Brass Class Handouts #6
Body vs. Brain 1
Bernie Glow J
What About Bargain Internet Instruments? 13
Repairs You Can Do...... 18 trasting ways of learnirrg rnusic that apply to rnany arcas. For example, whicl'r is the best way to teach instrumen- tal tone-to describe specific ) muscle placernent or sirnply have the student strive for a desired sound using what- ever means seem most natural? Should music be memorized by first leaming the form, key areas, ca- dences, and so forth, or should the student simply repeat a piece until the sound of it is permanently established in the ear? Is it better to learn the interval- lic structure and theory be- Become the musícian gou hind various scales and f arpeggios or simply prac- want to be bg símplg tice them until they lie com- E, f allowíng gourself to do it fortably under the fingers? The answer isboth. True, by Robet Rawlíns, Ph.D. to some extent, individual o Robet Ra+ulíns is ãssístant þrofessor and temperaments will play a role. Some opposed to an "incorrect" approach. But coordínator of music theory at Rowan people are more comfortable with ana- too much attention to particulars can Uníversíty ín G/assboro, New Jersey. He is lytical approaches and theoretical expla- drive both strldent and teacher crazy. As the author of A Simple and Direct Guide to nations. Others prefer a more direct one exasperated piano teacher exclaimed music. But optimurn after a student had stopped a Jazz Improvisation (Ha/ Leonard, 1995), approach to the during lntermediate Serial Duets for Two Flutes learning is more likely to take place when piece a half-dozen times to ask which (Southem Musíc, 1990), and has pub- both approaches are utilized. fingering to use: "l don't care! lJse any- lished many artic/es on c)aious dsþects of Having said that, it seems that the thing! It doesn't #.tter-just play!" musíc theory and performance, íncludíng natural or intuitive part of musical learn- The most important factor in any en- ltís regu/ar contríbutíons to the Bell. ing is often given short shrift, Students, deavor is to have a clearly defined goal. particularly more advancecl ones, some- For the musician, this goal will be in the times try too hard and overanalyze their form of an aural image. The student must 0n".,ig1,, Dizzy Gillespie walked into a playing without realizing it. clearly hear the sound that is desired jam session where theband was working Imagine the conscientious student and then allow the body to reproduce on a new tune with a difficult chord having these thoughts during a practice that sound through the instrument. It's structure. He asked the piano player to session: "Okay, breathe deep, use the dia- the objective, not the means of achieving call out the chords while he played, and phragm, and support the air column. it, that is the object of concentration. in minutes Dizzyhadmemorized the en- Now open your throat. Hold your head tire harmonic sequence and was impro- up, relax the jaw, and keep the lips firm. Th" follo*irlg suggestions are intended vising fluently on it. Gently curve the fingers, but don't use to help the student stay focused on the A few minutes later, Charlie Parker too much pressure." And so forth. real goal of mtsical performance-to form walked in. The piano player again started These are all wonderful suggestions, an aural image of the sound and repro- to call out the harmonies, but Parker in themselves, but this kind of incessant duce it as accurately as possible. The asked him not to. Listening intently, self-nagging is bound to have negative analytical side has its place, but once a Parker worked through a chorus or two consequences. The human bocly is a highly student knows the correct way to play, of the tune, and soon he too was jam- complex mechanism and regularly per- it's time to stop thinking about mechan- ming on it without difficulty. forms many intricate skills on its own. ics and concentrate on making music. Though both musicians shared simi- Tedious minute-by-minute instructious These tips might help: lar styles and both were highly accom- given by the conscious mind can easily Concentrate on sound. The one pri- plished on their instruments, they turn into distractions, inhibiting rather rrary area of focus that should always approached their mtsic in different ways. than promoting optimum performance. receive a perforrner's full attention is Gillespie preferred to consciously memo- Paradoxically, with improved cppor- the sound that is clesired. This should rize the sequence of chords and think tunities for formal music instruction aucl not be taken for granted. lt rnay take about them as he played. Parker took a advances in instrumental peclagogy, the years Lc clevelop a clear ancl accurate spontaneolrs approach, relying on his ear danger of this kincl of calculatecl approach aural image of the precise tone quality ancl natural instincts. to musical performance is tnore preva- that an instrumentalist seeks. lt is one lent today than in the past. thing to have a vague notion of what a Wntt" this inciclent specifically concerns Yes, to a large extent there is a "cor- goocl clarinet tone is, but quite another jazz improvisation, it clemoustrates cotì- rect" way to play a musical instrumeut as to have that souncl so ingrainecl in your ( ffi THE LEI]LANC BELL WINTER 2OO2 tL; Go easg on the uerbal ìnstructíons. Giving instructions to yourself while play- ing is generally not a gotxl iclea. Holv can you concentrate on the mtrsic if you're thinking about a teacher's instructions to "use less lip pressttre"? Still, there are times when corrections and changes do need to be made. Shouldn't you then be thinking about those instructions when you practice? Shouldn't you constantly remind yourself? There is a way out of this dilemma, and that is to translate verbal commands into aural images. If a teacher tells a student to use a certain lip pressure, it's obviously because something was wrong with the sound. Most likely, the teachet heard a pinched sound and knew from experience that too much lip pressure can cause such a problem. job Rowan [)níuersíty students, rehearsíng in lab band (left) and quctrtet (aboue), attemþt The for the student is to find the results from less to ba/ance mechanica/ s/<íl/s with the ntore ethereal elements of becomíng a musícían. improved sound that lip pressure and to hold that as an aural head that you can truly imagine it com- home. I don't know what happened! I image. Instead of thinking of the feeling ing ottt of your own instrument. just fall apart at lessons." Every teacher in the lip, be on guard for the sound Lísten to recordíngs and attend líae has experienced this. that results from too much pressure and performances. Beyond this, a student The problem is that we sometimes get focus on the improved sound that re- rnust literally practice hearing tone in our own way. Our natural self might sults from less pressure. quality. Before playing a single note, the be quite capable of performing a given Remember the good moments. All desired sound of that