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Had my first chance to use the Olds bass trumpet/Flugabone I just received from Blake! Played a couple of hymn arrangements with one of my best friends, a lovely young lady who played her trumpet.
I'm so blessed that my church lets me get away with playing a wide variety of instruments in a variety of settings!
Tim

MN_TimTuba wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2026 9:15 pm Had my first chance to use the Olds bass trumpet/Flugabone I just received from Blake! Played a couple of hymn arrangements with one of my best friends, a lovely young lady who played her trumpet.
I'm so blessed that my church lets me get away with playing a wide variety of instruments in a variety of settings!
Tim

Glad it is working out for you!

MN_TimTuba wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2026 9:15 pm Had my first chance to use the Olds bass trumpet/Flugabone I just received from Blake!

What mouthpiece are you using with it?? I found a good old fashioned 6 1/2AL seems to be the ticket for me.

gocsick wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2026 8:43 am

MN_TimTuba wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2026 9:15 pm Had my first chance to use the Olds bass trumpet/Flugabone I just received from Blake!

What mouthpiece are you using with it?? I found a good old fashioned 6 1/2AL seems to be the ticket for me.

I used the 12C that came with the horn, and it worked just fine. Very nice sound in the mid range where I was playing harmony. I do have a handful of others that I'll test soon, but right now we're moving and that's taking all my time!
Tim

3rd trombone.

humBell wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2026 11:07 am3rd trombone.

Did you also play the other two?

Euphonium in pops orchestra, covering bass clarinet and bassoon parts where appropriate......

arpthark wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2026 11:23 am

humBell wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2026 11:07 am3rd trombone.

Did you also play the other two?

Not this time. I was the 4th to got there.

I haven't played yet this morning, but when I do, it'll be a Chicago Holton 6/4 BBb helicon, and maybe a York CC.

Mostly I've been picking up the bass guitar and working on some pretty difficult cover charts, so I don't embarrass myself in gigs.

I played probably the world's oldest Yamaha four valve model 321 euphonium yesterday after getting it all repaired (which involved a lot)... You know how some instruments are just really sweet, compared to other instruments of the same model? That instrument is one of those.

These were first made in 1967, but I don't know when they were first exported to the United states. This one is O-L-D.
It doesn't even have the red paint logo on the Bell, and there never was any because the original lacquer was on the front of this Bell when I first began working on it.
The valves are fine...

After a three month hiatus, I returned to the tuba on the 14th of August. The first 30 minutes were awful. After the warmup everything sounded much better and it confirmed for me that I made the right decision to take an extended break. I am reducing the number of bands I belong to as well. The Saskatoon Concert Band and the Bridge City Brass Band will be my focus from this point on. The Saskatoon Community Band Concert Band was very enjoyable and had a terrific conductor, however as I age, I find three rehearsals a week with three different sets of music just too much. Hopefully this will help me continue to enjoy playing and the company of many really good musicians. Here's hoping!!

I had a kidney transplant on Thursday, so won’t be picking up a horn for a while, not even the Tournister. I hope to be back in the saddle by TubaChristmas time.

ronr wrote: Sat Sep 12, 2026 7:27 pm I had a kidney transplant on Thursday, so won’t be picking up a horn for a while, not even the Tournister. I hope to be back in the saddle by TubaChristmas time.

Bless you, Ron.

Do you remember the intro to the Fat Albert cartoons whereby Weird Harold would PLAY a mattress springs (as if it were a harp)?

That's what we did today.

Our son has been pulling crap out of the house that's not needed. He just pulled a funky old mattress out of the basement den (which has sort of become just a basement... I'm thinking he's trying to make it back into a den.)

We did our once every six weeks trip to the dump where they charge a dollar a bag so we combat that cost by having our bags be 50 gallon bags.

They charge $10 for twin size mattresses and $20 for mattresses larger than that. Of course it was larger. We slit the end open and slid in a bunch of rotten particle board. .

Since we could back right up to where we dumped the mattress, we didn't have to "PLAY" it very long.

