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Typo, sorry.

Vincent Cichowicz of the CSO…

the elephant wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:14 am Typo, sorry.

Vincent Cichowicz of the CSO…

Thanks, I was just razzin'. I meant, which book?

... didn't his family invent those tiny little pieces of different colored chewing gum?

bloke wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 1:31 pm ... didn't his family invent those tiny little pieces of different colored chewing gum?

Sorry, that was Jean-Claude Chiclet of the BSO.

Bubblegum Sinfonietta Outfit ?

arpthark wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 11:11 am

the elephant wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:14 am Typo, sorry.

Vincent Cichowicz of the CSO…

Thanks, I was just razzin'. I meant, which book?

No book by his own pen. He compiled a studio manual (Northwestern) of a ton of <ahem> borrowed materials that in my copy largely lack attribution. And (of course) I play his airflow exercises every day, religiously.

Someone previously said something about just playing music instead of playing musical studies. I think playing music with other people is a skill that is difficult to acquire when practicing alone, per Buddy Rich:

I don't put much emphasis on practice anyhow. I think it's a fallacy to believe that the more you practice, the better you become. You can only get better by playing. You can sit in a basement with a set of drums and practice rudiments all day long, but if you don't play with a band, you won't learn style, technique, and taste, and you won't learn how to play for a band and with a band. It's like getting a job, any kind of job, it's an opportunity to develop. And practice, besides that, is boring. I know teachers who tell their students to practice three, four, six hours a day. If you can't get what you want after an hour of practice, you're not going to get it in four days.

... the caveat being that I suspect percussion instruments learn their phrasing from pitched instruments, and pitched instruments learn their phrasing from the voice.

Another thing is that Buddy Rich was an exception, and exceptional.

That having been said, I don't consider myself to be anywhere nearly as quick a study as Buddy Rich was - nor nearly as talented, but I've never been a four to six hour practicing person, and I found time to master quite a few things with an hour or two a day - when I've actually regularly practiced.

I realize that people are tired of reading this in my posts, but one thing I never devote time and energy towards is some sort of "routine". I just dig right in and start working on stuff that I need to improve, rather than some mindless time consuming sound generation. If I decide that I do need to work on scales or long tones, I will practice them on a given day, but don't incorporate anything into anything called a "routine".

I did that for two or three years when I was in my early twenties, but I later viewed it as a mental hang up and some sort of ritual that must be paid in order to give myself permission to play well.

related, but something else:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/3446592742225840

I mentioned playing unaccompanied tunes (music) rather than playing studies / exercises / scales, etc. Tunes works best for me but it might not suit others. Of course, when I’m wanting to develop or bolster a particular skill, there are times when studies and exercises can really help. For me it’s a case of:
# Play tunes and - having identified weaknesses whist doing so - build skills via exercises, etc., that allow me to play tunes better.
# Work on Band parts that are giving me problems.
# Enjoy the bulk of your practise time - studies / exercises / scales are not what most folk would call fun activities.

The comments by Buddy Rich seen pretty solid to me. Practise is all well and good but we shouldn’t loose sights of its purpose which normally is to enable us to play well with others, and we also learn when playing (rehearsing) with others. Of course there are exceptions in that some instruments are predominantly played in isolation, the Piano and the Organ come to mind but doubtless there are others too.

I spend a good bit of time with Bach.

I might have several dance movements (slow/medium/fast) that might possibly be worked up well enough to play in public with the great big B flat tuba (more with the F, but I'm striving to master the big instrument, whereby I'm quite comfortable with the F that I've owned for four decades).

I don't really approach the Bach dance movements as romantic era solo pieces, but (well...) as dancing accompaniments, and struggle to find places to take in air quickly and efficiently while also striving to preserve the pulse. It's very difficult for me (with the behemoth B-flat), and I improve from approaching them in this manner.

bloke wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 8:18 am I spend a good bit of time with Bach.

Wasn't aware you made it out to Leipzig very frequently.

serious: 'cello suites, or another set?

mostly cello dance mvts.

Reminds me, I need to pull out the ol' Wiener Urtext Edition here soon. Playing circus screamers (much to the delight of my 8-month-old, somehow) only does so much for phrasing/musicality.

arpthark wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 9:12 am Reminds me, I need to pull out the ol' Wiener Urtext Edition here soon. Playing circus screamers (much to the delight of my 8-month-old, somehow) only does so much for phrasing/musicality.

I sat in with one of the local community bands last week with the Big B flat. They pulled out Thunder and Blazes/Entry of the Gladiators... I don't think I've ever played it on B-flat before, and I read it pretty well. Maybe I'm coming along...??

@the elephant

Would this be that collection?

https://www.trumpetworx.com/wp-content/ ... tudies.pdf

No, but most of that is in the book I have. Mine is much older and was put together by VC himself without any collaboration. I supposed it needed a lot of cleaning up and he had your version created. Mine has about twice this much material and did not have his flow studies at the beginning, which were in a stapled packet of like five or ten sheets and stuffed into the front of the book. I got it in the 1980s and it was very old by then. I think this is the "official" copy that was for sale in the school bookstore in the 1990s. But I don't know. What I have came from one of his students from back in the mid-1970s; he had a copy shop in Brooklyn make up a dozen or so bound copies and I got one of them. I can't even begin to play some of the stuff in the back. (It is beyond me, technically, and it is almost impossible to read, too. This may have led to the newer "edited" copy you shared. By the way, I snagged a copy of it. Thanks!)

I don't know if I even found the right thread, but I always really liked the Maxime-Alphonse horn etude books. Very melodic and musical. The more advanced ones are the better ones. I found them on imslp but don't know if they are legal in the US.

Mary Ann wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 3:27 pm I don't know if I even found the right thread, but I always really liked the Maxime-Alphonse horn etude books. Very melodic and musical. The more advanced ones are the better ones. I found them on imslp but don't know if they are legal in the US.

Looks like those were published before 1928, so they are in the public domain in the USA. I'll check 'em out.

https://imslp.org/wiki/200_%C3%89tudes_ ... e,_Maxime)

Reading all that treble clef music, you will be ready to play your Eb 4-valve comp in a British style brass band in no time! Seriously, late last summer I had the opportunity to get a really good deal on a B&H 921 first generation Sovereign cornet in incredible shape for its age (@1977). I have had more fun with that horn, since I do play upper brass in a couple of smaller ensembles, that anything else recently. I find that playing those parts and listening to the band from this different perspective helps me listen and support better the ensembles in which I play tuba. Thanks.