note must resonate task, but then the conscious mind comes perfor mers have moments, sometimes just in the inner ear. With attentive listening along and tuins everything by interfer' entire days, when everything feels ancl a conscious desire to grasp ancl re' ing. We tell ourselves things like "don't right. This could involve tone, technique, tain the sound, this can be achieved. miss it this time" or "this has to go right sight-reading or even expression and in' Practíce sightsinging. Once an inte' or I'm in big trouble." The best way to terpretation. We don't want to waste gral part of every instrumentalist's early try hard is to completely dismiss such these learning opportr-rnities, but we don't iraining, this valuable skill, saclly, is of' thoughts. Think only of the music, and want to ruin them either. Trying to ana' ten neglected today. Of course, we clon't trust in your natural abilities. lyze what is going right could very well learn how to sightsing so that we can Transcend the moment. It's a good cause everything to go wrong. sing; we learn to do it so we can hear thing brain surgeons don't have to oper- The way to learn from such opportu- rtt tii. it-t our ear before we play it. If you ate on stage before an audience. Ancl I nities is to remember the feeling and can't aurally conceive of the pitches as' wonder how Einstein would have fared sound of the moment. Focus on the total sociated with the notes on the page' then with his theory of relativity if he'd had sensation that you are experiencing. how are you going to form a clear aural to work in a tuxedo before a spotlight Don't think about what the muscles are image of the sound you're trying to getT with a crowcl of people watching every doing, and don't try to describe the sen- You can't have tone without pitch. calculation he made. sation. Just absorb the feeling. If you can What the student must avoid is sim' Sure, tl-rese are comical scenarios, but truly remember what it felt like to get ply pressing the key and depending on they underscore the difficulties of the the sound yott've been seeking, your ihe instrurnent itself to create the note. performing musician. Not only do musi muscles will find a way to reproduce that Sure, the note might be the correct one, cians perform an extremely difficult skill, sound in the future. and it might even be reasonably in tune but they have to do it under difficult if the instrument is well macle ancl the circumstances ancl pull it off with grace S"Llo.r, do rtudents'difficulties stem from embouchure well formecl. But if the pitch ancl panache. There is only one way to not knowing how to play their instru- of the note that is going to come out is a petfòrm well before an audience, and ments. Fine music teachers are readily mystery to the player until it is sounded, that is to transcet-rcl the motnent ancl con- accessible, and there are many good in- the same will be true of tone, attack, centrate on the mttsic. struction books on the market. But good release, rhythm, and so forth. I'm not saying to ignore the audience. education is only half of the equation. Don't trg too hard. Ot, more pre- Many performers are at their best before It's one thing to know how a musical cisely, learn the correct way to try hard. a, Iarge crowd of people. But that is instrument should be played and quite We shoulcl, of course, strive to ptlt ev' bêcause they inclucle them in their ab- another to actually do it. Learning the erlthing we have iuto every performance sorption in the music. They are taken rnechanics is definitely the first step. The ancl practice session, btrt ironically, stu- with the collective attention that all are next is to internalize this knowledge and clents somctimcs perforrn at their rvorst devotirrg to the ae sthetic experience. But let the inner selftake charge. when they are trying their hardest. This without a doubt, the focus is on the rntt' ln truth, the best way to become tl're often occttt's ¿rt lcssorrs. Sttrclerrts say sic, no rnatter horv matry rnay be sharing pe rformer you want to be is sirnply to things lil A Tl1E LEBITiIC BELL WINTER 2OO2 ffi The late Bernie Glow was, as you'll read, a great and unique musician Subject: Bernie Glow This article about Bernie Glowwas from the Dec.10, 1969 issue of the New Yorker. LEAD PLAYER...by William Whitworth At a dance several years ago in the Midwest, Stan Kenton gave his band the downbeat for a final chord of a tune, then turned to smile at the audience, with both his arms dramatically outstretched. He held the smile and the chord a little longer than usual---for maybe eight or ten seconds. Just as he turned toward the band and brought his right arm down to signal the cutoff, the first-trumpet player at the time, a gifted musician named Al Porcino, passed out, slumped in his chair, and fell over backward. Another Kenton trumpet player, Buddy Childers had a similar experience one night in a small New Jersey town. "It was at the beginning of the job, during the band's theme, 'Artistry in Rhythm,"' Childers recalled recently. "I was playing a high D, which isn't that high, as trumpet parts go, but I had to hold it for four incredibly slow bars, and the next thing I knew I was on the floor on my back, with my horn still at my mouth, and Stan was leaning over the sax section, peering at me." Blacking out is hazardous enough, but something worse happened to Porcino during another performance with the Kenton band, at the Paramount Theater in New York. As Porcino huffed his way through a loud, demanding passage, he suffered an abdominal rupture, or hernia-- the sort of injury men sometimes get from lifting something heavy. At an outdoor concert near Reno a couple of summers ago, a trumpet player named John Glenn Little felt a terrible pain in his neck and back while he was playing a loud solo passage. After the concert, it was discovered that he had slipped two discs in his neck; he was in the hospital for a week, and was warned not to play the trumpet for a year. Many professional trumpet players in New York complain of leg aches after an especially rough day in the recording studios, and some of them have suffered for months at a time with strained lower back muscles. Clyde Reasinger, a trumpet player in Los Angeles, is so wary of the horn that he stays in constant training for his daily bouts with it--he neither drinks nor smokes, and he devotes an hour a day to yoga and isometric exercises. Ten years ago, after conducting a series of tests with the instrument, an English physician and an American trumpet player suggested in the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL, only half facetiously, that it might be a good idea to equip trumpet players with pressurized pilot suits. I 3 As all this may indicate, the trumpet is hard work. It is generally agreed, in fact, that the trumpet is more taxing physically--especially when played in the upper register and at great volume--than any other commonly used instrument. Trumpet players amaze themselves. Playing the instrument really