I have moved!

Hey all,

Just to let you know, I have moved my blog on over to WordPress who offer me a much clearer layout and just a much better interface. I will keep this site active (until I forget to do so), but to keep up with me online pop on over to:

www.michaelbarkley.com

If you need the un-masked URL for following then try:

www.jazzvine.wordpress.com

If you have an interest in my playing, endeavours or custom guitars, there will be plenty of media available!

Dig it!

Mike

Piccolo trumpet video.... (clip)

I ordered a JP piccolo after reading Gordon Hudson's reviews of the Jinbao piccolo - he surmised that the John Packer was the same instrument and that it would be worth a try given the very attractive price.

I believe that this is the Jinbao piccolo, and it seems to be a very good performer so far. In this clip I had not properly tuned the piccolo (crucial) and you will hear a couple of intonation issues. This is user error :) (especially that low D - E trill... the 3rd valve slide was not set). It also sounds a little flat to concert pitch as I was practising with my young brother who plays on a rather flat Eb Tuba.

The clip is a mash up of the Te Deum by Charpentier - nothing like the original :) I played this on the Bb side in Concert Bb major. I used the tight mouthpipe with my standard Curry 3M. trumpet mouthpiece.




Apologies for the poor sound and video quality. You would have seen me correct that low D and play on, but the video got terribly out of sync - it wasn't worth posting. The good news is that I will have a Zi8 to record with soon! Sadly it will take a while longer before my playing is better ;)

A very good resource on Piccolo Trumpets is found here. There is great detail on choosing one, tuning etc... The only thing I would say is to try one of these Jinbao piccolos. While the market is swamped with terrible instruments from the Chinese manufacturers, this instrument is different. It plays well and is apparently well made. I can vouch for the John Packer Trombones and Cornets as I have played (not owned) them. I can also vouch for the Thomann FH600S Flugel Horn, as I have owned one for five years now and while it cannot touch my Kanstul 1525, it is a very worthy instrument that I don't want to call "budget" because of the negative connotations therein.


These horns in the UK are called "John Packer" they are made by Jinbao (to the best of my knowledge) and go under the name of "International Sound" as well as "Jinbao". Dillons in the USA also sell cheap piccolos which seem to get decent reviews - with a decent returns policy (as John Packer has) you can hardly stand to lose. My bank just loves how I buy stuff but hardly ever feed it monies :)

If you are interested in this piccolo, John Packer are very good to deal with, very friendly and accommodating. They can be found here:
http://www.johnpacker.co.uk/default.aspx

How to check if your neighbour is in.

My neighbour is a dick, is he in tonight? Let's see...

Firstly, this is how me and my brother check to see if our neighbour is out. Let it be known that there is a mutual disdain between ourselves and the single-brick depth walls do little for sound insulation. In any case I am in a perpetual state of annoyance at having my playing curtailed and enjoy these moments.

Secondly, you should treat this video as a rare opportunity to glimpse into the lives of trumpet players and musicians. We hope that you learn from this video, we know that even the best can learn from this.

Dan is pictured with the silver trumpet, Mike is off-screen for the benefit of the viewers... (AKA poor film work)

Enjoy :-)

4 new tracks

These are recordings from a rehearsal session. Basically the 1st time through most of these tracks. I enjoyed myself, I enjoyed playing the music and to me the recording says that I should work towards a bigger goal. The playing is very much of a sightreading nature; you can forgive the blips therein.

Exile:

http://www.box.net/shared/94c4xsksb9

Nightshade:

http://www.box.net/shared/rtu9gdxfol

Solanum:

http://www.box.net/shared/0yigavk3rz

Dawn:

http://www.box.net/shared/duh6apxi0f

Adios!

A new creation

I have been "inventing" - I bet this has been done, but none-the-less it is an invention.

I play a little on low brass, a Bach USA marching baritone really - this was an impulse buy but it is proving to be more useful as time goes on, so I want to be able to easily double on it and my main instrument - the trumpet.

I took an old 12C (Blessing) and cut the shank off, and brazed a Denis Wick 5 French Horn mouthpiece - this is like a large trumpet mouthpiece, but exceptionally deep. I think the depth is what helps it keep some core in the sound - it is bright, but not horrible.

Step 1: Ruin 1 mouthpiece

Step 2: Check that they fit well. I actually drilled this out more such that the French Horn mouthpiece sat in just under 1/2" more for the sake of tuning. Play testing before brazing was a smart idea. Nearly didn't bother!

