Trent Hamilton is insane, he is on tons of medication, and pontificating from his bunker/garage, anyone who listens to him, is on the verge of hornamania......."Saps at Sea" is an example......
I have six Blackburn trumpets...and once spent a few days with David Hickman. These two men are brilliant and have made an extraordinary contribution. David is such a gifted trumpeter. Elliott Oppenheim, Trilllium Brass Trio
This seems like it would help the intermediate player more than an advanced like Mr. Hickman. I have a feeling he doesn't have any problem hitting pure notes on the regular C trumpet.
The regular three valve slides are cut to D, which means triggering a tad more than usual when playing in D-flat, C, and B-natural. . . but not a big deal.
I'm stunned with the tone, that is truly exceptional. The bell is a touch larger, and a somewhat different shape, but there's no mistaking that fabulous sound. I'm really stunned.
dans les annees 60 don ellis joait sur une trompette 4 pistons qu il avait mis au point avec le fabricant holton rien de nouveau!!!mais belle trompette
I remember attending a clinic given by David Hickman in 1978 when I was just starting out on trumpet. I still remember his emphatic teaching on forming a correct embouchure.
As someone who is used to playing a 5-valve instrument (tuba), I feel like the way this is approached is a bit over complicated. Why not just think of it all in terms of C trumpet and then just use the alternate fingerings where necessary rather than thinking of using the 4th and 5th valves "changing keys"?
Trumpets don't read music the way Tubas do and he's not using the valves the way a Tuba would. It's more intuitive (and more typical) to transpose on the fly or at home. An ascending valve or an extra 2nd valve is a bit strange to think about compared to something like a 4th valve. Not as much of a deal on the Tuba where the composer just gives you the pitches and it's your job to make them happen somehow or other. Everything is fingerings in that case. There used to be a similar trick for Bb Trumpet where they would get music in A and pull the tuning slide for playing with more typical musicians. Nice way to avoid playing in ridiculous keys.
@@Markworth so trumpets make it themselves difficult by transposing? (note: I know the transposing is so that switching to C/Bb/D trumpet makes it easier when given parts in their respective keys) Wouldn't it just be easier to know for each key/fingering system to know what pitch is meant to be played, as tubas and trombones do?
@@wiebemartens1030 The way that bass clef instruments read music is neither easier, nor particularly beneficial. Generally, if a TC instrument is legitimately transposing, it's just a single step up or down, and that's not difficult at all. I'm hardly any kind of musician, and it's nothing for me to read music in C on a Bb instrument, or vice versa! The fact that Tuba players waste time learning an entire fingering set just to play both CC and BBb Tubas is pretty confusing to me. Instruments reading treble clef are written for in such a way that the player is always presented enough information to know what partial the note is, and what fingering it should be played on. That is far more useful to me than being given the pitch, because I can adjust to "hearing" that pitch pretty easily. Instruments reading bass clef are only given pitches and expected to make them happen. This completely ignores the behaviors of the instrument and can present players extremely difficult situations that they have to sort out on the fly. Good example, the Miestersinger Tuba solo. If you play it on Eb Tuba, the trill is now what my TC brain sees as an F# to a G#, which is both really unusual, and hard as hell to play. Do you hold 2 and trill 3, or do you try to hit it on 123 and trill 1? Well, unless I'm reading it for the 100th time, it probably doesn't matter. I'm already wasting brain cells adding 3 sharps to the key signature and transposing all of the stupid bass clef accidentals, so I'm going to botch it because it was meant for F Tuba.
Generally speaking the High G Sharp in Pictures at an Exhibition is played with the same fingering as your Middle G Sharp with the 2nd and 3rd Valves but oftentimes that High G Sharp can sound out of Tune depending on the Trumpet. Rotary Valve Trumpets often have Keys to make those notes play more in tune.
Extraordinary. What a difference when you can compensate for the battle of human fingers versus lengths of pipe! Alas, the bottom line: what's this baby gonna cost me?
I can't believe until now I've not been aware of a 5 valve trumpet. You would think that it would have at least some popularity with orchestral players. The video was made almost 5 years ago and only now surfaced. How did it get buried???
I never understood why the trumpet had not been modernized for.. ever. Adding an extra valve or 2 makes it a much better instrument. And you won't have to split your lips...
Wow, what a great idea, sounds fantastic and doesn't seem to have the turning issues I'd think a conversion like that would! (although maybe you've just compensated for them) Well done!
What an exquisite sound. So clear and warm at the same time. I know nothing about brass but I have a feeling this may be an instrument that eventually finds its way into many trumpet players' studios.
Let me tell you: I am not a great player as you, but I know, that "high a" must be above high c, otherwise is is not "high a", but "a above the stuff" ( Mahler Symphony). Similarly, "double a" would be "a" above double high C (impossible to reach for 99.998% of the people)
Ole, Yes, of course I am familiar with the Franquin and Ghitalla models. Mine is not in the same keys as the Franquin one, but is similar to Ghitalla's early prototype. Did you read the pamphlet on my HME website? Dave
4:48 One of the most beautiful things i have ever heard in my life. I'm an intermediate trumpet player I play on B flat trumpet and i wish i could play as good as you. I Have problems reaching high notes like G and E just above the staff line. Any tips? I have to play taps for memorial day.