well requires such an unlikely combination of manual dexterity, musicality and physical strength that once a man learns to do it, he just can't get over it. Trumpet players often feel themselves to be men apart, like members of a secret society. While a saxophone player's best friend might be a piano player or a drummer, a trumpet player's best friend is likely to be another trumpet player. To a saxophone player, a trumpet player is merely a musician, but to another trumpet player, he's something wonderful, a trumpet player. Hearing a saxophone player or a pianist play a difficult passage may give a trumpet player intellectual or emotional pleasure, but when he hears a trumpet piayer play a difficult passage, his aesthetic pleasure is accompanied by the sort of delicious physical thrill that a football fan gets from seeing a big guard crash through the blockers and tackle the quarterback. "He's a real brute," a trumpet player will sometimes say approvingly of another trumpet player. It is not so much the soloists who are admired this way as it is the "lead" trumpet players--the men who play the first-trumpet parts in the four- and five-man trumpet sections that are employed in the recording studios of New York and Hollyr,vood, in the network-television staff orchestras, in the Las Vegas casino orchestras, and in the few remaining big jazz and dance bands. The lead players are regarded as an elite because of the difficulty of the job they must perform. To oversimplify it, some trumpet players play with taste but not enough strength, and others have the strength but lack the taste, The lead player must have both. He must be able to play constantly in the upper register--the most treacherous and tiring range of the horn--while providing an interpretation of the arrangement that will be definitive for the rest of the brass section and sometimes for the whole orchestra. Though there are hundreds of professional trumpet players in the country and dozens of talented trumpet soloists, there are only a handful of real lead players. Among the names frequently included in this category by arrangers and conductors are Porcino, Childers, John Audino, Ray Triscari, Ernie Royal, Snooþ Young, John Frosk, Al DeRisi, Ray Crisara, Mel Davis and Bernie Glow. None of these men is more highly regarded as an all-around lead player by the lead players themselves than Glow, a bald, bearded, exceptionally cheerful man of forty-three, who traveled with Artie Shaw and Woody Herman bands during the the nineteen-forties and has worked in the New York 2 ,f recording studios since the early fifties. Other trumpet players speak of Glow with admiration and sometimes with awe. "Bernie is the Big Daddy of us a11," Frosk , who plays lead trumpet with the N.B.C. "Tonight Show" band , said recently when Glow's name came up in conversation. "He has endurance, taste, accuracy, an incomparable sound--everything." Trumpet players tend to defer to Glow in quiet flattering ways. If five first-rate trumpet players, including Glow, have been hired for a recording session, Glow normally finds when he arrives at the studio that the other players, without any instruction from the arranger, have sat down behind Parts 2 through 5, leaving the first part for him. "When you see Bernie coming, yoü move over," one of the trumpet players explained at a recording session several months ago. This deference has not made Glow arrogant. He is bowled over by how well so many of his colleagues ptay. Mention one of them to him and he will invariably say something like, "Oh, what a fantastic player he is", or "now, he's something really special". Outside the music business, almost no one has ever heard of Glow, but nearly everyone has heard him play, without knowing it. He has recorded more than any dozen recording stars put together. The only way an American can be sure of getting through the day without being exposed to Glow's playing is avoid movies, television shows, television commercials, radio commercials, phonographs, jukeboxes, discotheques, and radio disc-jockey shows of all types, ...jazz, pop, mood-music, Latin, rock, and rhythm-and-blues. At a conservative estimate, Glow has recorded a thousand tunes every year for the past sixteen years. He has worked with Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Moby Grape, Peter Nero, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, B.B. King, Wilson Pickett, Ella Fitzgerald , Dizzy Gillespie, Teresa Brewer, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, the Rascals, Patti Page, the McGuire Sisters, the Four Seasons, Billy Eckstine, Kay Starr, Tito Puente, Mel Torme, Buddy Greco, Perry Como, Al Hibbler, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, the Lovin' Spoonful, Dionne Warwick and just about everyone else who has recorded extensively in New York. Glow has recorded hundreds of radio and television commercials--or jingles, as the sound tracks for commercials are called in the business--for most of the soft-drink, cigarette, airline, and automobile companies. If Glow had done nothing but jingles, that would be enough to keep the sound of his trumpet constantly in the air. Most people haven't heard Woody Herman's "Lemon Drop", but has anyone escaped "Pepsi Beats the Others Cold"? Recording sound tracks for movies and teievision shows has occupied a relatively small part of Glow's time over the years, because most of the movie work is in California, and because working on television shows is not as lucrative for musicians as jingle dates are. J -' Glow is a free-lance performer. Unlike the gracious free-lance literary life, which consists, to a great degree, in sitting in bars and restaurants and talking about what one isn't writing, the free-lance music life is grueling. Most weekdays, Glow arises at 7 a.m.--an hour at which it is unnatural for musicians to be conscious. This is so he will be able to drive in to Manhattan from his home, in Great Neck, where he lives with his wife, Gail, and three teen-age daughters, in time for his first recording date of the morning, normally around nine or ten o'clock. He is likely to have a session from 9 a.m. to noon, another from 2 p.m.to 5, and another from 7 p.m. to 10. On a fairly relaxed day recently, he recorded a single with a pop group called Jay and the Americans from noon to three, at the O-D-O studios, on West Fifty-fourth Street; and recorded part of a jazz album with the arranger and orchestra leader Gary McFarland from eight to eleven at the A & R Recording studios on West Forty-eighth Street. Counting the time he logs on the expressways, he often puts in a thirteen- or fourteen-hour day. This is almost as rough a schedule as he kept during his road days, though the circuit he travels now is much smaller than the Herman band's was. Glow seldom has to stray below Thirtieth Street or above Fifty-seventh now since most of the recording studios are in midtown Manhattan. He is active enough to keep an agent or a booker busy in his behalf, but things aren't done that way in the studio business. Anyone who wants to hire him for a record date just calls Glow's answering service in the city a week or so in advance and leaves a message. (New York musicians who don't have steady jobs and can't break into the studio fields may have to go out and look for their work. