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Bach Trumpet Comparison – 190 37 v 43
My good friends at Thompson Music sent me a couple of Bb trumpets the other day and I would like to share my thoughts. My last couple of posts have been comparisons of mouthpieces and C trumpets. During that process I discovered, and fell in love with the Bach C190 "Cleveland". Bach has taken some of the concepts in that horn and put out a 190 series in their Bb trumpet line. I believe the initial offering in the 190 series were their Artisan Trumpets. I owned an Artisan C and Bb for a few…
Your Host
David Cooper is the host and author of All Things Trumpet; the blog for research, education and reviews of musical issues pertaining to the trumpet.
UW-Platteville Director of Jazz Studies – Trumpet
Madison Symphony Orchestra
Conn-Selmer Artist
C Trumpet Comparison: Bach’s Cleveland vs. Chicago
Perhaps it's the time of year with ITG around the corner that gets me thinking about comparing equipment and/or general nerding out on trumpet...And, while this years' ITG has great content and I'm really looking forward to it, I will miss the…
Mouthpiece Comparison – AR 42 vs Bach Artisan 1.5
Perhaps it's the time of year with ITG around the corner that gets me thinking about comparing equipment and/or general nerding out on trumpet...And, while this years' ITG has great content and I'm really looking forward to it, I will miss the…
Wisconsin State Honors trumpet etude 2022
Hi everyone, Well, I'm at it again and looking for a new trumpet! Those that know me know I have a C AR Resonance. I got that horn to match my dearly beloved AR Bb Suprema. The Classica C is the nicest C trumpet I have ever played and I will miss…
2 new CDs for sale!
Hi everyone, I have 2 new CDs for sale in my shop. Please check them out. 3 American Concertos isn't exactly "new" it's just that I haven't put it up for sale on this site till now. I had an idea that it would be a good thing to record some…
Pietzsch 12
This Etude #12 exposes flaws in your fundamentals and intonation like very few etudes I've ever seen! And, if you can get to the last couple measures, they are super painful after everything you've been through throughout the etude. This is a…
Pietzsch 11
Pietzsch #11 features some close-interval slurring in the mid to upper register which makes this one especially tiring! The top of page 2 gave me some trouble with fingerings in the low register. I probably should have worked on this one more…
Pietzsch 10
Pietzsch #10 is a nice one. It has some broad playing, orchestral dotted eighth-sixteenths, close-interval slurs and double-tonguing. A little something for everyone! In areas of lower register there are some nasty cross fingerings so start those…
Pietzsch 9
Really only one thing to say about #9 - Double Tonguing. Well ok, I guess that's two things... http://allthingstrumpet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Pietzsch-9.mp3
Hindemith Sonata for Trumpet and Piano
Title Sonata for Trumpet and Piano op. 137 (1939) Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) Biographical Info The sonata opens with the trumpet proclaiming a sturdy theme over piano figuration to the performance direction mit Kraft (with strength). Two more ideas…
Enescu – Legende
Title Legende (1906) George Enescu (1881-1955) Biographical Info Pablo Casals described Enescu as "the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart" and "one of the greatest geniuses of modern music". Queen Marie of Romania wrote in her memoirs that "in…
Buechner – Suite for Solo Trumpet
Title Suite for Solo Trumpet Zachary Buechner (b. 1995) Biographical Info This Suite was conceived as much out of boredom as well as it was a desire to help expand the repertoire of solo trumpet music. Most of the music was written during my final…
Tom Harrell
As most of you are aware I'm a huge Tom Harrell fan. (Need proof, check out my shop.) I've had the opportunity to see him perform live about a dozen times and last night at the Jazz Estate in Milwaukee, I got to see him again in a quartet setting.…
Pietzsch 8
Pietzsch #8 strikes me as a very "orchestral" sounding etude. Meaning, I want to play with a big, broad sound and play the dotted rhythms as squarely as possible. I don't mean square as in a non-jazz sense but I'm thinking the shapes of squares…
Pietzsch 7
