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Review of the New Bach C Trumpets and Eb

Just had a chance to try the new line of Bach Artisan C trumpets as well as the "Philly" and "Chicago" C trumpets. For me, the "Philly" C was great. I loved the response, flexibility, intonation, and sound of all the C's I tried. The "Chicago" model was quite good as well, but was a bit more zippy for me. Both instruments were close in feel and response. I preferred the "Philly" model. Very nice horn! I was quite surprised to find I didn't like the Artisan Model. It was a good horn with nice color, but I felt the flexibility was a bit stiff, and the sound was good, but different enough for me to prefer the "Philly" sound. I felt there were some standard intonation issues that didn't work so well for me. Unfortunately, I didn't get to try a silver plated one as someone bought it before the day began. Jury is still out for me on this. But, I can't imagine the flexibility issues (for me) will change on the s...

Instinct response part IV

I have an adult student who is a thoracic doc with whom I have great conversations about breathing. Teaching him has helped me really define, verbally, control of proper air flow for trumpet playing so there isn't a contradiction between medical functionality and teacher description. He has such an understanding of function of the lungs that he processes what I describe through his thorough lens. With all my students I do my best to avoid too much technical vocabulary and keep things simple and easy to understand with my vast wardrobe of analogies. Vincent Penzarella has said it best, "Exhalation is inhalation without hesitation". Now, this is an advanced concept, so although my students hear me say this, I give lots of examples of what this means. For years I did not breath deep enough and move my air fast enough and still sounded decent. Having a deep understanding of the importance of a very deep, relaxed inhalation and pushing out my exhalation...

Life in the pit I spend many, many hours in pits performing shows. While what you see in the seats of a show is quite different and exciting, most musicians get barely a glimpse of what's happening on stage, if at all. Here is a video of me in cramped quarters playing a demanding show, Newsies, which is a terrific show to play with temps that are not ideal. You barely take the horn off your face, as you can see in the video, going from loud, rhythmic playing to soft delicate entrances. The quality of the recording isn't great as it's from my phone, as you can see, but it gives you an idea of what goes on in a pit. Enjoy!

CT Trumpet Lessons, Performing Artist, Badollet Ensemble

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