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon, they gather by the thousands in the Roseland Ballroom, on West Fifty-second Street, where the leaders of pickup bands hire them for dance jobs.) One of the impressive things about Glow, or any other top studio musician, as he moves from record date to record date every day, is the seeming casualness with which he handles his varied assignments. Glow makes his rounds as matter-of-factly as a telephone repairman or a plumber, leaving behind him a trail of perfectly played trumpet parts. There is never a chance for rehearsal, except for a few run-throughs at the record session itself. The musicians are expected to walk into the studio cold, sight-read the music, and make the record, with a minimum of fuss. An entire album is usually recorded in three three-hour sessions. Almost half of Glow's working time these days is taken up by jingle dates, and the percentage is about the same for the other leading studio players in New York. It is one of the curiosities of the present-day music business that men like Glow, who have spent their iives mastering their instruments, find themselves progressing from Woody Herman and Tony Bennett to Chevrolet and Pepsi-Cola. This may be less a case of the musicians' debasing their art than of the advertising agencies' upgrading 4 e their commercials. The musicians take the jingle work because it pays well, of course, but they don't feel that they are slumming: jingle scores are often as demanding as any they encounter elsern¡here. As the name implies, a jingle was once almost an after-thought in a commercial - a musical accompaniment that tinkled along unobtrusively behind the visual and spoken message. Today, when the United States seems literally crazed with music, advertising agencies want more originality in their jingles, and it is oniy a small exaggeration to say that in search of it they are looting all of American music, from jazz through electronic to hard rock. This is a development of the past five or six years. Jingles are now played by the best musicians, sung by the big pop vocalists and groups, such as Petula Clark, and the Fifth Dimension, and written by name composers--men with established reputations in other fields, such as Chico Hamilton, tine jazz drummer and composer Sid Ramin, who arranged the music for the stage and movie production of "West Side Story": and Nelson Riddie, who has arranged and conducted numerous Sinatra albums and is one of the leading conductors on the West Coast. Many men of this caliber work part time or even full time for what are known as jingle houses--the production companies that oversee the writing, arranging, and recording of jingles. The president of one of the biggest jingle houses--MBA Music, Inc. in New York--is J. J. Johnson, who is arranger and composer and one of the great trombone soloists in the history of jazz. This is almost, but not quite, the equivalent of J' Walter Thompson's having saY, Norman Mailer as copy chief. Naturally, with such classy talent producing the jingles, they are recorded with some care. It isn't unusual for a jingle producer to keep ten or fifteen musicians in a studio for three hours in order to get a perfect recording of a single thirty-second sound track. When Glow gets bored during such a repetitious session, he can console himself with the thought of his payôheck. The pay scale for jingle is forty dollars an hour, plus $13.33 for every twenty minutes after the first hour. If the player has to double on the date--that is, play another instrument in addition to his regular one--the scale is fifty-two dollars an hour, plus $ 17 .33 for every twenty minutes beyond one hour. Glow, like most other trumpet players in town, doubles on flugelhorn and piccolo trumpet (a small-bore horn that produces a brighter sound in the high register), and some of the reed players clouble on four or five instruments. In addition to this basic scale, there are payments for various reuses of the jingle recording--with, for instance, a new vocal track or a new film. The pay scale for work on network television shows is $13.42 an hour, and the pay scale for ordinary recording is eighty-five dollars for the minimum call of three hours, plus royalties. At these rates, a busy trumpet player in New York can make more than fifty thousand dollars a year' If it seems strange, in this age of guitars, that there is a big demand for trumpet players like Glow, there is a simple explanation: The so-called 5 7 big band, a form of musical ensemble that was invented in the nineteen- twenties is not dead. The big band is supposed to have died in the late nineteen-forties, and its funeral has been widely publicized. What actually died then was the era of the traveling big band (though some of the best of the traveling bands of that time have survived to the present, and though some enormously successful traveling bands were born after the era had supposedly ended). As an ensemble form, the big band, or some variant of it, not oniy is alive but is pervasive in American music. The big-band sound--basically a brass ensemble playing in a jazz- oriented manner-- is heard on almost every television show, in hundreds of commercials, in all big night clubs of the Copa or Las Vegas variety, behind all pop singers, and, increasingly, on rock and blues records. This is for at least two practical reasons. First, the sound of the big-band ensemble is showy. If Johnny Carson or Jackie Gleason came onstage backed by a quartet, the effect would be hollow and dowdy: instantly the atmosphere would be that of a budget-minded afternoon show for housewives. Second, the big band does great things for the staple of the entertainment business. Vocalists, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, and Peggy Lee would sound good in any setting, but with emphatic, percllssive big bands behind them they sound wonderful. All this means steady work for Glow, because, in general, the most important men in the big-band ensemble are the drummer and the lead trumpet player. The loss of a soloist or a good section player will damage the ensembie, but the loss of a strong drummer or a strong lead-trumpet player will destroy it. During a break in a jingle session recently at the Fine studios, in the Great Northern Hotel, on West Fifty-seventh Street, Glow, prompted by a friend, talked about the requirements of his profession. "First of all, the lead player has got to be able to play the instrument with a good, big sound," Glow said. "He's got to have a good high register. He's got to have endurance. Above all, I think, he's got to understand what a melody line means when he plays it--whether it's supposed to mean something syrupy and Guy Lombardo-ish or supposed to be