Horn Hygiene by Josh Landress

(Brass craftsman of J. Landress Brass and Sam Ash Music Manhattan)

Just like things we use in our day to day lives, instruments need routine maintenance and cleaning. On a daily basis, musicians come into the workshop with instruments that have problems that could have been avoided by a few simple steps. Typical problems include stuck slides, slow and sluggish valves, holes in the metal, stuffiness or hard to play, and even a foul odor.

When we play our instruments things happen on the inside of the tubing that we don’t even think about. Tiny particles of food can get blown in, saliva and water condense, and oils and grease breakdown -- all of which can accumulate in the horn. Build-ups inside the horn can distort the bore size and even house dangerous bacteria.

The good thing is that with just a few simple steps, musicians can maintain their own instruments, improving their sound and lifespan. You will need a few things with which to wash the horn. I recommend using a good degreasing dish detergent (I prefer Dawn), a snake cleaning brush or other instrument-specific brush, towel, valve or rotor oil, and slide grease, and of course, a place to clean your instrument (I use my bathtub). I recommend following the below steps on monthly basis:

Step 1: Disassemble

Take the instrument apart by removing all the slides, caps and valves (on rotary instruments leave the rotors in) and wiping off all old oil and grease. Make sure to follow the order of slides first, caps second and lastly valves. This will prevent any possible damage to the valve section if some slides are slightly stuck.

Step 2: Wash and rinse

Fill the tub with luke-warm water and mix in the soap. Submerge the body, slides and caps but NOT THE VALVES, and soak for a few minutes. Go through the parts with the snake cleaning brush, gently scrubbing the insides of the tubes. Once the horn has been scrubbed in the soapy water, rinse the horn with clean water until all soap residues are gone.

Step 3: Dry and assemble

Wipe down all the slides, caps, and body of the instrument with a soft towel. Stand the slides up and leave the horn out on the towel until everything is dry. Wipe down the valves with a soft rag and pull the rag gently through the valve ports (be sure to never force the rag or brushes through). If you feel something starting to stick, gently pull it back. If you have a silver plated instrument, this is a good time to polish the horn.

To start assembling the horn, reverse the disassembly order by starting with the valves. Oil the inside of the casing and valve and place back in the instrument. Put the caps on and then the slides back in with enough slide grease to lightly coat the tubes.

Following this process, as well as regular oiling and greasing all moving parts, your horn will last for many years, and continue to play and perform to its intended level.

Occasional Brass & Strings – From Concept to Enterprise

By Bryan Hilliard

I've played the trumpet nearly every day for the past thirty years, from fourth grade through high school, college, and beyond. Until a few years ago, it was a hobby and a passion. In 2005, I decided to go back to school to round out my skills with an MBA, thinking it would help my business career. What it did was give me the tools and confidence to take music from a hobby to a career!

I had started Occasional Brass back in 2001 because I needed a new outlet for my playing. I had done the club/tour scene with a funk band called Rippopotamus for nearly ten years, but we'd started a family, and being gone until 3:00am just wasn't an option. The idea was to have a brass quintet that could play the occasional wedding, graduation, or event. This worked well, and we had 10-15 gigs a year for the next five years.

In 2006, I received my MBA from Boston University, and decided it was time to see if Occasional Brass could be more than a hobby. I rebranded as Occasional Brass & Strings, designed a new website, built the music library, recruited musicians, decided on an overall strategy, and started marketing OB&S in the Boston area. Today, we have nearly 75 brass, string, woodwind, and rhythm musicians in Boston, Worcester, Hartford, Newport, Portland, and Cape Cod, and will book 200-250 events for 2012.

There are many factors that go into building a successful music business, but a few decisions lie at the core of starting to think about taking it to the next level. I've boiled it down to my top three, and will examine each using my decisions at OB&S as examples:

Are you better or are you cheaper?

