About six months ago, I released my first iPhone application, a free ear training application called Play By Ear. Like my free online ear trainer, Play By Ear allows you to listen to intervals, chords, and random melodies as you attempt to play them back by ear. And while it lacks several of the features of my online ear trainer, Play By Ear does have one significant difference: it uses pitch detection to tell whether or not you played the correct note back on your instrument.

As I was creating Play By Ear, I thought pitch detection was a compelling feature that truly set the ear trainer apart from other AppStore ear training tools. But frankly, I wasn't sure anyone would care. After all, there were already a few iPhone ear trainers and none of them seemed to have a lot of reviews. Some didn't even have any.

In this blog entry, I'll share the AppStore totals for my iPhone application, I'll answer some frequently asked questions, and I'll also give you a preview of what's coming next.

THE APPSTORE TOTALS

Since it was released six months ago, Play By Ear has been installed a total of 5,041 times. In addition to that, the various updates have also been installed a total of 3,669 times.

Let's take a closer look at those numbers. The application is free, but had I charged for the application, I would have made 5,041 x SomePrice x 70%. The 70% is how much Apple pays developers. Apple keeps the rest. So, using real numbers, if I had charged $1.99, I would have made $7,022.13 over the past six months. Not bad, I guess, but it's pretty safe to assume that I wouldn't have sold 5,041 units if people actually had to pay for the application. You could use common sense to arrive at that conclusion, or you could just look at the 3,669 total updates statistic. At least 1,372 of the original users deleted the application and/or decided it wasn't worth updating. With such an obvious lack of interest, they probably wouldn't have paid for the application in the first place. Never mind the fact that the updates total actually spans three versions. In actuality, there might be as few as 1,200 people who have continued to use the application.

Another interesting statistic is the overall rating for the application. Currently, there have been 63 ratings across all three versions of Play By Ear. The average rating is three stars, which I guess isn't too bad considering how common it is for people to use an application and instantly decide "this sucks!" Or maybe that's just common to me because I work with so many hypercritical tech people. To them, everything sucks unless A) they made it, or B) it's World Of Warcraft. Anyway, I think that probably explains why I have so many one-star reviews.

While I can live with all those one-star reviews, I do wish I knew more about those negative reviews. For example, the application is apparently crashing for some people. With each consecutive version, I've tried to improve the stability (it crashed a lot at first). I've never even seen it crash on my new iPhone 4.0. But apparently it's crashing for at least one person based on their AppStore review. Lots of iPhone apps crash, including Apple's own Mail application, so I don't expect my application to be flawless. But if there are problems, I'd like to reproduce and fix them. The only way that will happen is if people contact me and let me know exactly when and how things go wrong. To date, only one person has ever written me an email to say the application is crashing. That was soon after the initial release, and I'm pleased to say that I did fix that specific problem.

If you've used and enjoyed Play By Ear, please take a moment to rate and/or review the application. Positive ratings are greatly appreciated ;-)

PROMOTION, OR LACK THEREOF

I had intended to do at least some external promotion for my iPhone ear training application, but somehow I never found the time. To date, the only promotion I have done for the application is the original announcement and the redesign of this site, which now features all of my ear training applications more prominently on the right-hand side. I was, however, fortunate to have Dave Douglas mention my iPhone ear training application in his blog. I didn't even tell him about it, so it's especially cool that he found it and thought it was blog-worthy on his own. But even with Dave Douglas' help, I know my iPhone application's distribution numbers have suffered due to my lack of external promotion. Perhaps had I actually done any such promotion, I could have doubled or tripled the installation and update numbers.

WHY DIDN'T I CHARGE FOR THE IPHONE APPLICATION?

When I first released Play By Ear, a surprising number of people asked me why I didn't charge any money for the application. As I've written previously, I believe that the importance of ear training is often ignored or marginalized in music education. My free ear training tools are an attempt to expose more people to ear training in a way that makes it easy for them to get started. So that's the main reason I released my iPhone application free of charge. Just to get it out there.