something gentle or something swinging. A first-trumpet player's job is to look at a piece of paper and make it sound like music. It's a piece of paper with black dots on it, and of itself it's not music, and if it's played by the wrong people it'll never be music. It's a matter of interpretation. There are dozens of trumpet players in New York who can play as high as I can, or higher. Or who can play as strong as I can--though, in all frankness, there are very few guys in town who can piay as strong as I can or as long as I can. I never reach a point where my lip is so tired that I just can't play anymore. But what you have to do is play music. Some people play the trumpet instead of playing music. There are players who are technically marvelous but get so wrapped up in playing technically 6 I marvelously that they ignore the fact that the only purpose in playing that well is to play music. The playing of the instrument is not the end. To me, that's the basic difference between a great musician and a good one. There are musicians in New York who do pretty well because they never hit clams-- you can't put anything in front of them they can't play. They have all the qualifications. But they just don't have any musical sense. They never sound as if they understand what they're playing. They play it perfectly, but somehow it just doesn't add up. All those perfect notes don't add up to a song. "Beyond this, there's a certain attitude that's necessary for the lead player--toward the men he's working with and toward the leader. A man can't be a good lead player if the fellows he's working with don't respect him. If they don't respect him, they're not going to cooperate, and you can't browbeat people into playing music. Music is not that sort of animal. You shouldn't, ordinarily, have to say a word to the other guys if the music is fairly well written. They should listen to you and piay with you. Your interpretation is definitive. Of course, sometimes the music is not plain enough. Or sometimes arrangers will mark phrasing on the music that turns out to be the opposite of what is required to make it fit with the rhythm section. When this happens, the lead player will ignore the markings, and nine times out of ten the arranger will look up and say, "Gee, thanks. Beautiful. It's just what I had in mind." Worrying about such niceties as making one's perfect notes add up to a song is a luxury of a few. Most people who try to play the trumpet find that their problems with it are as much physical as musical, the instrument evidently having been designed for maximum discomfort, annoyance, and a pain to the player. With a sensible instrument such as a clarinet or a saxophone, the sound is produced in part by the vibration of a reed. But in the case of the trumpet, the player must vibrate his lips, which are tightly pursed and then buzzed against a metal mouth-piece. During long performances, the muscles of the lips and face tire, and the lips may eventually give out and refuse to buzz. Playing in the high register of many instruments is largely a mechanical matter--pressing a different key or combination of keys, for instance. To play in the trumpet's high register, the player must press his lips tighter and tighter as he ascends, and provide more and more air pressure, supported by his diaphragm and by muscles in his back and elsewhere. This pressure further tires the mouth, and can also bring on leg and back aches. If the pressure is incorrectly applied, from the abdomen instead of the diaphragm, it can apparently cause a hernia. Normally, though it will produce nothing worse than dizziness and blackouts--the phenomenon discussed in the March 14, 7959 issue of the British Medical Journal, in the article by the late Dr. E. P. Sharpey-Schafer, who was professor of medicine at St. Thomas' Hospital, in London, and Maurice E. Faulkner, a 1 I professor of music at the University of California in Santa Barbara. "The effects [of playing the trumpet] on the circulation," they wrote, "are those of a formidable Valsalva maneuver [a hard nose-blow with the nostrils and mouth blocked]: peripheral venus valves shut and blood accumulates distal to them. The effective cardiac-filling pressure, stroke output, and mean arterial pressure fall off rapidly. After about 7 seconds the slight rise of arterial pressure indicates onset of reflex constriction, which persists, after cessation of blowing, during the overshoot. Since the brain is not protected by venous valves the supply pressure across it falls so that the cerebral blood flow may become inadequate during the period of blowing. More usually dizziness or blackout is maximal immediately on release of intrathoracic pressure...." Dr. Sharpey-Schafer, who made the observations while Faulkner played the horn, reported that Faulkner reached a mouth pressure of a hundred and sixty millimeters of mercury (about three pounds per square inch) while playing a high D. It would have been interesting if he had made similar measurements during a performance by a "commercial"--that is, a jazz or dance-band player, such as Glow, to compare with those of a "legitimate," or symphonic, player, such as Professor Faulkner. In the past twenty or thirty years, the commercial players have extended the range of the trumpet far beyond it's textbook limits: today they play in a register that the legitimate player would never attempt, and with a brute force that he would never employ. (Editor's note: The above is not entirely true. \Mhereas, the so-called "legit" players did not have to play in the upper register continuously (as a matter of course) as modern day demands, Herbert L. Clark finished a number of solos on a high "F", and the old St. Jacome books have exercises up to and including a high "F", albeit with disclaimers. The old Ernest Williams book has exercises in the upper register among others of the old school...now back to the Whitworth article) The range of the standard B-flat trumpet was once considered to be roughly from the F sharp below the staff to the high C above the staff. Commercial players are now expected to be able to play F's and G's above the high C all day, and some of them occasionally will play as high as the double C (an octave above high C), and even beyond. (Editors note... I once had a record of Doc Severinsen's on which he finished a piece with a very nice double E, but have forgotten the name. If anybody knows the record or piece, please let me know, at [email protected]) Trumpet playing has taken on a more athletic quality than ever, with each generation of players pushing the limits upward, like runners or pole-vaulters shooting for new records. Glow's preparation for this strenuous profession was literally perfect. He began his study of the trumpet, at the age of nine, with Max Schlossberg, 8 Io who was then the foremost trumpet teacher in this country and perhaps the world. His second teacher, after Schlossberg's death, was Harry Glantz, one of the great orchestral trumpet players, rn'ho played under Toscanini