First things first — I posted a very short sound file of me playing the new flugelhorn. You can check it out in theSound Room. I played a very short passage of “Child is Born” from Consummation album by Mel Jones and Thad Lewis. I love the way that this horn sounds and hopefully you do too. The only problem with it is the person behind it and I’m working on him DAILY.  I hope to get some longer sound files posted in the very near future.  Stay tuned.

I put some new lightweight springs in the valves of my Lawler and it made a huge difference. As good as the valves were before, they are that much better. Very quick and light to the touch. Special thanks as always to Roy Lawler (and Lou G for bringing them to my attention).

I had my first rehearsal with the Swing Band this past Thursday and I did pretty good. As usual, just about everything that we played was sight reading for me. I think my technique is better which allows me to hang on a bit better but I still need serious work. More than anything I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in what is going to come out of the bell. Because of that I tend to back way off when I first see a piece of music. If we played it a second time I did much better. I find that I rely on my ear a lot more than I should. I’m hoping my reading improves with time. I am also working on intervals now so I can hear the notes or passages before I play them. I’m using a book called “Technical Studies for the Modern Trumpet” by Pat Harbison to help with this.

I’m thinking about making a mouthpiece change AGAIN.  The mouthpiece that I am playing on right now is equivalent to a 1 1/2C and I think my tone is way too dark.  I’m thinking of dropping down to something closer to a 3C.  I have my eye on a Laskey 68MC, Monette B4S, B6 (or Kanstul copy) and maybe a Bob Reeves piece.  I already have some Kanstul Gustav copies that I may give a try.  The last time I took a lesson with my teacher I was playing a Monette B4S and he liked my sound on it.

I thought originally that my dark tone was due to listening to a lot of players with dark sounds like my main man Terence Blanchard.   Over the past two or three months however, I’ve been listening to a lot of Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan.  All of these players have a distinct RING in their sound.  While I know the sound ultimately comes from the player, the Lawler that I play is a dark sounding horn.  Playing on a bird bath is not going to help me sound brighter.

If you’re reading this and have thoughts please let me know.