There's another reason for not charging, though, which isn't quite so altruistic. Having no real knowledge about the market for iPhone ear training applications, I wanted to use my first application to get some benchmarks. By offering it for free, I can see exactly how many people are even remotely interested in an iPhone ear training application. That gives me a basis from which to decide how much time I want to spend on new features and new iPhone ear training applications.

WHAT FEATURES ARE COMING NEXT?

As of now, I probably won't add too many new features to Play By Ear. One feature that I will definitely add, though, is microphone calibration. Once completed, the microphone calibration feature will allow you to customize how sensitively the application should listen when determining your pitch. By accurately matching that value to your playing conditions (e.g. room noise, instrument volume, distance from microphone, etc) the pitch detection should be noticeably more accurate.

WILL I BUILD ANOTHER IPHONE APPLICATION?

Yes. Time permitting, I will definitely build another iPhone application and once again it will focus on ear training. This time around, though, it will probably be geared toward sight singing. Rather than playing the notes for you to mimic on your instrument, the sight singing application will show you notes on the staff and you'll have to sing them back at the correct pitch. I'll probably charge for this application, but it won't be a lot of money. More than anything, I'm just curious to see how many people will actually pay for an iPhone ear training application. That, coupled with my free Play By Ear statistics, should give me a good representation of the overall iPhone ear training application market. However small it happens to be!

WILL I BUILD AN ANDROID EAR TRAINING APPLICATION?

Several people have requested an Android version of my ear training application. It would probably be easier for me to build an Android application since I can use familiar tools like Eclipse and Java. The only hitch is that I don't actually own an Android phone! I might buy one just for development purposes, but I think I'll wait to see how my next fee-based iPhone application does first. It's bad enough that I already have to test my existing iPhone ear trainer on 4 devices all the time (iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS w/ iOS4, iPhone 4G, iPad). I don't want to introduce another device until I know that a decent number of people will actually use it.

This page contains my jazz improvisation recordings from 2010. As you'll hear below, these jazz recordings feature such highlights as cracked notes, poor note choice, unsteady rhythm, and meandering phrases! And that's why recording myself is so important. It's the best way to evaluate my playing and to chart my progress over time. I don't expect that I'll ever become a great jazz trumpet player, but I am anxious to hear how much better I can get with practice. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions.

All of my jazz improvisation recordings: 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010

JULY 19, 2010

Aebersold #106, Zambia

Tonight I tried to record some tracks for an upcoming ear training article, but I wasn't playing very well. Instead of putting my trumpet away for the evening, I thought it might be fun to record another attempt at Lee Morgan's "Zambia." My first attempt at this track was back in 2004 ( here's that 2004 recording). I've played this tune a few times over the years, but I've never really worked on it... which I guess is kind of obvious based on my lack of improvement! I'd probably be discouraged by the lack of progress, but that 2004 recording was one of my favorites at the time so perhaps I'm comparing one of my best nights from 2004 to a so-so night in 2010. If that's the case, then I guess I'm doing all right.

I do think it's interesting, though, that both solos start out strong and then fizzle when I get half-way through. If I ever do decide to practice this tune, I know where to focus.

MAY 1, 2010

Aebersold #8, Airegin

Airegin is another one of those tunes that I've always had trouble with. It's a little too fast for me and the changes always throw me off. Having avoided the tune for years, I thought it was finally time to overcome my Airegin aversion. So, a couple of weeks ago I started working on it every day, much like I did last year with Cherokee and like I did below with Moment's Notice. And what do you know... I actually improved! I'm not saying this track is great (I totally missed the high notes toward the end), but I think it's pretty good when you consider that I couldn't even make it through an entire solo a couple of weeks ago.

Airegin. This time with more trumpet!

Since I haven't posted many recordings this year, I'm including a bonus clip. It's actually more of a blooper. During today's first jazz improvisation recording attempt, the cord to the backing track accidentally came unplugged. I could still hear the backing track, but it wasn't making its way into the my computer for recording. You can faintly hear the backing track that got picked up by my trumpet microphone, but for the most part all you'll hear is me. Consider it my tribute to Mr. David Lee Roth.