in the New York Phiiharmonic and N.B.C. Symphony, and his third teacher was Nat Prager, another great orchestral player. Glow's career was planned in some detail by his maternal grandfather, Sam Finkel, who had been a musician in Europe and then in the Yiddish theater in New York. Without consulting either the boy or his parents, Mr. Finkel announced one day that Bernie would be a musician-- specifically, a first-trumpet player in a symphony orchestra. Glow's father, who was in the millinery business, was not musical, but he didn't object, and neither did Glow himself. "In my family, I was not asked, I was told", Glow says. Luckily for him, his grandfather had known Schlossberg in Europe, and was able to persuade the great man, who had settled in New York around the turn of the century, to take Glow on as a pupil. Schlossberg, ill and only a few months away from death, had not been accepting beginners: his students were advanced players, many of them members of major orchestras. "lt was funny," Glow said recently, "I was a nine-year-old kid, and I'd come out of my lesson and there wouid be one of the guys from the Boston Symphony waiting his turn." For the first two weeks of his studies, Glow was not allowed to touch the trumpet. Scholssberg would let him do nothing but learn to set his lips correctly and make a sound with the mouthpiece. This was to insure that his embouchure, or position and use of the lips, would be perfectly formed: it was, and to this day Glow is grateful for this careful beginning, which he regards as the foundation of his present strength as a player. Glow was as bored by practicing as the next young musician, but his grandfather saw to it that he put in an hour a day on the horn. To impress upon the boy the desirability of playing things correctly, Mr, Finkel would call attention to any mistakes that Glow repeated by whacking him on the shoulder with a blackboard pointer. The Bronx, where Glow grew up, and Brooklyn, where he often played as a high school musician, seem to have been rich in musical talent during the thirties and forties. Glow played in teenage bands then with a number of boys who were to become famous jazz musicians, including Stan Getz, the tenor saxophonist, Tiny Kahn, the drummer, Shorty Rogers, the trumpet player and arranger and George Wallington, the pianist. In this fast company, Glow took his turn at improvising jazz solos--without much success, he now thinks. But he already knew that his real interest was playing lead in a section. He had made that decision during long afternoons at the Fiesta Danceteria, at Forty-second and Broadway, where he heard Snooþ Young play lead trumpet with the Jimmie Lunceford band, and at the Paramount Theater, where he heard Billy Butterfield with the Benny Goodman band. The soloists in these 9 t( bands impressed Glow, but the sound of the lead-trumpet players, soaring above the brass section, gave him the chills. Glow was precocious. At the age of sixteen, immediately after his graduation from high school, he became the lead-trumpet player with the Richard Himber Orchestra, and spent his first year on the road. At eighteen, he was with Xavier Cugat and then with Raymond Scott, playing a daiiy show on C.B.S. radio. At nineteen, he was playing lead with Artie Shaw, and at twenty with Boyd Raeburn. At twenty-three-an age at which some musicians have barely begun to travei--he retired from the road. This was in 1949, after more than a year with one of the best large groups in history, the Woody Herman band that was known as the Second Herd. For the next four years, Glow worked around New York in Latin bands, on radio shows, in theaters, in night clubs and on weekend dance jobs. Though he didn't think of it as such, this was the last phase of his education for the studio musician. By the time Glow was twenty seven, he not only was technically accomplished but was also schooled in a greater variety of musical styles than many trumpet players encounter in their whole career. From 1953 on, as his reputation grew in New York, he began to be called frequently for record dates and for television jobs as "The Milton Berle Show", "The Perry Como Show" and the "Tonight Show." He and Doc Severinsen, the virtuoso trumpet player who now leads the "Tonight Show" band, quickly came to be regarded as the successors to the top men in the previous generation of studio players. Despite his success, Glow has let his grandfather down, in a way, since Mr. Finkel's dream was that Glow would grow up to be a symphonic player. Glow is unrepentant for having strayed into jazz and studio work "It's really been fun," he says, "l'm a guy who's making a good living doing something he'd rather be doing than anything else in the world." He still remembers the sting of the blackboard point, though, and he rarely misses a note. Reprinted from the Dec. IO, L969 issue of The New Yorker Magaztne 10 fA READ THIS If You Are Considering Buying a BARGAIN INSTRUMENT http://wwwjohnnypaulsmusicshop.com/index.asp?PageAction:Custom&lD: l0 ItHl-.{NY FATIL'S t MTISTC SFIOP 'Home Store Contact Us Customer Login, Company Info Recommended Instru ment What about bargain internet instruments? Packages by School District Brass Accesscries questions Your Cart Is Empty Woodwind Accessories One of the most oft-asked I have to answer these days is concerning Accessories fc,r All Musicians low-cost instruments that are available on-line, or in the Big-Box stores. Percussion Ac:essories Jewelry and Gifts ffi TJH(# 5w'ìffi! ìEnter Email Here! coi ffi:.K t.fJ ¡-Select-- *,r_Gi ,-1 ."'E Are these instruments of quality? How can I tell? Why would I want to buy from READ MORE ABOUT US a high-priced local store when I can save so much money? Hopefully, I can MEET OUR ST.qFF answer some of these concerns here. Rachella Parks-Washington and the Sarcoidosis Foundation of Texas Our Services If you are a parent of a band or orchestra student trying to save money on a RENTALS good ¡nstrument for your child, you may want to search on-line. But be careful. Helping Your Child Form Good Price is usually a good indication of the quality of instrument you will get. In Practice Habits you get you pay READ THIS If You Are Considering other words, what for. I have seen many ads for instruments at Buying a BARGAIN INSTRUMENT ridiculously low prices, and I have had many of these instruments show up in my AACKK!! Read This If You Think musical groups. The best of them play ok, but don't play ok for very long. The Rental Instruments Cost Too play Much !! worst of these instruments don't as soon as you get them. Sure does make How Much Valve Oil is Too Much? it hard for your child to be successful! Keeping Costs Low for Beginning Musicians There are a few brands that I have seen being imported from overseas that look Are You Getting Quality Repairs? The Care & Feeding of Oboe & at first glance like quality instruments. One of my students had an inexpensive Bassoon Players import saxophone, and for the first few weeks, I was very impressed as she was I of 5 