tones were being written. He would often have to read them from Smith's manuscript in his lessons.

I also heard that Herseth had particular Top Tones etudes picked to practice in preparation for particular orchestral works coming up in his work with CSO.

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

[quote="Ed Kennedy"]Just an interesting aside: My teacher, Leon Merian, studied with Walter Smith during the time the Top Tones were being written. He would often have to read them from Smith's manuscript in his lessons.

I also heard that Herseth had particular Top Tones etudes picked to practice in preparation for particular orchestral works coming up in his work with CSO.[/quote

Very interesting information. My teacher, Harry Herforth (Cleveland Orchestra and Kent State Un), was keen on the Top Tones exercises.

DH · Veteran Member Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 493

William, maybe I missed it, but I don't see any links to anything. Where are the Charlier accompaniments?

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

DH · Veteran Member Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 493

Thanks for the reply..... I guess I was hoping for a digital accompaniment since getting together with a live player is very difficult these days. It would have made some practicing more interesting!

wfrayer · Regular Member Joined: 09 Mar 2017 Posts: 22

I have the first 5 finished. I would be willing to share the accompaniment with anyone who is interested. (Only one of the 5 - pick the one you'd like to see/hear) I will send the pdf of the piano part and a mp3 of the performance. I will not give them all to any one person. If you'd like to see/hear what I am up to, PM me.

Thank you for your interest,
William (Bill) Rayer