FEBRUARY 28, 2010

Aebersold #38, Moment's Notice

Much like last year, most of my February has been spent working on some new projects at work. Since I haven't had much time to practice the trumpet, I've focused my jazz improvisation studies on just a couple of tunes. One of the tunes, "Moment's Notice," has been a favorite of mine for many years, but I never could manage to play a decent solo. Either the fast tempo or the challenging chord changes would get the best of me and I'd resign myself to the fact that I'm just not good enough. It doesn't help that I've heard Lee Morgan's blistering solo on the "Blue Trane" album so many times that I can't help but compare my playing to his. And let's just say, I haven't sounded very good by comparison.

This recording from tonight isn't anything special, but it's a lot better than my attempts from a year or two ago. I especially like the part around 20 seconds in (right after the second A section starts). I mess up the rhythm a little but then recover such that the mistake almost sounds intentional. A year ago, that mistake would have derailed my entire solo.

If you're familiar with Lee Morgan's solo, hopefully you'll recognize the lick I borrowed (it's near the end of my first chorus).

The 33rd annual Atlanta Jazz Festival took place this Memorial Day weekend at Piedmont Park. If you've been following the Atlanta Jazz Festival saga, you know this is the first year that the festival has been back at Piedmont Park since 2007. Due to the Georgia drought and budget shortfalls, both the 2008 and 2009 Atlanta Jazz Festivals occurred at smaller venues and with scaled-back lineups. For those of us who look forward to the Atlanta Jazz Festival each year, it was great to see the festival back at Piedmont Park this year, complete with high-profile touring acts. Budget constraints still limited the festival to just two shortened days instead of three full days, but this year marked a big step in the right direction.

Following are some highlights and photos from the Festival.

TROMBONE SHORTY

Vocalist, trombone player, and trumpet player, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews has been on my radar ever since I saw YouTube clips of him playing in concert with Wynton Marsalis. I knew Trombone Shorty was a talented musician, but I didn't fully appreciate the magnitude of that talent until I saw his performance at the Atlanta Jazz Festival. His trombone playing alone was impressive enough, but when he picked up the trumpet I just about fell over. The power and intensity behind every note was astounding. Nothing I had seen or heard of his playing prior to the festival even came close. In addition to his great tone and fantastic musical ideas, his precision on the trumpet, through all ranges was absolute perfection. Trombone Shorty was definitely my favorite performer at this year's Atlanta Jazz Festival.

ESPERANZA SPALDING & RAYDAR ELLIS

Jazz bassist, Esperanza Spalding, and DJ/MC Raydar Ellis brought a hip-hop infused performance to this year's festival. I enjoyed the music, but I would have liked to hear Esperanza Spalding featured more prominently throughout the concert. That might sound strange considering she was the bandleader, but for several of the tunes she only played a supporting role.

It wasn't until the end of their performance when I learned that Marcus Strickland was playing saxophone in the band. I might have recognized him earlier, but since his hair (or lack thereof) was different than I've seen in photos, and since I wasn't all that close to the stage, I couldn't identify him by his appearance. I've been a fan of Marcus Strickland for several years now, ever since I first heard him playing with Dave Douglas. It was cool to see Marcus Strickland at the festival, even if he did only have one solo.

MARCUS MILLER W/ CHRISTIAN SCOTT

Marcus Miller and Christian Scott have been touring the world with their "Tutu Revisited" show, which they brought to this year's Atlanta Jazz Festival. While "Tutu" and the later period of Miles Davis' career isn't exactly my favorite style of jazz, I was still looking forward to hearing the band, especially trumpeter Christian Scott. There's been a lot of buzz about him lately, including a recent Downbeat cover article. It was nice to finally hear Christian Scott in person, although it may have been an off night for him as he struggled to hit some of notes in the upper register. But frankly, after hearing Trombone Shorty's effortless command of the upper register (and every register above and below that!), it was comforting to know that trumpet playing doesn't always come easy to the best players.

I'd also like to mention how impressed I was by the young saxophonist, Alex Han. I hadn't heard of him before, but I've since learned that he's been playing in a variety of high-profile ensembles since his early teen years. I'm sure I'll hear a lot more from him in the future.