Step 3: Ruin 2 mouthpieces

Step 4: Give her a wee clean up and admire the sight of 2 ruined mouthpieces!

Step 5: Stick up a dodgey youtube video!

For neater results the brazing requires more heat than our small blowtorch can produce, so if there is a next time(s) I may invest in an oxyacetylene torch. What we have is an air-tight, strong seal, so I am happy with the result. There is a "bend" in the mouthpiece (more like an angle between the cup and shank of the piece, it was not bent, it just seated off axis when brazing). This actually feels very comfortable. I have half a mind (over-statement) to get one of my Trumpet pieces professionally bent, say to 5*. Maybe I will just drop it down (more) stairs... might work!

Anyhow, forgive the playing - I really don't play these instruments much, or ever as is the case for the Bass Trombone which had a Denis Wick 0 mouthpiece in it. (my sister's horn) The sound quality on the video is rough, but anyway you can hear my "laconic" voice... which I am sure everyone wants.. deep down, yanno?

Anyway, I have the semi-hollow body carved-top completed (not oiled yet). Very favourable comments from Mr Mark McKnight. I have some video clips from Mark's play testing with the Linley Hamilton Quintet, but the audio is clipped - I will try to fix this and seek the appropriate creative permissions to share the video here.

My blessings,

Mike

A quick recording

Another music related instalment - but only to be succeeded by many building related instalments...

My friend Jeremy asked me to throw down a quick old style blues, like 1930's era so I wrote a head chart with some horns to simulate a small big band. I say simulate because I don't play reeds, so I used a marching baritone for bass trombone and tenor trombone sounds, flugel for top trom, 3 trumpets and melody doubled on cup muted trumpet and harmon mute (no stem). I haven't worked out my "drummer"... that all time favourite joke pops to mind:

What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?

You only have to punch the rhythms in once on a drum machine!

There are too many... onwards...

The recording itself is OK - I am happy for what it is, but since I don't play the baritone horn often I find it hard to keep in tune, furthermore, this is basically the take of the 2nd read through. The playing is deliberately in an older style but I still need to shed the blues big time! Well, here she is; "Blues for Jeremy":

http://www.box.net/shared/8yr51b1fx4

I got to use my new Rode NT2A mic - really beautiful. Multi-pattern, high SPL capability, ultra low noise design, large capsule. On the trumpet it sounds super smooth if you roll off a little around 8k - there is a peak here, I roll off from about 6k onwards, and maybe 1/2dB boost across the 100-1000Khz range for a little more body. I am going to have some fun recording more with these - I will post about this later!

Should anyone want the chart, I can send a PDF if you like... you probably have no need :)

I am taking a day away from the guitars - I am seriously wrecked, so I will just make mistakes! Back to that tomorrow, and perhaps a post outlining my newest work. I am now building 7 instruments... lots to do!

Blessings,

Mike

A little playing

I realise that my blog is often about everything bar music. I suppose building guitars is related, but whatever. Over the past while I have...

In no particular order...

Recorded a couple of tunes for Rory O'Connor and Amy McGarrigle (links later):

My gear:

Recorded a CD with the KJJO (Ken Jordan Jazz Orchestra):

Played a 2 week production of Sweeney Todd at the Millside Theatre (I really miss this, I would have loved to have done another month. Loved every night!!) Peter Corry and Nuala McKeever as Sweeney and Mrs Lovett.

Sorry for stealing your photos, Kate, I was playing and didn't have time to snap any...

Actually I did... final show, standing ovation, sold out. Excellent!

Lovely building!

Recorded with Ricky Graham and John King "Signals Under Test":

I played with them on a couple of gigs, 1 in the Black Box:

KJJO Gig, Errigle Inn:

I have to start writing more music, making more time for that and trying to get an average of 1-2 hours of un-productive practice a day into 2 hours of solid grind. Linear patterns won't learn themselves. Fact.

Night!

Computer Build #5

Right, this will be the final instalment until one of 2 things happen:

1) I decide not to get water cooling (in a month or 2) and make the outside pretty.

2) I decide to get water cooling and replace the drive bay covers.

If I decide to pretty it up now and get water cooling, I will not need that big fan at the front - or I *may* not need it, so I would quite like the case to go back the way it was, looking all normal at the front. Though I might decide to keep that fan. Actually I probably will, but I don't want to make a rash decision, so there is no rush to pretty this up, so I can leave it as it is until I make a final decision.

The advantage of the water cooling - 4.5GHz. Need I say more?