As soon as you make sure to nail your lower register, you will be able to play extremely high. So you first must go low. Also my first mouth piece after the 7c was the 6a4a. It has a shallower cup allowing high notes to be easier to play. However you lose a little tone from it. Congrats on the wonderful opportunity to play one of the most powerful songs on such an important day!
+Mike i think I'm an intermediate too..i can play a the notes on the trumpet and squeak up to triple e, what i did was play whole notes softly from high e in the staff ,moving up the chromatic scale, then take short breakes and play quarter notes in the lower register and repeat. Hope you'll get it.
Absolutely Brilliant!! Love the Pictures, and Mahler excerpts! I assume that new fangled trumpet Hickman plays with such virtuosity is a one off custom horn. Who made it?
I think that we are looking at a D trumpet with 5 descending valves. Or am I wrong? Any one for Eb trumpet with 6 valves? You might need more fingers but could be useful! Or go for the Vienna Phil solution. 3 valves but with mutiple safety keys. Weidinger would be so excited to see his invention still being used.
Yes. I think that's the entire point of his trumpet and demonstration. If you play trumpet, you already know that some notes are a little easier to play than others. Usually open notes are easier especially in the higher register. And they can have better intonation. There are lots of reasons why some notes may be a little off on intonation, but here is a big reason. The 2nd valve lowers a half step from open. The 1st valve lowers a full step from open. And the 3rd valve lowers one and a half steps from open. But that change in tubing length is related to the open trumpet. Now, imagine already having pressed down the third valve which now makes the trumpet "longer". Pressing the first valve down now adds a length that is a smaller percentage of that total than if the trumpet were open. It therefore lowers it less than a half step. So trumpets are designed to be a compromise to deal with this problem and others. Some notes are flat, some are sharp, and some are so far off that you have first and third valve slides to correct. Otherwise, you have to lip the note up or down. And, unlike a French horn player, we don't have the benefit of changing intonation a little with our hand placement in the bell.
Wow. Singing, singing, singing. Wonderful. Reminds me (however different the designs are) of Ghitalla's. A wonder it's taken so long to take another run at a design improvement.
Question: doesn't a D trumpet normally have a smaller bore and bell than a C trumpet? So, with this five-valve trumpet switched to play in D, you in effect have the larger bore and bell of the C trumpet and so a fuller, richer tone than a regular D trumpet?
Do you find yourself only thinking in terms of keys/transposing? I can see that one might also think about it more as having extra alternate fingerings. So rather than thinking of A as G/Open on the "D Side", you could just think about A as having the alternate fingering of open + D slide. etc. Do you find you find yourself thinking like that? But what an awesome instrument. I want one!
Great to hear and see you Dave! I know that Merri Franquin developed a 5 valve trumpet and that Armando Ghitalla also had one developed. Did you use any of those ideas in your trumpet? Btw, here is a picture of the Franquin trumpet from my website: abel.hive.no/trumpet/franquin/trumpet.html
Okay something nice and cool to play in D or in C ... , but what is the important aim from this trumpet , soo when the composer right for your note s he will make for you some notes in C and some in D ... help!
Hi David, great video but there is something I dont understand: when the trumpet is not in C, how can it play in tune? If for example it was in B wouldn`t the 1st, 2nd and maybe 3rd slides be too short, or too long if it was in D?
57dogsbody you need to transpose it to correspond to the key you change the trumpet to. In the scores he shows it tells you the transposed notes to play on that new key (the boxes on the first few times he played). But normally you will need to make adjustments on the fly, or note the changes based on the key you want to use for the piece or section you are going to use a different key in. In case you don't understand transposing, a 'c' on a c trumpet is played the same way on a d trumpet (well any trumpet) but the pitch you are playing is a c and d respectfully. In his later examples, he would use the the 4th and 5th valves for easier fingering(same pitch but different notes in different keys) or to make the higher pitches to be easier to hit ( again same pitch but the notes are lower on a d trumpet then a c trumpet). In other words, the notes and thus fingering are different for each key of trumpet, but they both produce the same pitches. I'm glad I play trombone. As I rarely need to do or worry about transposing.
You miss my point entirely. No matter what key the trumpet is built in all slides need to be a certain length for that key of trumpet to play in tune. So for example the slides on an Eb trumpet will be shorter than on a Bb trumpet (all of them) I am not talking about transposing here. See David Hickman`s comment below.
I remember watching this video a while ago. Could have sworn I subscribed because I enjoyed the video. But apparently I didn't subscribe.... just fixed that oversight. 🙂
50 years sir. I have played almost all types of music and I will always love playing the trumpet as when played beautifully then the trumpet is truly an instrument of God.
I have a great range as I can hit notes well above a double C and have been doing that for many, many years. It is not hard to do once I figured it out. When I practice I work on range but I do not put stress on my embouchure and over time I was hitting double hi C with out much pressure at all. So I am okay there. The only thing that I have noticed though when I am aging that I have the tendency to not play quite as accurate as I once did but then things do slow down when a person ages. I still can play ballads well though.
I have those books John but thank you for giving me info anyway. I will always love playing the trumpet until I get so old that I cannot pick up the horn anymore.
+Michael Dotson Probably just jazz because the key(s) it plays in are typically classical keys. Although if you found a jazz piece in one of them, I suppose it would work just fine, although I don't know if any of those exist.
Meh. He didn't demonstrate anything that would be beyond or otherwise out of the ordinary for an accomplished or even aspiring orchestral trumpet player. I agree with a post below. This system is utterly unnecessary and is indeed risky. It only invites trouble.