8/23/2006 4:31PM READ THIS If You Are Considering Buying a BARGAIN INSTRUMENT http://www johnnypaulsmusicshop.com/index.asp?PageAction:Custom&ID:10 TRUMPET OVERHAUL rN PTCTURES able to play as well as the other students in my group After a short time, however, the instrument became out of adjustment, and wouldn't play the low notes as well as the others. When the Mom took it to the repair shop, the repairman sa¡d that he couldn't work on it, as the keys would break and he couldn't get parts to replace them. When I called him to inquire further, he told me that the keys on this instrument were not brass or nickel silver, but merely a form of pewter, and while they looked good, when you tried to bend them back into adjustment they would break very easily. He also said that his shop had no luck with trying to resolder them. He added that since replacement parts were impossible to get, he couldn't guarantee the repairs, and would therefore not do them in the first place. So, rather than saving money, this family ended up having to buy another saxophone, and had a beautiful saxophone-shaped wall hanging. The instruments made in India/Pakistan/Brazil are just awful. They don't even LOOK like decent instruments. DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE!! As for strings, you WILL get what you pay for. The cheaper the ingredients, the worse the violin. Stained fingerboards instead of ebony, or really cheap ebony, bows that aren't straight from the beginning, frogs that can't possibly be f rehaired, and strings that sound like rubber bands are just a few of the problems you get with cheap stringed instruments. Chances are, you can't go wrong with the store your director guides you to. I have found that most stores have had to work hard to gaín the trust of directors, and they are not going to ruin that trust by selling you a crummy instrument. Remember, the better directors will insist on your child having a decent instrument in order for both student and director to enjoy a successful program, There are some Taiwan made instruments that are being imported now that are extremely quality, as in the Jupiter brands we carry. BUT these are being sold through major music stores (like us) that will back up your purchase with their own warranty. And, when you stick to a major brand, parts will always be readily available. When you get right down to it, the major stores really do give you a service for the extra money you spend. Just what is it you are paying for? 2of5 8/23/2006 4:31 PM READ THIS If You Are Considering Buying a BARGAIN INSTRUMENT htlp://wwwjohnnlpaulsmusicshop.com/index.asp?PageAction:Custom&lD:10 Usually a representative of the store makes a call to your school every week. If your child has a problem with the instrument (remember, these are children, rough and tumble), the store rep picks it up, takes it to the shop, brings it back, and bills you later, at no extra cost. They usually offer some kind of maintenance service, that covers most damage. If you get it back, and it still doesn't work, you know who to call, and don't have to re-ship it. This can be extremely important when you have both parents working and everyone is busy! The big music stores in your area probably have gotten a bad reputation for being expensive. If you decide to rent or rent-to-own your instrument, you are going to pay a premium for the luxury of being able to take it back, plunk it on the counter and say "I don't want it anymore. My child wants to quit music." However, if you will take a chance, inslst that your child make a commitment and stay in band for at least one year, and pay cash for an instrument, most of the big stores will give you a discount of up to 20 to 25 percent off of the list price. Many times, when you get ready to trade up to a better instrument, the store will give a discount to previous customers. If the sales person you are dealing with doesn't want to discount the price, ask to see the manager. Or take your *ì business to another store. When given a reasonable choice, I would always rather keep my money local. And please make sure you are getting a RENTAL-PURCHASE, and that you are not going to end up paying just straight rent. The better stores will have this arrangement, anyway. Remember, no matter how much money you save, you don't want to put your child in a position where they cannot succeed, no matter how hard they try. Don't stack the cards against them before they start. ADDED AFTER SUMMER 2OO3: We have had many band directors and customers ask us if we have seen the cheap band instruments at the Big Box Stores, and the answer is yes, we have. The policy at our shop is that we just cannot work on them. Most of the time we can't get parts, and we can't make them play, so we can't stand behind our 3 of 5 8123/20064:31PM READ THIS ff You Are Considering Buying a BARGAIN INSTRUMENT http://wwwjohnnypaulsmusicshop.com,/index.asp?PageAction:Custom&ID: l0 work. Most of the time, the keys on these inferior instruments are not even made of a metal we can solder. If we worked on these instruments, the customers would then be unhappy with our shop if we couldn't get them to work, or if they had to keep coming back to get them repaired. Then it would become our problem, and we are just not going to go there. so, here is my advice. If you are a parent, and you have bought one of these thinking that your child is going to be able to play it in band, check with your band director. If he or she is not happy with it, TAKE IT BACK IMMEDIATELY AND GETA REFUND!!! If you are a band director, call the stores and educate them. Tell them how much this is going to hurt your parents and your band program. They are usually sensitive to community complaints of this order. I would recommend calling the local manager first. Parents, let me tell you what is going to happen. I have been through this before with the cheap online instruments, both as a repair tech and as a band director. ImagÍne you are a parent who doesn't know anything about band and your son wants to play the trumpet. You don't have much money, and you aren't sure 6\ that your son is serious about band. You see the instruments at a chain store, and you see it as a low-cost alternative to the rental program. You buy a trumpet. Your son goes to school the next day. First the other kids tease him about his cheap trumpet. Then the band director goes ballistic and tells him that he will have to get another trumpet. By golly, you paid $_.00 for this trumpet and you think it is good enough. It looks good! Surely it is good enough, your son is just a beginner! So, you get your back up and refuse to get another trumpet. Three weeks go by, and you think you have gotten one over on that crazy band director. Then, your son sheepishly tells you that his valves on his trumpet won't move anymore. First, you ask him what he did to it. Then you think, oh well, we'll take it to the shop. The repair tech tells you that the valves are no good, and he cannot work on it. You find another repair shop, and the