This one is quite a physical workout. Lots of "Clark-like" slurring in the mid to upper register. It helps me to think of creating a really good foundation of air - "bedrock" - and focus on using my embouchure and aperture to manipulate the pitches.…
Pietzsch 6
This was kind of an annoying little etude, in my opinion. But, a good workout for triple tongue. Be careful that the occasional slurred triplet like the ones that occur on beat two of the first two measures stays a triplet and doesn't turn into…
Musician Etiquette
Doing a quick search for "Musician Etiquette" will bring up dozens of hits like this one. I've read through a bunch of them and they all share good common sense advice. So, I thought I might as well post a set of etiquette ideas on this site as…
Pietzsch 5
I chose to do this one as a slow double-tongue but there would also be benefit in doing it as a fast single-tongue. I focused on relaxing the articulation to flow and try not to sound "pecky". About halfway down the first page there are some…
Sight Reading
Who wants to do some sight reading!? Who wants to do some sight reading in front of your teacher!? How about in front of a jury committee? Or, how about sight reading at an audition for your “dream job”? I am guessing that these ideas were not…
Just Another Song and Dance
I had a teacher say to me a long time ago that all music, whether it is a piece, movement, section or phrase, falls in to one of two categories; it’s either a song or a dance. What he meant by that is our interpretation is guided by a set of…
Friedman Solus
Title Solus Four Movements for Unaccompanied Trumpet (1975) Stan Friedman (1951 - ) Biographical Info STANLEY FRIEDMAN'S music has been premiered by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, l'Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Los Angeles Philharmonic…
My Ideal
Hello everyone. I created this website to be a resource for educational thoughts and posts. I've tried to not use it as a platform to advertise my gigs and other self-promotion. However, this particular post is just simply documentation of one of…
Mad Toast Live! w/Johannes
A few years back UW-Madison hired Johannes Wallmann to head their jazz program. He is a pianist, composer and educator and now good friend. As way of "introducing himself" to our music community he put together a few very cool musical projects.…
Pietzsch 4
This one incorporates some triple tonguing. For these moving triplets I used TTK. That seems to get a better flow for me where TKT creates more rhythmic emphatic-ness. Think of slightly crescendo-ing through the triplets. This will keep the air…
Have You Met Miss Jones?
“Have You Met Miss Jones” is a tune written by Richard Rodgers for the musical comedy “I’d Rather Be Right”. Lyrics were written by Lorenz Hart. This tune has been recorded and performed by many notable jazz musicians. It’s a common jam session tune…
Pietzsch 3
This one looks intimidating at first. But after you get into it you should find that it lies pretty idiomatically. There are lots of arpeggios, major, dominant and minor, that have a lowered half-step as the second note of the triplet. Good luck…
All the Things You Are
All the Things You Are A very informative resource site for getting the basics for tunes is learnjazzstandards.com Once there, you can search for a tune and, as in this case, many options for blog entries come up. If you click the link above it will…
Pietzsch 2
My summer project is to record all the Pietzsch Etudes (22). I am using #13 for the ensemble audition requirement for the trumpets at UW-Platteville, so I thought that I would make a demo recording of it for them. That little project was so much…
Pietzsch 1
My summer project is to record all the Pietzsch Etudes (22). I am using #13 for the ensemble audition requirement for the trumpets at UW-Platteville, so I thought that I would make a demo recording of it for them. That little project was so much…
Pietzsch Etude 13
My summer project is to record all the Pietzsch Etudes (22). I am using #13 for the ensemble audition requirement for the trumpets at UW-Platteville, so I thought that I would make a demo recording of it for them. That little project was so much…
A Tale of Three Tom Crowns
Here is an incredibly “trumpet-nerdy” post for all you trumpet-nerds, like me. I recently bought two Tom Crown straight mutes, an all-brass Gemini, and aluminum with the brass bottom Gemini. I have owned over a dozen straight mutes over the years…