JOE GRANSDEN BIG BAND

Followers of the Atlanta jazz scene are certainly familiar with trumpeter Joe Gransden and his 16-piece big band. The band plays on the first and third Monday at Café 290 and it regularly features several of Atlanta's best jazz musicians. The big band's inclusion at the Atlanta Jazz Festival was actually the result of a contest held by festival organizers. For this particular time slot, the festival organizers accepted submissions from musicians all over the country and then held an online vote to determine which of the top three submissions would get to play at the festival. I'm happy to say Joe and his band won by a sizeable lead!

SOUND ISSUES

Overall, this year's Atlanta Jazz Festival was a great event. The festival was back at Piedmont Park, it featured big-name musicians, it included some of Atlanta's finest musicians on the main stage, it had a reasonably sized VIP area (it was too large in 2007), the festival was well-attended, and it even had decent weather considering the fact that rain and thunderstorms were in the forecast for the entire weekend. There were some problems with this year's Atlanta Jazz Festival, however, and they all seemed to revolve around sound. To begin, this was the loudest Atlanta Jazz Festival that I've attended. The high volume level would have been fine, but it seemed like every performance and/or intermission had at least one eardrum-piercing event where somebody's microphone was turned up too high and the sound guys were caught off guard. The sound guys also seemed slow to react when somebody's microphone level was too low. There were several instances where somebody belted out note after note and we couldn't hear anything. Oh, and why did the sound guys play loud (and bad) alterna-rock during some of the intermissions? Maybe they were practicing for Bonnaroo.

FESTIVAL LINEUP

As in previous years at Piedmont Park, this year's Atlanta Jazz Festival had two stages of music. The main stage featured local Atlanta musicians and touring acts, while the second stage consisted entirely of local musicians. Here's the complete lineup:

SATURDAY MAY 29, 2010 - MAIN STAGE

• 2pm - Rialto Jazz For Kids All Star Big Band
• 3pm - Jay Norem & Keith White Quartet
• 4pm - Steven Charles Band
• 5:30pm - Trombone Shorty
• 7pm - Swing Streets to Swing Beats w/ Esperanza Spalding & Raydar Ellis
• 8:30pm - Marcus Miller w/ Christian Scott

SATURDAY MAY 29, 2010 - SECOND STAGE

• 3pm - Our New Dimensions
• 4pm - The Jacob Deaton Trio
• 5pm - Hudson on Bass
• 6pm - Julie Dexter

SUNDAY MAY 30, 2010 - MAIN STAGE

• 2pm - Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble Jazz Band
• 3pm - Joe Gransden Big Band
• 4pm - Kathleen Bertrand
• 5:30pm - Spyro Gyra
• 7pm - Diane Schuur w/ Jason Marsalis
• 8:30pm - Hiromi & Stanley Clarke

SATURDAY MAY 30, 2010 - SECOND STAGE

• 3pm - Groove Project
• 4pm - The Non-Movement Movement
• 5pm - Madoca & Co
• 6pm - William Green & The Magic Dream Band

After building my iPhone ear training application I decided it was time to finally redesign my jazz blog. The old design had been online since 2004. It didn't feature my ear training tools prominently enough, and frankly, I was tired of looking at it!

THE OLD SITE DESIGN

I know you're going to miss the old timey look of the straw-colored background and the slightly darker straw-colored accents which were artfully placed next to even darker straw colors. And don't forget the dull red stripes, which when viewed next to all that straw, resembled the cozy mauve of my grandmother's sofa. Yes, I'll miss all of that too.

But, I think it's time for a change. So, without further ado, let's take a look at the new site design...

THE NEW SITE DESIGN

Well, I guess there's nothing to show you since you're already looking at the new design. But did you notice the little pink trumpet at the top? If not, take a good look. That thing's gonna be fun to make fun of the next time I redesign the site.

I hope you like the new design. I still have a few things to tweak over the next few days, but I think everything should work (and look) properly. If you see anything strange, please let me know.

