mpron

Great story Charlie and way to go!!

With all of them old prastates there, it may take a while. :-)

Could be he was pulling our leg.

Ok, thanks. John used to be my instructor down here in L.A. in the 70's. and I remember him talking about marching the Rockets. Also talked about another corps from around there, the Squirrel Hill Squirrels.

Do you know when your guy was in the Rockets? If in the 60's, does he remember a guy named John Merkowsky?

For sure there were. I play an Olds marching trombone circa the 70's, kind of like a flugabone. I think the best of the marching bones as I also have a Getzen and have played the King. Seems most Jazz trumpet players double on the Old Olds. A guy I play with just bought a circa 70's 3 valve Getzen marching baritone in chrome(?).

Here is some of the BD representation at the 2009 Disney Tuba Christmas. http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=e...1b-bc1a838550ef

Hi Tom, Dang I should've asked you. I didn't ask the guy at the Cigar Factory about all night places. But he did say that I will get the best "sangwich" in the world at the bakery, and he was right. I saw the place next door. Steve T's Hots?? What the heck are hots? I am assuming hot dogs. If I had known it was open 24 hours, I would've made the drive. Didn't have one dog while I was there. There's always next year. Thanks Ronny

Hi Scooter, I don't know you in person, but I do know of you. Thanks so much. The thumbs up from your Star crew, after the show really meant a lot to the Freelancers. They were so stoked that you guys came out to hear us play. Thanks so much. Ronny

NO NO!!! The good kind of cool!!! Sorry for the misconception. All of the other mini corps all welcomed us with open arms and congratulated our performance. I thought it was awful nice that the Star United corps came out from behind the stage to watch our show and gave us the thumbs up. Everything that night was purely in the spirit of DCA minicorps. I even found a great little cigar store strangely enough called the Cigar Factory. Very nice people who run the place and they turned me on to this Italian Bakery Martusciello's on Lyell near the 390, that makes amazing sandwiches and strombolis. I think you would have to get about 6 or 7 Subway sands to get close to what Martusciello's puts into one medium 5 buck sandwich! As I said, the only drawback was the lack of restaurants open after the shows.

Thanks for the kudos. I am glad you enjoyed our show. Many folks complimented our performance after the show and we appreciated the encouragement. The Freelancer alums were all hyped and talking about wanting to come back again, playing the same style of music.

Yeah, they were up pretty much all night at the Hyatt on Sunday/Monday :-)

I had a blast. It was the first time I had played in a competition of any sort in over 30 years. It was my first time to DCA. It was the return of the Sacramento Freelancers to competition we got a very cool reception after we were done. Our instructions were to go out, bring some energy and have fun and that's what we did. I hope it showed in our performance. As for the rest of the shows, I thought they were great. Most played music I was familiar with and played it well. I am not going to get into technical aspects of the shows as for me, that just ain't in the spirit of DCA. Play well, kick ### and have a good time. I can't wait to get back! I went to both DCI and DCA this year. I gotta say, I had more fun at Rochester. Only thing, I love BBQ and I can eat it allatime, but I think some of my line mates were getting tired of it. The lack of restaurants that are open after the shows is about the only knock I can have.

Aside form the fact that BD DOES NOT USE dot books. :-)

That's a funny sig you have there Bobert! :-)

Do you know how long they are on the chairs? I think it is much less than a minute of the show. Playing time on chairs is less than 20 secs sitting. It is actually not as long as you think. Also, I don't know of any corps that marches at 236. And those are carrying contras. Those are two facts. You can check them. Just thought you'd like to know

I have tried a slient brass on a bari. It felt like a cigar that was wound too tight and you head was going to blow trying to pass air through it. The benefit of silent brass is that you can hook it up as a system. What I did do was get a cheap $20 Bach plastic mute and got about a 3/8" piece of shipping foam, think in a track ball box. By putting the foam around it, you can make it as loud or as soft as you want. I play it in hotels and stuff and I haven't had anyone pointing at me saying "You suck!" How does it sound? good enough to practice with. Can I tune with it? Can you really tune with any practice mute? It's iffy at best. It is also more freeblowing than the Yamaha at a sixth of the cost. However, if you want to pay about $60 for a butt kicking practice mute, check out this one. My friend had one and I tried it and it was cool. If I ever decide to switch to my Bach, I will get one of these Shhmutes http://www.sshhmute.com/shop.htm Another one that would be great for tour because it is really portable. It is called the Softone mute. Think a bucket mute made out of neoprene with these foam pleasure rings that you stack inside ot cut down the sound. It is a little louder than both my Bach and the Shhmute. Actually, you can take and mute even a Humes and Berg and by putting foam around the top either in one inch swatch or taking strips and gluing them in between the cork. I have used mine since I was getting ready for the BD alumni performance. I hope this helps. At least it's a cheap solution.

Thanks. One of my BD alumni brothers I currently play with played I believe the bari at the NAMM show and was very complimentary.

Hmm, clicked the link and got this error message. Address Not Found Firefox can't find the server at http. I hope the horns work better than the kink Just kidding. I did find the page through a facebook search though.

Maybe they can order for you.

Try one of these guys http://www.karlhammonddesign.com/dealers/usa.php

I agree with G-horns. No big thing except for reading bass clef. You can always transpose to Bb treble. If it's a G horn, no problem. I know jazz trumpet players who double on bones, valve bones and upright baris all of the time. Not much of a different jump from a mello, in fact maybe easier. A few even say it helps their trumpet chops.

This is what Maynard has to say about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHuxqCfvMQ

I cannot see the stinking video at work. Is it Mnozil Brass? If so, then it must be Gansch (whatever his name is) playing a rotary trumpet. Very cool horn.

Coming from the era when it started, we just did it ti project to the box. We were told to do it so that you don't choke off your air by just tilting your head up. As for abs and that other stuff, I don't know. Seems to me you get the best power to your abs when you are in a crunch which is the opposite of arching back. Like when you take a dump, do you lean forward or do you lean back hahaha!!