I use trumpet player Doc Severinsen as an example fairly often when I teach or talk about music. One of the reasons is that he epitomizes the way a brass player's embouchure should work. This has been proven true by the fact that he only retired from a busy and successful performance schedule last year at the age of 79. He was still playing with his huge sound and solid high register, which takes a well-developed embouchure.

The video below is one of Dick Clark's specials featuring an "all-star" band. There are many brief shots of many players. (Trivia: one of the examples is Frankie Avalon, known as a pop song composer and actor, but here heard as a trumpet player.) This particular video features Chuck Berry with all his showmanship. He and Doc Severinsen are both featured for a long segment on center stage and do a little interplay. At just about 5:56 on the video, Berry's guitar accidentally hits Doc in the head while Doc is playing. Doc shakes it off after a few seconds and goes right on just as strong as before. It's just one of those things that can happen during live stage antics, but someone with a weak embouchure who is playing at the ragged edge of his chops' ability is likely to suffer a bit more.

Enjoy the video!

Here is a new video of trombonist Dirk Amrein performing a movement of Mozart's horn concerto on a bass trumpet. The instrument he uses is more in the European style, which uses rotary valves and is configured in a horizontal manner. Companies like Bach also make bass trumpets, but they look more like a traditional American trumpet and use piston valves. This instrument usually has a tenor-trombone-size mouthpiece shank.

The same video is also found among the collection of euphonium or euphonium-related videos here:

Euphonium Videos

Regular visitors will already know that the Euphonium-Tuba Discussion Forum was not fully operational for a couple weeks. Registered users were not able to log in or post messages.

The forum is back now and working fine. To thank you for your patience I have added 3 new MP3 selections to the Downloads for Members Only section. Check them out!

Here is our newest featured recording, this time from The United States Marine Band. John Philip Sousa is known as "The March King" in the USA, but he also composed other types of music. Here is the Marine Band performing Sousa's Overture to the American Maid. This is from a live performance from November 15, 2004, as part of the Marine Band National Concert Tour.

How many times have you observed someone who is not very considerate about the cell phone? Sometimes you will hear ringers going off in church, at the movies, or even in a concert. Now and then the person will answer and talk on the phone during times that should be reserved for other things. I think most of us are bothered by this but do not do anything about it.

Suppose you are in a musical group in the middle of a performance when someone starts talking on their phone. Suppose you and the group decide not to let it pass this time. See the video below.

I LOVE movie music! Writing for the movies is a sophisticated art form these days. In the earliest days of movies, before they had sound, it was up to the theater's pianist to come up with appropriate background music to fit the action on the screen. As "talkies" became a reality, composers were hired to come up with the recorded soundtracks. At first there was substantial content from existing classical music. When I was growing up the TV Western series "The Lone Ranger" was how many people came to be familiar with the William Tell Overture.

But even in the old days of movies, some very fine composers wrote soundtracks. One of the earliest was Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who did the music for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Captain Blood (1935) among many others. Before he left Europe for Hollywood, he was considered a rising classical star who was destined to become the next Mahler. Many other movie composers have serious roots in classical music training.

But back to my main point: the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). This site is a reference for movies. Within the listings for each movie are hyperlinks to all the actors, music writers and orchestrators, directors, etc. involved in the movie. So if you hear a soundtrack behind a movie and really like the music, look up the movie on IMDB. If you click on "Full Cast and Crew" and scoll down the page you can usually fine a listing for Original Music By. Click on the composer's name to see a biography and a complete list of other movies that use his/her music.

While you are looking at the movie listing, you can find links to trivia (often very fun), reviews, soundtrack, and many other interesting pieces.

It's an amazing resource and has been around for many years. Check it out and see what I mean:

Internet Movie Database (IMDB)