Lacquer
Separate pipes for A and Bb keys
In near-perfect condition: some slight lacquer wear from custom work, valves are flawless, slides are perfectly clean
Custom brace added between lead pipe and valve block to improve response and inherent structural weakness

My first horn was a Schilke, and I liked this one better. It has a more complex resonant sound than many of the piccolo trumpets I have played. I am a professional trumpeter, and have done a lot of work this with it: Magnificat, Trumpet Shall Sound, Pictures at an Exhibition, baroque solo trumpet repertoire, weddings, quintet, musicals, etc. Audience members, colleagues, and friends have always reviewed performances extremely highly. Several orchestral players that I greatly respect put me onto this model, and I believe it is particularly popular among that crowd for its colorful and carrying sound.

I am selling because I have two: this one, as well as a Yamaha 9810 I recently purchased. The Yamaha is a relatively rare horn and is the one I am choosing to hold onto. They are both very good, I obviously just don’t need two of them. There are a couple of other modifications I had the intention of having done before the Yamaha came along, and I am glad to chat about those. They are easy and cheap.

Comes with original case in moderate condition, a Leather Specialties hand guard that no longer fits due to the modification, and the 7C mouthpiece I used with it most often. Also comes with all of the documentation, including original receipt, and the shop receipt of the brace modification.

Hopefully I can give someone the chance to get what was already a good horn, with some of the kinks worked out, at a good price. No profit intended, just looking for someone who can use it.

Feel free to contact me, Andy Harms, if you have any questions or you would like to see pictures. AndrewHarms@umkc.edu

$1200– the price that I bought it plus standard shipping. Paypal only. No foreign sales.

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1. King Lear, by William Shakespeare
2. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
3. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
4. Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglass Adams
6. The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka
7. The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
8. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence
9. Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
10. The Three Muskateers, by Alexander Dumas
11. The Dubliners, by James Joyce
12. Catch 22, by Joseph Heller
13. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner

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For sale, Bach 239G. Raw brass bell and slides, lacquered valves (no stinky hands). I played this horn at the 2009 ITG solo competition finals.

The 239G bell is a tighter sound than the 229, and the gold brass mellows it out a little bit. The result is a compact fluid sounding horn, suitable for solo work, but also played with a few fantastic quintets, other chamber applications, and for several years as principal trumpet for area and academic orchestras.

A few words about the leadpipe. The original, and the one currently mounted, is a 25C. It plays very nimbly with this pipe, and although not always the first choice for others, it seems to fit this instrument. The horn plays responsively and people often mention how easily it plays above the staff. This would be a good pipe for someone new to the C trumpet. I also have a 25S pipe, which improves intonation and allows all open fingerings, at the cost of requiring more air. I can have either pipe mounted before I ship it, at no cost.

Condition is what you would expect of a professional trumpet. Slides, valves work flawlessly, a couple of dents in the bell and one at the tip of the third valve slide. First valve brace has been removed, which fixed a chippy high F.

I can include both pipes for $1400– check or Paypal. Trumpet only. Feel free to contact with any questions.

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Hi! I’ll be presenting my first Master of Music recital (one of two) this coming Monday, May 4th, 2009, at Central United Methodist Church, on 52nd and Oak St. at 7:30pm. Program is as follows:

Fanfare for St. Edmondsbury by Benjamin Britten

Sonata for trumpet and piano by Paul Hindemith

brief intermission

Parable XIV for solo trumpet by Vincent Persichetti

Concerto in Eb for trumpet and orchestra (piano) by Joseph Haydn

Assisted by Anna Garcia and Peter Pirotte on trumpet, and Kristy Mezines on piano. Hope to see you all there!

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I am a finalist for the solo competition. I will be playing Vincent Persichetti’s Parable XIV and Hindemith sonata.

Competition will be in Harrisburg, PA, at 4:30 on Friday, May 29th, at the Hilton. Hope to see you there!

Kudos also to Aaron Linscheidt, jazz division finalist.

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Bach Stradivarius Trumpet

- 37 Bell 
-ML bore (.459)
-25 standard leadpipe
-raw brass bell and leadpipe
-4 years old (634xxx), right before the strike

Price: $950 (shipped)

My Bb trumpet is for sale. I bought it new and have owned it for 4 years. I personally broke the valves in, they work great with no hang-ups. Slides move great. I am missing the two 3rd slide nuts, but the slide stays put pretty well when it isn’t in use. Being my primary horn for many years, this horn has been used for a bajillion musicals, big bands, concert bands, orchestras, church gigs, weddings, recitals… if you’ve heard me play, you probably heard this trumpet. Sound and response are especially good. Selling because I just can’t justify owning two Bbs at this point in my life. It will be missed.

As far as condition, it is good for a horn that has seen constant use. I stripped the lacquer off the bell and leadpipe when I got it, and it has tarnished attractively. It is actually a pretty sexy trumpet. The bell has a couple of love dents, but as you can(’t) see in the picture, they are so small that a repair guy wouldn’t even bother to take them out, or even notice them. Valves are emaculate. Original case included for an extra $20.

Just e-mail me at AndrewHarms@umkc.edu if you are interested. I would accept Paypal or money order. Pictures below are very much “as is.”

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I greatly enjoyed my recent endeavors preparing for ITG and NTC. I wanted to take the time to point out some observations about some obvious stuff and some maybe not so obvious stuff. I hope somebody finds some wisdom in my otherwise rambling thoughts.

