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Looking around my websites and disk storage archives I realized that I did not document my restoration of a very desirable old trombone that I ‘got for a song’ because it was screamingly ugly, non-functional, and in need of quite a lot of work. I am rectifying the lack of documentation today.
Nine years ago I got to hankering for a particular vintage jazz horn from Conn instrument company’s heyday, the apex of their evolution in Elkhart, Indiana when the craftsmen, culture, design and materials came together to make some of the finest brass instruments EVER.
In […]
After four years of wishing I could find, and looking for someone to play trombone with, I began growing my own trombone trio. I found a couple of lads interested in learning, gave them each a trombone and began giving lessons near weekly.
As with nearly everything else I do, I am underqualified, but the best I can find who will actually get the job done. In this case, both are in homeschooled families, so I am The Music Department of their school.
I bought other instruments, and gave a few lessons, but the trombonists are the only […]
You know you like it.
You run your electronic music-producing electronics A LOT.
Those of you who play a musical instrument, or sing feel good while you are doing it, as well as afterwards.
Numerous studies show increased health, learning ability, brain capacity and more in those who make music – in any way… that includes the didgeredoo, the love of one co-author in the article below.
The two of them studied and quantified the effects. Add this as one more research article supporting musicianship as a positive for humans.
Click the links to the article for the whole […]
I “won” an eBay auction on a horn I just had to hold. It is probably around a 1950 build from Elkhart, Indiana – a time and place some famously good playing horns came from.
For $68 + $38 shipping, I HAD TO take the chance I would score another nice playing horn … I’ve been pretty lucky at buying and restoring lately.
It is an American Triumph made by Harry Pedler … the production line and artisans that became Conn, that produced my Conn 6H, among other vintage desirables.
My initial straightening of quite badly bent inner slides […]
There! You can read music.
With our mud room added on, I needed a way to let guests announce their arrival. Knocking on the old front door wasn’t going to work if they couldn’t get to it.
I theorized a ship’s bell might turn the trick. I found a new one on the Internet, but found a bigger, older, heavier one that I lusted after as I suspected it might be heavier, louder and cooler… probably having served a long and full life on an actual SHIP. It was missing its clapper, but I knew I could figure something out.
There was A LOT […]
Highly esteemed among brass musicians are the horns Conn made in Elkhart, Indiana before the company walked away from the community and craftsmen assembled there. Among the hand-made, professional-grade trombones handcrafted in that period are the highly regarded 6Hs, which were a little bit larger in bore than was the norm at that time. They proved to be a great design with a sweet tone in all ranges and tremendous penetration for solo and jazz work.
I have read much of these and wished time, place and finances would give me the opportunity to play a few […]
I WON!!! I tripped over a long lusted after Conn 6H on e-bay that went for well-below-market value. It was a gamble on quality that turned out okay. It arrived yesterday with 3 mouthpieces … more on the horn later. This occasioned a gathering, mass cleaning and analysis of what I have in the way of mouthpieces.
I arranged them by width of the backbore and there was a steady bore shrinkage even among what I would have assumed to be identical 6 1/2 ALs.
back row, left to right: Yamaha 47, highly tarnished silver Conn 3, […]
Christmas found me the happy new owner of a used bass guitar. I finally fit it neatly into my studio space with a wall hanger. It is just around the corner from the south window, next to the practice amp and very easy to grab’n’play anytime the mood strikes.
The hanger is a steel plate, two rods welded in at slight upward and outward angles, covered with some rubber tubing to be gentle on my guitar.
I just have to love Craigslist… repurpose, recycle, re-use.
I needed an amp for my new bass guitar and someone who had one did not. For less than half the price of a new one, I got a near-new one.
Two bonuses were a stand which I may want someday and a 17′ monster cable that is of higher quality than I was going to afford. Altogether, one heck of a deal.
Now to figure out how to use it all.
It has spent years on my “Want List” without rising high enough in priority to happen. Bass guitar would be a great compliment to my trombone playing utilizing other muscles when my embouchure is exhausted.
Significantly, the bass establishes the chords in every beat of every measure. Knowing this pattern and information is important to anyone trying to solo on the tunes, such as a lead trombone player. Thus, learning the bass will make me a better trombone player.
Another feature of the bass, is that unlike the trombone, bass players are in extremely high demand. Check […]
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