Over the past few months I've been working on an ear training application for the iPhone. I finally finished the application last week and I'm pleased to report that it's now available for download from the iTunes App Store!

My iPhone ear training application is called "Play By Ear" and like my other ear training applications, it's free! If you've got an iPhone I hope you'll give it a try and let me know what you think. This is my first iPhone application and I think it's pretty cool. Hopefully you'll agree.

MORE INFORMATION

You'll find a list of the basic features and some tips at my iPhone ear training application's homepage. It's similar to my Java ear training applet, but there are some significant differences. For starters, the iPhone ear training application is a much simpler application. It doesn't have the rhythm section feature, nor does it have stuff like the jazz licks and song-based melodies. The iPhone ear trainer does have one nice feature, though, that my Java ear trainer doesn't: pitch recognition.

Unlike my Java ear trainer, my iPhone ear training application uses pitch detection to listen to the notes you play. It then displays the correct notes as you play them, coloring them red or green depending upon your accuracy. I spent a lot of time tuning the pitch recognition to work with a variety of instruments (trumpet, piano, voice, guitar) and I'm sure I could spend even more time, but in my experience it works pretty well for pitches within an octave or two of a piano's middle C. I tested on both an iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, but I don't really know if it works on an iPod Touch since it requires a headset to use the microphone. At least that's what I've read.

That's all for now. I just wanted to get out a quick message about my new iPhone ear trainer so you can start using it. Please let me know how it goes!

ADDITIONAL READING

• Read Play By Ear - six months later for the status of the iPhone application six months after its original release.

Last weekend, Christian McBride was in town for a concert with his new band, "Inside Straight." If you don't already know, Christian McBride is one of the most in-demand jazz bassists on the scene today. Since beginning his career in 1990, Christian McBride has performed and recorded with a stellar list of jazz musicians, including Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Ray Brown, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, and Wynton Marsalis.

On the day of the concert, Christian McBride also gave a master class at Georgia State University. Due to a likely cover-up by the attention-starved saxophone faculty, I didn't even hear about the master class until a couple of hours before it started (special thanks to Laura for texting me!). But once I did find out, I dropped what I was doing and sped on over. There was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to see and hear one of the greatest jazz musicians of my generation, especially when it affords me the ability to then write a blog article where I once again poke fun at my buddy in the GSU saxophone faculty.

Like my favorite master classes, Christian McBride's master class included both a discussion and playing session. During the playing session, several bass players got to sit in with a jazz combo while Christian listened and critiqued their playing. For the most part, the young bassists played really well and Christian spent about as much time offering suggestions as he did giving praise. You might think that's how it goes in all master classes, but I'm always amazed at how eager some "masters" are to criticize and cut down aspiring musicians. Christian was really cool, though, and I'm sure his words of encouragement will inspire the young players through many of their practice sessions.

SAVE THE FIREWORKS FOR JULY 4TH

During the past twenty years, Christian McBride has recorded hundreds of albums as a sideman, so he knows a thing or two about what it takes to succeed as a working jazz bass player. He summed it up nicely when he said "Nobody hires you for the fireworks." Instead, it's the fundamentals of bass playing that get you the job. Skills like keeping time, having a good sound, and staying in the pocket are much more important than showy tricks and gimmicks. But unfortunately, aspiring musicians spend way too much time chasing the showy stuff and too little time on the basics.

To illustrate his point, Christian McBride mentioned Victor Wooten's double thumb slap. If you Google "bass double thumb slap" you'll find tons of YouTube clips and articles devoted to the subject. In their quest to play like Victor Wooten, bass players are spending countless hours learning this advanced technique instead of focusing on the strong fundamentals that made Victor Wooten such a great musician in the first place. To paraphrase Christian McBride, you have to learn A-M before learning N-Z. And all these bass players are skipping right over to Z! That's like a karate student learning how to punch before learning balance. Big mistake.