1) I’m curious why so many people take it upon themselves to play music that is diffult and not very musically satisfying. Many people on the lists for undergraduate and graduate at NTC have chosen to play a movement or several movements from incredibly difficult trumpet music. I would have to question that practice, as in my experience, few who participate in NTC can ever say that have “mastered” any music. I am inclined to say that time spent practicing a movement of Kennan, Legend, or something comparable can be more musically motivating and less destructive than, say, the Davies.

2) Sort of a shoot-off of my previous point, and perhaps more commonly applicable to trumpeters (or perhaps simply everybody), people feel compelled to verbally compete, or even compete with actual physical playing. This seems to be human nature, and I am certainly guilty. But when you stop to think about it, this really can’t possibly help, even from a competitive standpoint. Since so much of music has nothing to do with how many notes there are, how high it goes, etc, this attitude is rarely justifiable (or never). Also, what a person can do and what a person can do on stage or otherwise in a pressure situation are usually quite different. Finally on this point, I ask the question: what good is a routine of any kind if it doesn’t help you be successful on the repertoire?

3) I really enjoy hearing other trumpeters. Maybe it is a competitive edge in me that prompts me to listen to other students, but I find it more likely that I just really like trumpet. I do love to compete, as I think nothing hones my playing more than hearing someone else who does it “better,” and I even learn something from standard mortal trumpeters. But most of all I love trumpet. The solo repertoire is always exciting for me, and as a friend recently put it: Mahler 2 can change your life. It is a great time to be a trumpeter and a musician.

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So here is the information on my recital this semester:

Thursday April 9, 2009
7:30pm, location TBD (most likely Central United Methodist, on the corner of 51st and Brookside)

Program will include Haydn Concerto for trumpet, Hindemith Sonata for trumpet, Persichetti Parable XIV, and Britten Fanfare for St. Edmondsbury for three trumpets (me, Anna Garcia, and Peter Pirotte).

I’ll post as soon as I have a sure location. Hope to see you there!

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I am excited to learn that I am a semi-finalist once again for this year’s National Trumpet Competition, this time in the graduate solo division. I will be performing the first movement of the Hindemith Sonata.

The other good news is that, of the four people here at UMKC who applied, all four are semi-finalists; that includes Anna, Jaime, Chris, and myself. Four for four, or 9% of the semi-finalists, not a bad track record! Now, if we can just get a couple people in finals….

Also, the graduate fellowship brass quintet will be competing at the regional MTNA in Northfield, MN, for a chance to go onto the national MTNA chamber competition in Atlanta, GA in March. We achieved this by winning first place at the state level. We will be playing Ewazen’s Frost Fire and my transcription of several dances from Terpsichore by Michael Praetorius.

All for now!

Andy

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I thought I’d recap what’s happened so far, and where I think it is going.

First, I’ve been heavily involved with the graduate fellowship brass quintet. We are a young but able group, consisting of me, Peter (Michigan), Kristin (Concordia), Chris (Oklahoma City), and Joseph (Kansas City). Everybody brings something positive to the table, it seems. We rehearse four times per week and are coached by Professor Tom Stein. This year, we won the state division of MMTA chamber competition and will continue to the regional, then (hopefully) the national convention. With the quintet’s help, I arranged three dances from Terpsichore for the group, which has been met with positive comments from faculty, judges, and members of the quintet themselves.

I am also a part of the conservatory wind symphony, under Professor Steven Davis. Rehearsals are well-lead, and we play primarily a combination of new band literature and the more difficult end of the standard repertoire. Last night, I played a Vaughn Williams piece and the Colgrass, The Winds of Nagual, which is one of my new favorite pieces of music. Next semester, we will be attending the CBDNA National Convention in Austin, Texas.

I have been serving on the CSA board as Vice President of UMKC’s International Trumpet Guild chapter. Since I have been involved, it feels as if the group has finally shed a passive approach to solving students’ problems here, with a “convocation” on the way to becoming a reality, extending computer lab hours, helping to fund students’ competitions and masterclasses, arranging guest speakers, etc. Through the CSA, I have been also serving as the graduate student representative to the faculty curriculum committee, which puts me in an advising role to faculty who decide what it is students have to do to graduate.

As a soloist, I have been working with Kristy (two words: perfect Hindemith. FREAK.) to put together some recital and competition material. I hope to do the ITG competition– it has always been a far-off goal of mine, and the repertoire this year seems quite reasonable but also competitively hard… good choices by the academic trumpet community. We have so far completed some initial recordings of the Hindemith, of which Dr. Benjamin speaks highly, so at least an NTC submission is likely (which often gets paid for by the CSA). Listening to my various submissions last year, I feel I have improved substantially, especially musically. Several issues seem to be getting fixed, but I am also more aware of my strengths. There are lots of things to do, but I believe I am on the right track.

Speaking of music, I am playing every weekend this month. Though not always paid extremely well, I am happy to be playing and that I am getting calls. I will be performing 3rd trumpet with the Lee’s Summit Symphony on their Christmas program next Friday. The vocal department will be performing Bach’s Magnificat, of which I will be playing 2nd trumpet (whew! playing next to Ryan is always fun, per Man of La Mancha, and Jaime on 3rd). This Sunday I will be playing with Chris, Karen, and Jeff at “Mrs. Dr. Elswick”’s church. Finally, I will be playing a Christmas Eve service for more money than I ever thought gigs would pay. All in all, not a bad month. With some luck, thorough preparation, and good playing on my part, even the freebies give me a chance to make a good impression among the directors, other musicians, and innocent bystanders.

Classes went well this semester. I believe I have stamped out some problems I’ve always suffered from in terms of school work. I enjoyed my teacher, Dr. Tyrrell, for Research and Bibliography, and hope to take other classes from her in the future.

Categories: General, Graduate Brass Quintet, Life, the Universe, and Everything, Musicianship
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