A New Trumpet

Some of you may remember that a million years ago, I was actually a trumpet player who pursued the instrument all the way through to a Master's Degree. Some of you may have a hard time believing this because you either know me as a guy who does bike sales or a singer/guitar player.

Well, I do still play trumpet occassionally and now it may have to be less occasionally since I finally purchased a new instrument. After grad school, I gradually sold off most of my horns in order to purchase things that were of a more pressing need (guitars, amps, pedals). The last horn I sold off was my Yamaha Bb that I bought in undergrad that was a large bore, heavy walled instrument that was really a great horn, but more horn than my occasional trumpet playing tendencies could handle. I sold it on eBay and bought a Blessing ML-1 Bb trumpet and a guitar amp.

For awhile I thought the Blessing would work out alright for me. After all, it's not like I was getting the chance to play alot. That changed when I started teaching a few students at the University of Sioux Falls for the Fall '06 semester. I quickly learned the limits to the instrument. It would be great as a lead instrument for a jazz big band, but too bright and unwieldy for most other applications. Demonstrating technique or any kind of nuance of sound that required more subtlety or a slightly darker tone was nearly impossible.

Had I been teaching last fall, I probably would have made this purchase sooner, but I held out since I didn't have any driving motivation without regular opportunities to play. I have the chance to play on the USF faculty recital in the fall now and decided that I needed to make the change now in order to give myself time to get back in shape, pick a piece and beat it into a state of performance readiness.

I started asking around about instruments at the local shops awhile ago and just kept checking in over time. Finally, Sioux Falls Music had a French Besson C trumpet at a clearance price that was too good to pass up. I still exercised patience as I had some other things that were more pressing and wanted to play a few times before trying it out so I wasn't making a decision that I would regret like the last one that I bought.

I decided yesterday was the day and Amy and Maia decided to come along as well. I played the horn a bit while the girls looked at other stuff and asked Amy's opinion after awhile. She said it was up to me but that it had a good tone (she knows how I like to sound) and I felt like it blew very much like what I used to play.

Why a C trumpet instead of a standard Bb? I played A LOT of C trumpet in grad school and really got to the point where it was the instrument that I was most comfortable on. I did mostly orchestral and classical solo lit by that time and the Bb was only used for wind ensemble and any jazz stuff I got to do. Since I'm mostly playing in a classical style now and demonstrating to students in a one on one lesson setting, the C trumpet will feel more like home. It may take me a little time to get my skills of transposition back (especially when playing literature written for Bb), but I can't wait to begin to dig in.

Now if I can just get through the weekend I might even be able to play a little.