GOING INSIDE

The part about mastering A-M before learning N-Z, reminded of my musical misstep with "outside" playing. At the end of my first year of college music school, I bought a CD by the head of the jazz department, Ed Sarath. It was a quintet recording that featured an unfamiliar (to me) saxophonist named Dave Liebman. As soon as I heard Liebman's playing, I was mesmerized. It was the most flawlessly executed display of reckless abandon that I had ever heard. Even though I knew I couldn't play any of Liebman's licks on the trumpet, that recording instilled in my mind the notion that playing "outside" (against the harmonies and rhythms) was the apex of jazz improvisation.

A few months after I got that Liebman album, I bought a book of pentatonic jazz licks. Yes, the Ramon Ricker book. I played through them all, and memorized a few of the more "outside" licks to incorporate in my jazz solos. At the time, I was playing weekly gigs with a jazz combo in some of the finest empty coffee houses in Chicago. Each night I'd run through my "outside" licks and for a few measures of each tune I sounded fantastic. Even my band mates, who heard the licks over and over again, seemed impressed whenever I played them. But as soon as the licks came to an end, I sounded terrible because I lacked the fundamental skills I needed to improvise well on my own. I was all fluff, without any substance. Eventually, this lack of substance led me to quit playing the trumpet for seven years.

When I started playing the trumpet again I made a conscious effort to focus on the fundamentals of jazz improvisation. I no longer worry about sounding modern or "outside" because with strong fundamentals I'll be able sound however I want at any given time. Since I couldn't play anything accurately by ear back when I was in college, I now spend a lot of time working on ear training with my ear training tools. And to improve my sense of rhythm and time, I started practicing with a metronome (I never even used one in college). I've also spent more time listening to earlier jazz as I try to learn the fundamentals directly from the pioneers of jazz. More than anything, that's taught me that if there is an "apex of jazz improvisation" it's less likely to be "outside" playing and more likely to be something that Louis Armstrong played.

HISTORY OF JAZZ PODCAST, BY GORDON VERNICK

And speaking of the pioneers of jazz... Georgia State University professor, Gordon Vernick, has an excellent and free podcast that I've been meaning to mention for some time now. Gordon Vernick's "History of Jazz" podcast currently includes 76 episodes covering everything from ragtime to Weather Report. I've been listening to it for nearly a year and I always enjoy his depth of knowledge and his respect for the music. If you dig the podcast, be sure to subscribe since he's still adding more segments. In fact, just this week he added two episodes on Lee Morgan!

ANNIVERSARIES - ARTICLE LINKS

• Two-year anniversary
• Three-year anniversary
• Four-year anniversary
• Five-year anniversary
• Six-year anniversary
• Seven-year anniversary

As the year comes to a close, it time for another anniversary article. The following article marks the end of seven years since I started playing the trumpet again.

MY PRACTICE ROUTINE

For the past few years, I've been working on the same basic exercises every day when I practice. I'll start with a ten-minute warm-up, followed by twenty minutes of slurs, interval, and articulation exercises. About a month ago, I was re-reading my 2009 Atlanta Trumpet Festival article and decided it was time for a change. Following Kevin Eisensmith's advice, I'm now incorporating the practice of new literature in my daily routine. Every other day, I'll focus on a few etudes or characteristic studies (e.g. Arban's, Jacome, jazz transcriptions, etc). On the in between days I'm still doing my old set of exercises. Hopefully the new material will bring new challenges and improve my rate of progress. It's probably too early to tell how this will impact my playing, but I do know that some of the characteristic studies that were giving me problems a month ago have already become easy to play.

JAZZ LESSONS

This year I took my first jazz lessons since I was a jazz studies major in college. Two of the lessons were with jazz trumpeter, Joe Gransden, and two were with jazz saxophonist and educator, Mace Hibbard. I recognize that I have a lot to learn from other musicians, but I also know that I don't have enough free time to take regular lessons. Actually, I have enough time for the lesson itself, I just don't have enough time to thoroughly practice the lesson material. For example, it's been about 6 months since my first lesson with Mace Hibbard and I still haven't worked through bass lines in all 12 keys. I mention this every year, but the scarcity of time remains the biggest challenge in my comeback journey.

