I suddenly have the urge to play trumpet

Cranky

Chalky said:

Cranky said:

^^^ ha, yeah, not even close.   Also I live on a 1-acre lot, so no worries for any of my neighbors.

But more importantly, I would like to update this thread.  It’s a flugelhorn that I’m after, not a trumpet.  The flugel darn near brings a tear to my eye.

Flugelhorn is really beautiful.  Bit harder to play in tune than the other two.  I've got an older French Couesnon but most folks these days go for one based on the Yamaha YFH631 design with the third valve trigger.  Slightly easier for tuning but not quite such a sweet tone.  Beware of mouthpiece taper differences between US, French and Japanese models.

Flugelhorn is mine.  I will stick with the stock mouthpiece at least until I get the hang of things.

I don’t even feel remotely bad about this.  I’m wildly excited.  I’m working on sight reading and piano, relearning guitar, bass mandolin and ukulele to be conscientious about notes and harmony, and now my brass section.  My theory has come along these past couple of years and a melodic instrument like this will help all of that plus my ear training.  And it’s a flugelhorn!  The sound just melts my heart.

Helps, I suppose, that I got a solid deal on an intermediate-level horn, a Bach fh600.  If it comes to it (which it won’t), I won’t lose much or any money on it.  But mainly I just don’t like “beginner” equipment that is of such questionable quality that it makes people not want to play.  I’m a grownup.  I’m spending money on nice things for myself and anyone else that I love.

There may be a cornet on the horizon, too.

Chalky

Cranky said:

Chalky said:

Cranky said:

^^^ ha, yeah, not even close.   Also I live on a 1-acre lot, so no worries for any of my neighbors.

But more importantly, I would like to update this thread.  It’s a flugelhorn that I’m after, not a trumpet.  The flugel darn near brings a tear to my eye.

Flugelhorn is really beautiful.  Bit harder to play in tune than the other two.  I've got an older French Couesnon but most folks these days go for one based on the Yamaha YFH631 design with the third valve trigger.  Slightly easier for tuning but not quite such a sweet tone.  Beware of mouthpiece taper differences between US, French and Japanese models.

Flugelhorn is mine.  I will stick with the stock mouthpiece at least until I get the hang of things.

I don’t even feel remotely bad about this.  I’m wildly excited.  I’m working on sight reading and piano, relearning guitar, bass mandolin and ukulele to be conscientious about notes and harmony, and now my brass section.  My theory has come along these past couple of years and a melodic instrument like this will help all of that plus my ear training.  And it’s a flugelhorn!  The sound just melts my heart.

Helps, I suppose, that I got a solid deal on an intermediate-level horn, a Bach fh600.  If it comes to it (which it won’t), I won’t lose much or any money on it.  But mainly I just don’t like “beginner” equipment that is of such questionable quality that it makes people not want to play.  I’m a grownup.  I’m spending money on nice things for myself and anyone else that I love.

There may be a cornet on the horizon, too.

We don't see many Bach flugelhorns in the UK compared to say Yamaha and Yamaha copies so I've not played one.  But Bach's reputation on high end trumpets make me think it sounds beautiful:)

Cranky

^^^ I was looking for the best combination of reputable builder, used condition and price.  It was looking like I’d get an intermediate level Yamaha until I found that Bach, which I read great reviews on.

Middling Yamaha cornets are much easier to find.  I can grab a good condition MIJ horn for around $250.

I also came across a Thomann flugel of the same model, FH-600, which I steered clear of for obvious reasons.  But I wondered if the folks at Bach had a problem with Thomann, of Harley Benton fame, ripping off their exact model/name.

Chalky

Thomann have used the FH600 model name since 2004 so they must have got over it by now.  They sell the Stradivarius line of Bach instruments.

Teyeplayer

Buy a Kazoo, shove it up your arse and fart -you are 95% of the way there and only 1% of punters will be able to tell the difference. It’s the brass answer to the Tonemaster range.

roberty

A gentleman is someone who can play the trumpet* but chooses not to









*insert basically any instrument into this joke format

Cranky

Teyeplayer said:

Buy a Kazoo, shove it up your arse and fart -you are 95% of the way there and only 1% of punters will be able to tell the difference. It’s the brass answer to the Tonemaster range.

You know what’s funny but not unsurprising is that the horn/trumpet forums have the same stupid, passive aggressive arguments the we guitar players have about student/entry-level vs pro/expensive gear.

Cranky

roberty said:

A gentleman is someone who can play the trumpet* but chooses not to









*insert basically any instrument into this joke format

Except banjo.

No gentleman knows how to play banjo.

Teyeplayer

Cranky said:

Teyeplayer said:

Buy a Kazoo, shove it up your arse and fart -you are 95% of the way there and only 1% of punters will be able to tell the difference. It’s the brass answer to the Tonemaster range.

You know what’s funny but not unsurprising is that the horn/trumpet forums have the same stupid, passive aggressive arguments the we guitar players have about student/entry-level vs pro/expensive gear.

