Given that I have a terribly nice habit of making a short story long, be prepared for a voluminous post to follow...
Some background first: I inherited a cornet (not to be confused with a cornett, a much rarer beast) from a relative (very fortunately, they haven't passed away, but they just hadn't played it in a long time and thought I might be interested). That has been keeping my free time occupied lately, which could be considered A Good Thing(TM), as it causes me to leave my computers alone, and frees up more spare CPU cycles for the Folding@Home client.
Already being familiar with general musical concepts of keys, notes, scales, etc. (though I couldn't read more than a note per minute even if my life depended on it) has helped, and I've been reading some books and checking out instructional videos on the trumpet (which is very similar to the cornet), but I'm still not that good. Anyway, when I first got the instrument, it had not been cleaned in a long time, and had a less than desirable appearance, as well as valve springs that were in pretty sad shape... which brings me to today's part of the story...
So, to get back to what made this day fun and exciting, I was able to go to a large "Conservatory of Music" that is some 40 miles away (in Terre Haute, IN; that's why living in a rural area sucks - you have to drive a long distance to do any other shopping aside from that for groceries and basic stuff) and find some accessories for my instrument. Also, they were able to replace the valve springs for a very reasonable cost.
After my parents got some other shopping and stuff done, and we returned home, I spent several hours working on it. In all, it has had a nice half-hour bath in the brass soap seen in the photo above, an extensive polishing with a special chemically-treated cloth, and a cleaning and re-oiling of the valves. Next, I spent almost an hour practicing scales, Easter songs, and simple solos. I love to attempt the intro solo to Metallica's Fade To Black; the keyboard solo from Pink Floyd's Keep Talking is fun as well. The "Flight of the Bumblebee" is something that is so far beyond my level of skill right now that I couldn't even think of trying for years to come, so don't ask.
FWIW, here is a picture of the instrument post-polishing.
And why did I post all this? I really have no idea, and after looking back over it, it seems quite pointless. Perhaps I just felt the need to share something that interested me, or perhaps I just felt the need to start a semi-intelligent revision of Evadman's NEF thread. Perhaps the world will never know...
Some background first: I inherited a cornet (not to be confused with a cornett, a much rarer beast) from a relative (very fortunately, they haven't passed away, but they just hadn't played it in a long time and thought I might be interested). That has been keeping my free time occupied lately, which could be considered A Good Thing(TM), as it causes me to leave my computers alone, and frees up more spare CPU cycles for the Folding@Home client.
Already being familiar with general musical concepts of keys, notes, scales, etc. (though I couldn't read more than a note per minute even if my life depended on it) has helped, and I've been reading some books and checking out instructional videos on the trumpet (which is very similar to the cornet), but I'm still not that good. Anyway, when I first got the instrument, it had not been cleaned in a long time, and had a less than desirable appearance, as well as valve springs that were in pretty sad shape... which brings me to today's part of the story...
So, to get back to what made this day fun and exciting, I was able to go to a large "Conservatory of Music" that is some 40 miles away (in Terre Haute, IN; that's why living in a rural area sucks - you have to drive a long distance to do any other shopping aside from that for groceries and basic stuff) and find some accessories for my instrument. Also, they were able to replace the valve springs for a very reasonable cost.
After my parents got some other shopping and stuff done, and we returned home, I spent several hours working on it. In all, it has had a nice half-hour bath in the brass soap seen in the photo above, an extensive polishing with a special chemically-treated cloth, and a cleaning and re-oiling of the valves. Next, I spent almost an hour practicing scales, Easter songs, and simple solos. I love to attempt the intro solo to Metallica's Fade To Black; the keyboard solo from Pink Floyd's Keep Talking is fun as well. The "Flight of the Bumblebee" is something that is so far beyond my level of skill right now that I couldn't even think of trying for years to come, so don't ask.
FWIW, here is a picture of the instrument post-polishing.
And why did I post all this? I really have no idea, and after looking back over it, it seems quite pointless. Perhaps I just felt the need to share something that interested me, or perhaps I just felt the need to start a semi-intelligent revision of Evadman's NEF thread. Perhaps the world will never know...