This is the first thing you need to answer, as it will dictate how you approach everything else. For better, you need to find the absolute best musicians, have a website and marketing collateral that reflect this image, and go above and beyond in performance and customer service. You'll have a smaller number of musicians but will be able to really focus on quality, and charge a premium price. Don't be afraid to say no to gigs! If you decide on cheaper, it becomes a numbers game. You still need to maintain a level of quality that keeps people coming back, but you'll need to book a lot more gigs to make up the difference. They are both good choices, and I lose a lot of gigs to competitors who are cheaper.

What is unique about you?

I employ a twofold strategy. First, OB&S has a music library you wouldn't expect to see from "classical" ensembles – we do a broad mix of classical, jazz, broadway, and contemporary arrangements, including Coldplay, U2, Queen, Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Journey, The Beatles, Shania Twain, and more. Second, I do all my trio arrangements for what I call a "flex" trio. The first part can be played by Trumpet, Violin, Clarinet, or Flute; the second by Flugel, Violin, Viola, French Horn, Tenor Sax, Alto Sax, or Clarinet; and the third by Trombone, Tuba, or Cello. So someone could book a standard String Trio (Violin, Viola, Cello), what we call the Dixie Trio (Trumpet, Tenor Sax, Tuba), or a Mixed Trio (Flute, French Horn, Cello). There are 84 possible combinations!

Where is the cash register?

It's time to figure out who your customer is and how they will find you. I focus almost exclusively on couples looking for ceremony and/or cocktail hour music for their wedding, especially weddings where ceremony and cocktails are at the same venue. Over time, this has brought in related bookings (church weddings, events, graduations), but the focus remains the same. I asked myself – what is the first thing a newly engaged couple does? They pick a date and book the venue. So I started going after key wedding and reception venues to get on their "preferred vendor" lists. Now that they've booked a venue, they go online to look for vendors. So I made sure I had a great website of my own and that I was on the sites they were looking at (Wedding Wire, The Knot, Martha Stewart Weddings, Gigmasters).

It's a hard road, but an extremely fulfilling one. I look forward to what comes next for OB&S. If you'd like to check us out, you can find us at http://www.occasionalbrass.com/.

Bryan Hilliard is a Trumpet player and Founder of Occasional Brass & Strings. He plays Sonaré TRC-900B and TRC-800C exclusively.

Freezing is Good!

Steven Wasser explaining the cryo process to a tour groupCryogenic treatment is a process by which materials are subjected to extremely low temperatures that approach absolute zero through the use of liquid nitrogen.  We cryogenically treat our Emil K. Blessing and Sonaré trumpets.  Here is my layman’s description of what I think is cryogenics does:

When metal is worked by stretching, hammering, or drilling it develops stresses.  If you think about metal structure as graph paper, imagine that those nice even boxes get stretched out or scrunched up as a result of stress.  Those stresses then interrupt the smooth flow of vibration in a wind instrument which diminishes response and causes “dead spots.”  In my view cryogenic treatment realigns the metal molecules at some level, and reduces stress.   

I cannot prove my interpretation with an electron microscope, but I can relate an experiment we did at MIT.  When we cryogenically treated the flute of a professor of materials science at MIT he was astounded at the result.  “Amazing,” he said, “it’s like a different flute.”   When I asked him how he could reconcile this with the test results his answer was, “It just means that something is happening we’re not yet able to measure.”

We’ve also gotten dramatic results with brass instruments.  A few years ago a friend of mine who is a scientist bought a trumpet from someone in the Philadelphia Orchestra.  He sent it to me after concluding the trumpet was not very good and after the orchestra member tried it again and refused to take it back.  After cryogenic treatment my friend tested the cryoed trumpet and immediately his wife wandered into the room and wanted to know what he was playing that sounded so good (she almost never comments on his playing!).  Next my friend went back to the member of the Philadelphia Orchestra who offered to buy the trumpet back on the spot.  Refused!

