Early influences while playing other instruments?

[candid_x]

The Mancini thread reminded me, just how much my earlier trumpet days have influenced my guitar style, later in life. Subconsciously, the tone, texture and style I strive for on guitar evolved from the horn.

Can anyone relate?

 

[Sub1 Zero]

Maynard freakin Ferguson

I have noticed I take a lot of trumpet type things and put them in my guitar playing. For instance, I like to release the bar and let it slide up to pitch, kinda like when you half valve up to a note on a trumpet. I also like to do flips, which I did all the time on trumpet... I'm sure I take other lead trumpet techniques across that I don't notice also.

I think I need to pick it up more often so I don't lose my chops...

 

[candid_x]

Maynard freakin Ferguson

Absofreakinlutely! Maynard was the man.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

Definitely. He was THE influence on my trumpet playing... there's nothing more fun than taking everything up an octave at football games

I never was interested in the really technical players, the guys who fly up and down scales at 340bpm for a 10 minute long solo. It's cool and all, and it's impressive, but for me it isn't entertaining and I can't feel the emotion in it. Got to see Maynard live a couple of years ago, it was sweet. He talks a lot, but that's ok because usually what he has to say is funny

 

[candid_x]

I wanted a big bore silver Conn Constellation something fierce, just like Maybard's! My dad got me a Victor .

How funny, octaves at football games. Yup!

Dizzy G. was over my head at the time, but caught on a little to what he was doing near the end my of trumpet daze.

Ever hear Tutti's Trumpets? Amazing LP, which I played along with routinely.

Tutti Camarata : Tutti's Trumpets and Trombones - Listen, Review and Buy at ARTISTdirect

Check out the credits. Pete Condoli was often first chair with Mancini. Amazing soloist.

Um, that's not the original Tutti's Trumpets. Guess he did another one featuring trombone.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

I have a Yamaha Xeno, the bore is pretty big on it, its a .462. I think Maynards was a .468

I thought he played a Holton?

 

[candid_x]

Not at the time I was idolizing him. lol

Yamaha seemed to come around after I left, but heard nothing but great things about them.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

Have you heard his version of Hey Jude?

 

[candid_x]

No, but can imagine it's something else. I stopped listening to him, and all big band, around 1964.

 

[Adwex]

I can relate. I started on Trumpet in 3rd grade, then switched to Baritone horn in 4th per my teacher's request. Since we didn't have a string section (violins), I always thought of the trumpet as the "lead guitar" of the band. Still to this day, I love the sound of an orchestra's brass section...the power, the majesty, the authority...definitely relates to electric guitar.

We played Herb Alpert's "Tijuana Taxi", another great trumpet tune.

I saw Maynard once back in high school, what an amazing player. My favorite tune was "Give It One" (the time signature was 1/4, or 1/1). The man could regularly play notes higher than I thought possible on a trumpet.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

The man could regularly play notes higher than I thought possible on a trumpet.

I don't know how he did it so consistently... I remember in high school and freshman year in college, I would be a nervous wreck trying to keep my lead chops up. I'd be drinking water like crazy before shows, being overly cautious in warmups, etc. and I still was kinda hit and miss sometimes. I also figured out that eating chicken ruins your upper register for the day I have no clue why either...

 

[candid_x]

I also figured out that eating chicken ruins your upper register for the day I have no clue why either...

LOL! try eating a half dozen White Castle burgers before a concert.

Then, as now, I didn't have great chops, but lots of feeling. My teacher literally whipped me with his baton into all-state band and orchestra. Sight reading was always my downfall. When the "big kids" wanted me to play in their private big band, and they threw "string of pearls" in front of me to read, I froze at the solo. Busted! I took it home and learned it note for note, but it was too late. So, us little guys formed our own band, and was playing weekly dances at the Boy's Club by age 14.

Before coming home today, the guys I'm recording for shared their frustration with local musicians. Lots of guitar players but few who listen, few who come to play music, and many who come to play their guitar. I mentioned that I believed that's why it's important to get young kids involved with school bands and lessons: they learn the fundamentals, when to play, when to count.. sometimes counting more than playing, and how to fit in to the whole, not just off somewhere on their own. Those early influences stick with you.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

LOL! try eating a half dozen White Castle burgers before a concert.

That sounds like more of a gastro- intestinal issue to me

And I agree, I think the things I learned about playing music in high school and college help me SO much when playing with other people. Running rehersals, balance within a group, fine tuning your sound, intonation, what NOT to do..... the list goes on and on

 

[robelinda2]

I was really into the drums fr years, but never actually played them. I loved listening closely to songs and focusing on the drums grooves, just in general top 40 stuff, it was fascinating to me. Of course i wasnt allowed to get a drum kit so a cheap classical guitar was shoved in my lap, i didnt mind, it was exciting for me to just make music!

 

[candid_x]

That sounds like more of a gastro- intestinal issue to me

Definitely, and it's why you had to be careful of going for that high octave.

Rob, I think every musician should learn to play at least some traps. It's that old Chinese sage: Ti Ming

 

[Sub1 Zero]

Definitely, and it's why you had to be careful of going for that high octave.

I had a similar incedent my sophomore year... I bet if you asked any of my friends that were there that day about it, they'd tell you a funny story

 

[73h Nils]

Been playing trumpet for 8 years...I got braces, couldn't play anymore to save my life, and took up guitar instead...The braces are now off and I STILL can't play like I used to. It's depressing as **** It was all my dentist's fault, too. He said certain teeth would come in here and there, and that they would straighten out; they didn't. He retired and the first thing my new dentist said was "You need braces." I still hate my old dentist for that...

Not tooting my own horn, (pun definitely intended), I was good, too. REALLY good.

To answer the topic, though. Miles Davis' "Sketches of Spain" on record and visiting New Orleans were major influences.

 

[RitchieDarling]

Well, this sorta fits in.

My entire family were all musicians of some sort.

But my mother decided early on that myself and my three brothers should be "serious" musicians.

So, she got me a trombone for my 6th birthday.

It was HUGE compared to me!

So, then it was Glenn Miller records.

Other big band was good too. But, Glenn was it for me.

Keep in mind I was VERY young.

And then I heard the beginning of Come Together by The Beatles.

The trombone went in the closet and I've been a bass addict ever since.

I still love Glenn Miller though!

R

 

[candid_x]

Well, this sorta fits in.

My entire family were all musicians of some sort.

But my mother decided early on that myself and my three brothers should be "serious" musicians.

So, she got me a trombone for my 6th birthday.

It was HUGE compared to me!

So, then it was Glenn Miller records.

Other big band was good too. But, Glenn was it for me.

Keep in mind I was VERY young.

And then I heard the beginning of Come Together by The Beatles.

The trombone went in the closet and I've been a bass addict ever since.

I still love Glenn Miller though!

R

I can dig it. For me, Rubber Soul marked the end of my brass years.

 

[Sub1 Zero]

I can dig it. For me, Rubber Soul marked the end of my brass years.

Rubber Soul... sounds like something you buy in the bathroom of a truckstop for 25 cents