Today it wasn't playing, but a surprise singing bit.
While enjoying breakfast I received a text message from today's worship team, a highly talented young family with strong country music background. They asked if I would sing bass on Just A Little Talk With Jesus today. Naturally I jumped at it! A couple of sweet and pretty country girls on guitar and vocals, and me just holding a mic and singing bass. I loved it, and the congregation did as well, so we were all blessed.
My church family knows we are moving a couple of hours away in a few weeks, so they're giving me plenty of opportunity to be used before we travel on - I play bass the next few weeks, have an offertory tuba solo at the end of the month, and was asked today to write an article for the October newsletter, outlining the history and ministry of our Men's Sporting Clays event that I hosted for 15 years. It's going to be a challenge to find a new church that lets me do as much ministry as my current church has for the past 40 years!
Tim

What I played today.

OKTOBERFEST!!!! Well not today but Saturday. We had just enough of a break in the rain to do a 2 hour outdoor set. The cool thing about Oktoberfest is we get a lot of friends of the band from out of town that come in to do the gig with us... So this year we had 5 sousaphones (3 of whom are not regulars). All in all a pretty good haul about $2,600 for the Mid-Ohio Food Collective/Nationwide Children's Hospital Community Food Program (combined from donations and performance fee from organizers). I hate to say this but we could have actually used another trumpet or 2 to balance things out! A little Bell Biv Devo....

gocsick wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 8:35 am I hate to say this but we could have actually used another trumpet or 2 to balance things out!

Shoulda brought yours!

Perfect chance to whip out the Olds Eb...

arpthark wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 8:42 am

gocsick wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 8:35 am I hate to say this but we could have actually used another trumpet or 2 to balance things out!

Shoulda brought yours!

Perfect chance to whip out the Olds Eb...

If we have enough coverage on the low end, I usually bring one along and play a few charts. I don't have the stamina to do a full gig on trumpet though. My chops are done after about half hour maybe 45 minutes.

@UncleBeer
Thanks for that, as that always makes me smile.
That tune was played in garagebands all over Memphis - and even one that I was associated with before I was even in junior high, because everyone was nuts over it.
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs was a local Memphis band, and there was a local program that was sort of like American Bandstand called Talent Party on every Saturday after the cartoons and he and his band were on that show most Saturdays.
You folks did a really great job on it, by the way. The TV station's call letters were WHBQ (ABC affiliate), and they had go-go dancers on there called the WHB-Cuties.

My oldies band has a rehearsal called for tomorrow night and - adding six more tunes to the rep - working on a sort of special version of Mustang Sally. (Maybe it's only "special" in that it's not a jam session version but a little bit more nicely performed version, much like your Wooly-Bully.

sidebar: expanding a small band's rep:
Many small bands, jazz combos, or brass quintets don't understand the importance of expanding the repertoire, because they tend to be hired back for repeat jobs, and it's really easy for small ensembles too grow stale on those who would hire them. Fresh material is really important.

Oh yeah, that three-page note-for-note transcription of "Saturday in the Park" that I posted? That's slated for tomorrow night as well. I'm ready. Jolene (C sharp minor) is also on the list. That was passed out a couple of weeks before anyone knew that she was dying of cancer.

@gocsick
I think I only have one Oktoberfest gig this year. I used to play a six night a week German restaurant job (1979-1980 - accordion, multi woodwind player, trumpet, drums, sousaphone/bass, gorgeous German female singer with a Marlene Dietrich low-range voice. Of course we had to mix in every other style of music there is.) This is the first time since my friend, Bob Westbrook, got sick and passed away that we managed to round up a REAL accordionist (rather than having to resort to a keyboard playing with an accordion sound... That would be my friend Jim Mahannah, who can play keyboard and horns at the same time). Bob was an exceptionally good keyboard player and was actually good enough to be on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour (You guys are going to have to Google that. It was the only national talent reality show that existed at that time - 1950s through 1960s.)
Bob's main gig was being a pop vocal coach, and both Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears studied with him for several years as teenagers. Yes, her parents drove her up from Louisiana, and yes she actually did have a huge crush on Justin.