EAR TRAINING

I always amazed at the progress I'm making with ear training. It's especially fun when I hear a tune or part of a jazz solo and I can just pick up my horn and play it perfectly. I can't always play the notes accurately by ear, but each year it's getting easier and easier. Thanks to the jazz lick mode of my free online ear training tool, I'm now able to hear and play more complex melodies that contain altered tones. If you're an aspiring jazz musician who needs help with ear training, be sure to give the jazz lick mode a try. Just look under the "Each box is a …" dropdown of the Melodies tab.

RANGE AND ENDURANCE

At the 2009 Atlanta Trumpet Festival, all of the clinicians mentioned that they practice playing high as a regular part of their daily practice routines. To date, I haven't done much practicing in the upper register aside from some slurring exercises, so I decided to add scales to my daily practice routine. After a ten-minute warm-up, while my chops are nice and fresh, I play ascending two-octave scales until I'm unable to comfortably reach the high notes. Sometimes I can't go any higher than a two-octave D major scale, but at least twice a week my chops reward me with a nice two-octave E or F major scale. I've even had a couple of days where I can play a three-octave G scale. Frankly, the high G is a barely audible squeak, but it counts!

I've made a little progress with endurance, but my chops still tire out after ten or fifteen minutes of jazz improvisation. That's because I focus entirely on playing the notes at the expense of chop preservation. In other words, if I hear a G at the top of the staff in my head, I'm going to play that G even if it means I have to use excessive mouthpiece pressure. I know, I know. Bad, Rick.

EMBOUCHURE CHANGE

At the advice of Alex Yates, I made some changes to my embouchure a couple of months ago. This single embouchure has replaced the various roll-in states that I used to play on as a result of trying the Balanced Embouchure method several years ago. While I prefer the simplicity of using a single embouchure, it hasn't exactly revolutionized my playing or anything. In fact, I think I play a little worse now than before. Then again, I'm so used to playing poorly that I might have forgotten exactly how bad I was! Anyway, I've been working to strengthen the corners of my embouchure (I even bought a PETE), so maybe the new embouchure will improve as time goes on.

YET ANOTHER MOUTHPIECE UPDATE

As a final treat for the holidays, I now present you with another fascinating mouthpiece update! As you may recall, I bought a new GR 65M trumpet mouthpiece in October. I used the GR mouthpiece exclusively for 6 weeks and I'm sorry to say that I liked it less and less as time went on. The GR mouthpiece made it a little easier to play notes in the upper register, but in an odd twist of fate, I found myself struggling to play notes below the staff. My beloved low register, which had always welcomed me with open arms, was turning on me!

I might have stuck with the GR mouthpiece for a little longer, but I couldn't ignore the way it thinned out my sound. I hadn't noticed the thin tone when originally playing the mouthpiece because I had tried it in a room with vaulted ceilings and dazzling acoustics. In my small practice room, however, the thin sound was instantly apparent and undeniably unpleasant.

After six weeks on the GR 65M mouthpiece, I was so annoyed by the thin sound that I decided to do a sound trial with the GR and some of my other mouthpieces. I selected a few of my old mouthpieces, including the Yamaha 14B4 that I was playing prior to switching to the GR mouthpiece. I asked my wife to listen as I played some jazz lines on each mouthpiece. I started with the Yamaha 14B4 and then played the GR mouthpiece. Within 5 notes my wife told me to stop playing. In her ever so delicate manner, she said it sounded terrible, except she used more colorful language. I repeated the test a few more times, varying the order of mouthpieces, and every time my wife cringed at the thin sound of the GR mouthpiece, while she consistently preferred the warm tone of the Yamaha 14B4. And there you have it. Since it's such a hit with the ladies, I'm back on the Yamaha 14B4.

This experience has definitely taught me that I can't evaluate a mouthpiece in a single playing session. Like all trumpeters, my chops respond differently each day. Some days I can play high with greater ease, some days I have more endurance, and some days I can barely play anything well at all. I can't really tell how a mouthpiece will perform long term unless I can try it on a variety of these chop conditions over a period of several days. And I definitely need to try the mouthpiece in my practice room. Now if only I can find a mouthpiece with the sound of the Yamaha and the efficiency of the GR. The search continues…