Need more evidence?  Early in 2006 Bill Loeb, a flutist from the Berkshires, contacted me concerning the effects of cryogenic treatment.  He was particularly interested because he was looking for a way to improve the response of his Jupiter bass flute which had certain “dead” notes.  At the end of the conversation I offered to treat – free of charge - any and all instruments Bill might wish to cryogenically treat with just one condition: he had to benchmark his flutes “before and after” cryogenic treatment, and report back to me the results.

In November Bill came by and asked us to cryogenically treat three instruments.  He reported back to me in a letter dated December 20, 2006.  Bill stated:

As to results, I should preface my outline by acknowledging that this is a very subjective test.  As a guy with 2 degrees from MIT, I recognize that we are not dealing with statistical or double blind results.  On the other hand, I’m a pretty analytical observer.  So here goes.

1. Powell #197: Low octave tone much richer, volume noticeably greater, including low C.  Intonation good.  Upper 2 octaves unaffected.
2. Haynes silver piccolo #22012: Range from E2 down – tone much richer, volume greater, intonation good.
3. Jupiter bass flute headjoint: Low C now plays well, whereas pre-test was well-nigh impossible.  (I had mentioned this to S. Wasser prior to treatment.)  This model  (lowest priced in the line) has no D2, D#2 shake keys, so no way for trick fingerings to stabilize D2 and E2.  After freezing seems no need for such resort.  Both notes behave.

We are convinced that cryogenic treatment makes a positive acoustical difference and offer it on our high end wind instruments, including Emil K. Blessing Custom trumpets and Powell’s new Silver Eagle saxophone.  You make your own decision, but isn’t it nice to have the choice?

There are only three valves... by Adam Gaines

Fast and clean valve technique is one of the most fundamental aspects that all trumpet students must master. Simply put, pushing the right button at the right time is half of the battle when it comes to playing correct notes. After all, trumpets can only play one note at a time, and there are only seven main combinations of valves used to play all notes. Trumpet players always have a one in seven chance of hitting the right fingering as long as we are slamming the valves down and getting out of their way so the springs can do their jobs and make the valves return to an open position. Saxophonists and pianists would kill for those kinds of odds.  So why do we still miss fingerings, and what can we do to make our technique better?

The first thing we must do for good finger technique is have a solid but relaxed grip on the trumpet. Sitting with good upright posture, most players find a solid grip with the left hand coupled with an open “C” shape in the right hang works best. The ring finger of the left hand will operate the third valve slide for D and C-sharp, and this should become second nature as part of the fingering of those notes. The fingers of the right hand can easily curve to the finger buttons and rest there on the pads of the fingers. Some players with larger hands may find that playing with flatter fingers in the right hand works better for them, at least in some fingering passages. Either way, your fingers must remain relaxed and flexible while never losing contact with the valve. If you are not sure if you're leaving the valve or not, put dimes on the finger buttons and try to play a passage. If the dimes fall to the floor, you're flailing too much and need to keep your fingers closer in.

Just like any other part of trumpet technique, the best way to improve your valve technique is through slow, steady practice. The act of moving from one fingering to another, treating each like a light switch (on or off, no squeezing) is the best way to develop solid technique early on. H.L. Clarke's “Technical Studies” is my book of choice for developing valve technique, and the Third Study in particular is good for this sort of back-to-back repetition. You will find that certain combinations are more challenging than others, for instance 2-3 to 1, 1-3 to 2, and any combination to 3 alone, which is a useful alternate fingering for 1-2 for the advanced player. Once you have mastered repetition of two different valve combinations, more scalar passages such as those found in the Second and Fifth Study are good for developing advanced speed. I practice all of both of those studies every day, often working my way around the circle of fourths and adding an arpeggio or scale at the end. For instance, I typically play the Second Study in this order, adding a major-seventh chord arpeggio at the end:  27, 32, 37, 30, 42, 35, 28, 40, 33, 38, 31, 43, 36, 29, 41, 34, 39, 44. You can practice these however you like, but remember that the hardest keys are only usually hard because you are unfamiliar with them. If you memorize them, you'll realize quickly that the fact that you only have three buttons to worry about should mean there are no hard keys.