Doesn’t surprise me, we all have similar mindsets just different instruments. 

For what it’s worth, I loved my Tonemaster and will no doubt have another before long, but the kazoo joke was just too easy. 

Cranky

The update you all have been waiting for.

It took forever to get my budget cornet repaired and cleaned.  I practiced a little, but with a lot of interruptions.  But I’ve been able to put in 15-20 minutes a day the past couple weeks, building up the face muscles and working on my embouchure.  I think I have that muscle memory down pretty well, especially compared to when I first started.  I initially struggled to play higher than the first G (concert pitch, but in brass they call it a G I guess), so only the first five notes of the scale.  But suddenly I have a two-octave range, from low G to high G.  I can’t hold the high G very long at all, but it’s fun just playing the open notes up and down and getting stronger like that.

Another improvement I’ve noticed is that, initially, my airflow was disrupted anytime I changed the valves and I would have to take a breath just to change notes.  Now I’m able to play a little more legato.

A fun practice has been to loop a guitar chord progression in either Bb major or G minor and practice my corner scale to it.

But the spit valves, tho!  From what I’ve read it might be at least partly due to condensation (my house has a humidifier running throughout), but they seem to require emptying a lot.  Not something a guitar player is used to.

I’ve had less success and less practice on the flugelhorn because I’m focusing on cornet for chops-building purposes.  I’m hoping to set aside time for proper lessons after New Year, to work on breathing, endurance, instrument maintenance, and sight reading.  Flugel proficiency is the long term goal, though.  

viz

1) don’t stop. 

2) keep going!

Awesome stuff. 

Chalky

Have you tried recording your cornet playing? Or playing close to a window or mirror?  One of the challenges with brass instruments is that the sound/tone/timbre can be very different when comparing the sound you hear as the player behind the bell and the sound heard out front of the bell.

Also, flugelhorn mouthpieces are often a deeper cup for the more mellow sound.  If you have a shallow cup on your cornet, making it easier to play higher notes, you might struggle when moving to the deeper cup.  Some find it better to play both regularly to 'keep their lip in', and get the embouchure used to the difference.  The pitch on the flugelhorn is more squirrelly too, so parallel practice can help with that.

Cranky

^^^ yeah I definitely notice the difference going from cornet to flugel with the embouchure.  I thought the cornet’s smaller mouthpiece would be the more challenging one, but now that I’m used to it the flugel is the one making me work harder.  I haven’t played either up against a window or recording, but recording isn’t a bad idea.

Cornet is easier to practice mainly because I have a mute for it.  I can pick it up any time of day until it’s time to read to the kiddos at night and it won’t bother anyone.

I’ve been able to hit concert E (technically it’s a D on piano) for a couple nights straight, pretty much at will as long as my chops aren’t tired.  I think it would be E7, is that the E above the staff?  I can play the scale from middle C down to G, and then from middle C up two octaves and two more steps.  (I haven’t bothered trying valved notes above C5 yet).  I plan on spending another week or so just riffing and working on strength and muscle memory so that I can hit all the open notes intentionally, at will.

Such a great change of pace from guitar.

tone1

I wonder if there’s a trumpet forum on the internet, where like minded folk obsess about brass polish and other trumpet related paraphernalia? Oh, and argue about shit….

dcg

Perfectly reasonable, and clearly not an impulse, so go for it - and good luck.  One of my favourite moments in music is when Chet Baker takes his solos on Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding...

Cranky

tone1 said:

I wonder if there’s a trumpet forum on the internet, where like minded folk obsess about brass polish and other trumpet related paraphernalia? Oh, and argue about shit….

Trumpet forums look pretty dormant if not dead.  I signed up for one just the other day, but it doesn’t even have a mobile version of the site so it’s a ***** to read.  It did introduce me to Paul Mayes aka TheTrumpetProf on YT, though, who’s helped me a lot just over the past week.  For the first couple months as I struggled to get up to the second C, I wondered if I’d met my match.  But Mayes has me more than an octave beyond that in a fraction of the time.

prowla

viz said:

1) don’t stop. 

2) keep going!

Awesome stuff. 

Yep - a real hoot!

sev112

Tone-brass must be a thing, and lacquer makes a difference 

seriously though, air temperature and humidity must be relevant on any one day ?

Cranky

sev112 said:

Tone-brass must be a thing, and lacquer makes a difference 

seriously though, air temperature and humidity must be relevant on any one day ?

Going by my spit values it sure seems relevant.

I’ve read that silver horns sound better.  **** if I know.  But I do think they look better.

guitarjack66

axisus said:

Cranky said:

^^^ ha, yeah, not even close.   Also I live on a 1-acre lot, so no worries for any of my neighbors.

But more importantly, I would like to update this thread.  It’s a flugelhorn that I’m after, not a trumpet.  The flugel darn near brings a tear to my eye.

There's an instrument that can bring a tear to my eye, but I realise that if I bought one I would never get remotely near to the standard that does that. 


There would be tears in my eyes if I put the instrument that I play in the parts of the body suggested by my listeners.