It's 5:24 Mountain time, a little more than 2 hours away from this evenings Masterworks performance of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, our Timpanist Bill Hill's Third Symphony and Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture. I've always been a huge fan of Concerto for Orchestra. When I was a Sophomore studying Trumpet Performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, I used to play the first trumpet part to Bartok out the window at all hours of the day. The first trumpet part is rather high and challenging, one of the reasons I learned the part was because I had heard how difficult it was. Being the brash young trumpet player that I was I decided to make sure I could play the part, probably had more to do with stupid trumpet ego than anything at that time.
I've performed the piece three times before, twice as second trumpet and once playing the third trumpet part. I thoroughly enjoy the 2nd trumpet part almost as much as I enjoy the first part, however I always knew the 5th movement trumpet duet would be very difficult and was waiting for the day I'd actually get to play the first part in concert. Over the past month or so i've been noticing that my upper register has been lagging a touch flat. I've been trying to figure it out, I've also been trying some new trumpets, they have had an extremely flat upper register and thought maybe that was the issue, maybe my ears were adjusting to those. Now my high notes I was noticing them to be a little bit low on my standard equipment and trumpet. I started to think, why over the following months has my upper register C's and D's been creeping ever so flatter. Hmmmm. So I thought, maybe it really was something so unbelievably simple that I just wasn't thinking about it. I wasn't having any range issues, what could it be?
So I went in for a consultation. Mr. Justin Bartels, Meet Mr. Mouthpiece Brush - Problem Solved :-).
After one quick swab of the mouthpiece brush (i'll admit, I'm a horrible horn hygenist), suddenly my high C's and D's are now much sharper and supported, hmmm way to go Mouthpiece throat size and backbore. Problem solved, I came to this conclusion by simple trial an error with other equipment that I had and a bit of common sense. I'd been playing on another mouthpiece with my E flat trumpet and it was much better in the upper register, it was a clean mouthpiece too about equivalent size (my rotary mouthpiece actually). Seriously, what is the point of purchasing a mouthpiece with a drilled out throat and backbore if you're just going to gunk it up :-). There are times each year where I feel like an absolute moron, this is one of those times.
If your downtown 7:30 PM tonight and tommorrow, come check out Bartok, I promise my high C#'s will be at pitch :-).
Justin
