Once I had all my listings on Ebay done and had some time, about 4AM of course, I got the new cornet out to do some practice. First I had to give the pistons some attention, since they were sticky. Typically a piece of hair or gunk of some type gets in there, and my remedy is to use some spray cleaner/oil for electronics I have, then lube with regular trumpet valve oil.
I was prepared to hate the mouthpiece that came with the cornet. Since the cornet is a professional level "British brass band" type, naturally it comes with a mouthpiece that's aimed at that type of music. But I was able to play on it just fine, and get a good, clear, tone.
I opened the new beginner Rubank book I'd been working out of years ago and since the one I had back then is one I ordered off of Amazon, I'm wondering if it was a fake with a restricted amount of material, printed larger. I did find exercises I'd been doing and ...
I can't read the printed music for shit! I had to keep referring to the fingering chart I'd found online and printed out. Let's see, I've been at least a year away from the trumpet, then a year or three before that I'd just gone out busking and not putting in any time reading printed music at all. I believe it was that first year of covid, so 2020, that I'd been practicing off of printed music, in that (probably an Amazon fake) Rubank book. So I'm on Lesson 6. That's my level right now.
I practiced quite a lot for someone just getting back into it, an hour. All I can say is it's good to be back.
I went right to bed and woke up around 11AM maybe, went back to sleep until 1:30PM and got up, giving myself half an hour to prepare and get out of here. I packed one package that had to go, and was out the door at just before 2.
I stopped at Nijiya and got a little plate of beef and veggies and a can of coffee. I heated the food in their microwave and ate at the table out front, and here's where I made a mistake. I only drank a little of the coffee, figuring I'd save it for later. "Save it for later" is an extremely stupid way to think, when out on the street. Somewhere in my various errands, the can of coffee disappeared. This is what happens, out on the street, when you apply the idiotic rule of "save it for later". No, the correct thing to do is chug that shit so you're sure you get it, before it can disappear.
There's a test in psychology called the "marshmallow test". The test is, you show a kid a marshmallow, and tell them they can eat it now, or if they wait a period of time, they can have two marshmallows. The idea is that "good" kids will wait, showing restraint and planning and all that. And "bad" kids won't wait. Except it's only a test of socioeconomic status. I'd have grabbed that first marshmallow every time. It might be the only food I'm given that day that I didn't have to fish or forage for myself, and marshmallows were a rare treat. Adults were not trustworthy, not my parents or any other adults.
I rode over to Park Avenue Music and Eric, the owner, was there. This was great; I figured I could deal with Trombone Guy, who's nice enough but really not all there, but having Eric there was absolutely great. I showed him the Yamaha mouthpiece that came with my new Yamaha horn, important because it's a "short shank" cornet mouthpiece and those are rare. I said I wanted to get as close to a Bach 3C as possible which means a 14B4 in Yamaha or Schilke. He dug around in back and came up with two Denis Wick pieces, a 3 and a 3B. I decided on the shallower of the two. I also got a trumpet stand and asked about a mouthpiece brush, which he threw in for free.
I was out front fiddling with things, figuring out how to load them into my bike bag, and decided to check the stand to make sure it was the 5-leg one because there are 3-leg ones and I sure didn't want one of those. While I was packing it back up (it's the 5-leg one) Eric came out and asked if I wanted the shallower or deeper of the two mouthpieces and I said the shallower one, and he thought I'd taken the deeper one, so the 3 I'd almost taken off with was exchanged for the 3B, and I was *really* thankful he'd done that.
So much so that I went back in (come to think of it I had the can of coffee in my hand) and asked if he had the Getchell-Hovey book of exercises that Eric Bolvin had everyone use, and I found the 2nd book so I'll have to get the first one later. And, since we were talking about Eric Bolvin, I ended up looking at this book published by him called "The Big Songbook" or something like that, which is a surprising number of songs, all in one book. So I got that too. And come to think of it I probably left the can of coffee on the counter there.
I went to the big Goodwill next, and looked at their musical instruments. I'd been thinking of buying a flute from them just for the case, using that case for the flute I want to keep, putting the Goodwill cheapie in the awful case the flute I want to keep is in, and so my "keeper" flute will be in a decent case. But I think I'll just buy a new case from Park Avenue Music. Flutes are $33 at Goodwill (or is it $38 now?) and I can't see a new non-name case being more than $35.
I didn't find anything I was interested in although it's interesting to know that there's a constant flow of cheapo musical instruments coming through there, violins and flutes and clarinets and guitars. I never see any trumpets and think I may have seen one, years ago.
I stopped at the Amazon place and got a few bubble mailers, and got back here. Enough adventure for one day.
I now have a new mouthpiece to try out, and now I have a backup in case something happens to one. When I'm ready to go out busking again, the nice thing about a "shepherd's crook" cornet like this one is, it can fit in my messenger bag. I've done this with a short cornet before. I just need to get a nice really smooth pillow case and a towel. Horn goes in pillow case then the towel's wrapped around it, and it goes in the messenger bag.
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