repair tech looks like he MIGHT know what he is doing. He says he can fix it, and he keeps it for 4 weeks and laps the valves in. You go and pick it up, and he charges you 975.00 or more. Now, the horn sounds like it has a rag stuck in it, but the valves seem to work. 4of5 8/23/2006 4:31 PM READ THIS If You A¡e Considering Buying a BARGAIN INSTRUMENT http:i/wwwjohnnypaulsmusicshop.com,i index.asp?PageAction:Custom&ID: l0 In the meant¡me, your son has been sitting at a table doing his homework during band class, because he doesn't have an instrument. When he gets it back, he is way beh¡nd, and the rest of the class is working on intonation. Your son doesn't understand why the band director keeps telling him he is not doing it right. That crazY band director wants that instrument to play perfectly in tune, and it won't. Not with the best player! So, now you must hurry and get your son a better instrument before it is too late. He is already "last chair", whatever that means, and he tells you he wants to quit band. You breathe a sigh of relief, since now you don't have to get another trumpet. You trudge up to the school to oK his schedule chanqe. Your son is now one step closer to the rabble-rousers who have been shuffled into another fine arts class. BUT, DON'T WORRY, THEY WILL MAKE HIM THINK IT IS COOL TO BE UNSUCCESSFUL. What a sad scenario. All because some of the large chain stores decided to get into the musical instrument business. They are going to sell you a product that they you -.J can't repair, service, or educate about. The good music stores and repair shops send a representative to your school every week to make sure your child has an instrument that will play, every day of rehearsal. Will the big chain stores do that for you? f doubt it, that's why Mars Music is now out of business! IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT T SAY, FIND A PROFESSIONAL AND ASK. CALL A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY MUSIC PROFESSOR, THEY WILL GIVE YOU AN UNBIASED OPINION. And that, dear folks, is my opinion. Thanks for reading, Jeanan Paul Powered By MonsterCommerce Shoppinq Cart Software 5 of5 8/23/2006 4:31PM ffa t Cou?u, J", *REPAIRS YOU CAN f)O'O TROUBLESHOOTING, TOOLS NEEDED, AND PERFORMING THE JOB CLARINET, ALTO CLARINET, AND BASS CLARINET 1. Check the pads with the D35 feeler gauge. 2. Replace pads with the L56 Micro torch, D44 pin vise, VPSK Valentino sampler, 4983 stick shellac, E33 pad slick, and D35 feeler gauge. 3. Adjust the bridge key with the T1671 duckbill pliers. 4. Adjust the crow's foot, or B and c adjustment with left hand pinky, with the T167l duckbill pliers and E33 pad slick. 5. Test for leaks using the blow test. Any kind of sterile medical tape will do. 6. Adjust the ring height with the E33 pad slick. 7. Replace broken tenon corks withthe VPSK Valentino sampler kit and T5020 bench vise. 8. Replace silencer corks with the R76 pad and cork cement, or H70 quick dry cork CONTACT cement, cooper razor blades, and cooper key cork assortment. FLUTE l. check the pivot points with the F66 and F67 swivel top screwdriver. 2. Adjust the flute, and check the pads with the D35 feeler gauge and F66 swivel top screwdriver. 3. Use the BLUE Cooper loc-tite for loose pivot screws and adjustment screws. 4. Check and tighten the head cork with the Cooper flute rod and T1730 slip joint pliers. 5. Replace the head cork with the T1730 pliers, R76 cork and pad cement, cooper sand paper, A474 flute head cork, T5020 benph vise, and cork grease. 6. Expand the foot and head tenons with the T1408 flute expander and the T5020 bench vise. 7. Shrink the tenon with the T1409 shrinking die. GOPER Band lnstrument and Repair Hal D. Gooper Jr 914 West Main - Russellvitle, AR 72801 (479) 567 -3273 - 1 -800-8 1 3-7333 /ø E-mail: hal @cooPermusic.com SAXOPHONE L Check the octave key adjustments with the D35 feeler gauge. 2. Check the pads with the Tl052leak light, or the D35 feeler gauge. 3. Replace bumper felts using the R76 cork and pad cement and Cooper felt assortrnent. 4. Add cork slivers to fix a leak using the D35 feeler gauge, R76 cork and pad cement, Cooper cork assortrnent, one of the Cooper blades, andD44 pin vise. 5. Replace key pearls with the R76 pad and cork cement and Cooper pearl assortment. 6. Adjustments on the saxophone. BRASS INSTRUMENTS-- '¡crtu ,^ *1c',vcr t;;&'*ii'5it,l"* -þl J 1. Pull stuck mouthpieces with the G88 mouthpiece puller, F5 rawhide mallet, and possibly the L56 micro torch. 2. Check water keys for leaks with the D35 feeler gauge. 3. Replace water key corks with the D35 feeler gauge and the Cooper water cork assortment. 4. Remove frozen valve caps withthe F5 rawhide mallet. .,'ft,.r,r vLlr,,l.,uit r, f*¡ 4til 5. ReplacewaterkeyspringswiththeA356 andA354waterkeysprings.,. ;r) û- jointswith 6. Soider broken ttre L56 Micro torch and Cooper soft solder kit.-¡^.Ílit. :" 'f-- 1à) 7. Adjust the 2nd i¿u" slide tubes on the tn¡mpet when thã hom is placed, or olYc#'"!"o,^ , . i;. dropped,onthewrongside. - uJä*ä,Ïä:iï)iv¡¡vr'¡ÈrPr*vsu'vr "4^:-t"K- 8. Swab the valve casings and lube sluggish valves with the Cooper flute rod, ¡o;â' li''' WD40, valve oil, and flannel square. (,a l(cet 9. Swab trombone slides with the Cooper trombone cleaning rod, WD40, flannel square, and T5020 bench vise. 10. True a mouthpiece shank with the Cooper mouthpiece trueing tool, F5 rawhide mallet, and T5020 bench vise. o hs<, ftcalt e nc Cu.lt s" t1 TOOLS, SUPPLIES, AI\D PRICES l. D35 feeler gauge $25.80 2. L56 micro torch $63.00 3. E33 pad slick $3.60 4. D44pinvise $6.75 5. H70 contact cement $4.00 6. H70S contact cement solvent $4.75 7. F66 deluxe swivel top screwdriver $15.00 8. F67 deluxe swivel top screwdriver $15.00 9. F72 deluxe swivel top screwdriver {LARGE} for sax, bass clarinet, bassoon pivot screws $24.00 10. G88 mouthpiece puller $78.00 11. F5 rawhide mallet $12.00 12. A983 stick shellac $4.00 13. T167 I duck bill pliers {smooth jaw} $30.00 14.T1730 deluxe slip joint pliers $30.00 15. T5020 bench vise $28.00 16. T1408 flute expander $61.50 17 . T1409 flute tenon shrinking die $61 .00 18. 4356 water key spring 12@ 56.00 19. 4354 water key spring {the inside spring on Conn water keys} 12@ 6.00 20.T1606 screw driver set {plastic handles} set of 6 $26.50 21. VPSK Valentino sampler kit {pads, corks} $129.50 ZZ.Medical tape $4.50 23. Cooper razorblades {5 blades} $4.00 24. Cooper key cork assortment and flute head cork $4.00 25. Cooper loc tite {blue} $7.50 26. Cooper flute rod #17001 $4.00 27. Cooper sand paper assortment $2.00 28. Selmer cork grease #6029 $3.00 29. Cooper felt assortment {sar bumper, disk, top cap} $4.00 30. Cooper key pearl assortment {6 pearls} $4.00 3l . Cooper water cork assortment { 12 corks} $5.00 32. Cooper soft solder kit {contains flux, soft solder, and sand paper} $12.00 33. WD40 $2.50 34. Cooper valve oil #6009 $3.00 35. Ftannel squares {10 4"/4"squares} $5.00 36. Cooper trombone cleaning rod #17003 $7.50 37. Cooper mouthpiece trueing tool #3028 $25.95 38. Allied supply leak light #T1052 $140.00 h)