Finally, valve practice is perhaps the best thing you can do if you are struggling with another area of your playing. If you're fighting your embouchure because of braces, any practice you do on your valve technique will still be there when the braces come off. Whenever I have a cold or am sick I find myself fingering through passages without blowing through the horn, just to stay sharp. You can do this anywhere, too: simply “play” trumpet on your thumb and relate things you hear or read back to their fingerings on the trumpet. Before you know it you will be a valve whiz and you can focus your practice time on other pursuits.

Hitting The Road By Thomas Marriott

Thomas MarriottIf you are a musician who aspires to become a professional or are a member of an ambitious amateur or student music ensemble, sooner or later you are going to hit the road. Connecting with new people through music can be one of the most rewarding aspects of being a musician. Being musically and personally prepared for the road’s rigors can make even an overnight car trip to a gig down the road that much more rewarding. Here are a few tips to help play your best and keep things smooth.

Whether you are joining an ensemble whose tour is already in progress or lining up a string of gigs for your own project, one of the keys to a successful tour on the road is preparation. Often times the demands of travel make it nearly impossible to practice while running from city to city. This is why making sure that you have properly prepared before you leave is essential.

Before leaving home I always make sure that I have learned all the music I am going to perform (memorized if possible!) That goes with performances at home too, but it’s doubly important on the road because often there is no appropriate place or time to cram in that last little bit of practicing.  If you are joining a band whose tour is already underway, you have to do the best you can and be sure to ask your new band-mates lots of questions.

When I joined the Maynard Ferguson band in 1999, I wasn’t able to practice the music ahead of time because it wasn’t available. Instead, I made sure to find all the current recordings of the band and listen to as much of the band’s repertoire as possible, paying close attention to the phrasing, dynamics and style. Playing a demanding gig every night is difficult enough. Even if there were time to practice, it’s important to save your chops for the gig. Sitting down with your parts and a pencil and reading through them very carefully can be helpful. You can also practice by singing your parts while fingering the notes on your instrument.

In addition to learning the music really well, I always make sure my instrument is clean, oiled and in tip-top shape before traveling. You never want your equipment to fail when you are in the middle of nowhere and taking care of your horn before leaving is essential. As the old saying goes: Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you. Good advice when at home or on the road.

Playing a week-long engagement at a single venue or playing a string of performances in multiple cities (or countries) can be exhilarating and exhausting. In this day and age, the logistics or touring is often left up to the performers themselves. It is important to balance all of the many demands placed upon you while touring. There are people you will meet and need to spend time with such as promoters, club owners and radio programmers (and hopefully some fans as well!). Meeting new people and seeing new places is one of the draws of playing music away from your hometown. There can be so much to see and do that you may find yourself skipping a few hours of sleep here and there, and it can really catch up to you quickly.

Making sure you get enough rest is essential to playing your best regardless of where you are playing, but when traveling, rest can be the difference between an excellent performance and folding completely. Jet-lag and sleeplessness can really wreak havoc on your concentration and attitude. It’s important to make rest a priority in order to deliver a solid performance every night.

Something else I have learned the hard-way is that when you are on tour, you are a working professional at all times. Everything you say and do reflects on you as a professional until you get back to the hotel room and close the door. It’s best to adopt an easy-going and flexible attitude, regardless of what happens. Lots of things can go wrong in a tour. The promoter may have forgotten to book hotel rooms, there might not be anything to eat at the venue, the sidemen you hired in another city may not have looked at the music you sent them, or you might miss a connecting flight. In fact, small snags here and there are usually the norm. Remaining flexible, positive and professional will make life easier for you and the other musicians you’re with. Grumbling and gossiping will usually ensure you don’t get called back. So don’t forget to roll with the punches and keep it all in perspective!

Playing music on the road is often times not glamorous and is hard work. But it can be really enjoyable if you go into it with the right expectations and the right attitude. Being prepared, professional and polite can ensure many return engagements and a lot of fun as well.