The purpose of this post is to show off the lighting. I couldn't resist putting a cold cathode lighting setup in this - I figure that if the chip catches fire, I may as well have the case glowing red so that I don't notice at first thus lessening the blow of my i5 processor going down the toilet, hahaha! I am usually not one for "speed stripes" or "things" but I just wanted to do this, after all I did build this with an angle grinder, so here goes.

2 RED CCTs, mounted to the side panel - the tubes cannot easily be seen here, so aesthetically this is the best choice.

This is how they look when running:

This is the wee transformer. Note the black switch (out of focus due to wide aperture for light) - it is huge. Where exactly did they think it would fit? Was I going to drill a 12 or 13mm moutnting hole in my case? Seriously guys, thanks for supplying it as a quick fit, pre-wired job, but that switch is a real huge ugly brute.

All set and whistlin' dixie!

Here is a picture showing a little... unconventional wiring. Well it is conventional in the sense that + to + and - to -, fingers in the mains socket standing in a pool of water barefoot next to a lightning conductor on a stormy day, but since I ran out of fan jumpers, I pushed single core wire into the back of one of those 3 pin plugs to create the connection. People are too precious about the power drain through these. News flash: the fans are about 2 watts each... I'm not loosing sleep. I know, I know - I can't control the fan speed by jury-rigging them, but my motherboard only supports speed control on the CPU fan and *maybe* 1 peripheral fan. I have speed control disabled - I want these working hard :D

That is all for now, computer wise. Here are some things that I plan to do in the next month:

Collect a bandsaw (all being well, tomorrow! Amazing to have found one, what a God-send)

Chamber ensemble and Indian (Haydn, Handel and Bhuna... Friday night sorted!)

Design some more instruments

Continue preparations for "Sweeney Todd" which will be performed in the Mill Side Theatre as the NI Première (Theatre at the Mill). This is running from 2/2/10 to 13/2/10. Again, on my birthday I will be playing trumpet, and I wouldn't change that for the world :)

Write more music - I plan to write maybe a head-chart a week and post it to my blogger as inspiration, I might start with one I have already written to give me some buffer time!

I will have to clear a workspace in the workshop. I have been preparing for this day... I am still delaying! Man alive. Could it be more messy? The answer is no, and I will post a picture soon, no-one will expect the level of mess. Only people who have seen it will believe it.

Keep to a better sleeping routine: 8-9am bedtimes and 1-3pm getting-ups is horrible, I feel like such a waster when I do this and I hate waking in the dark evening! Last night I managed a 12am bed, sleep by 2am, up with no alarm clock at 9.30am. More like it!

That is all for now, I won't continue an endlessly boring list for no reason, besides there are things which I don't want to be accountable for, like clearing the back drain - but I did that already. Horrible day that was!

Here's hoping! (hopping)

Mike

Bruce Adams Hang

Another one for you instrumentalists/jazz musos...

I went to Luton last year or the year before to hang with Bruce Adams, get some tips on playing etc etc... Well it was a great day, Bruce is a total gent, a really fabulous trumpeter and great cook! Over the course of the day I got fed, watered and musiced (new verb...). We chatted and played, ate chilli and had a couple of beers - it was a great day. I learned soo much from listening to Bruce play - I recorded 3 tunes on my wee H2 recorder, I wanted something to record his playing so that by listening over and over I could appreciate his phrasing etc etc...

I have put the track online and you should have a listen. Some of it is me talking with him (nothing much more than small talk), but what speaks loudly is the music. Such natural rhythm and time feel and a real sense of swing. There are a few audio anomalies - where I have had to boost the gain to pick up the talking etc etc...

The tracks: Softly, As In A Morning's Sunrise, I Remember you, Groovin' High.

Bruce has a number of great recordings out, my favourite is "Sure As You're Born" - worth checking out. He does a bunch of recording with Alan Barnes and is featured on the Cat Anderson chair on the "Echoes of Ellington" disk - this is another cracker. With respect to the other guys on that album, who do play well, Bruces' solos blow them out of the water - such command, confidence and coherence within. I am also fairly sure there is a Double F# or G on that album... chops of steel!

Bruce was over doing a solo spot with the UYJO (Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra) - I was playing for them at the gig, and it is the first time I met him. He pretty much scared the whole band... Good times! This was probably 2007.

Some clips of Bruce from his Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/bruceadamstrumpetflugel

Take her easy!

Mike

Sound concept ideas with Mic Smith

I have had the privilege to be in fairly regular contact, via email, with trumpeter Mic Smith. Mic is a top US studio musician, and a snippet from his biog, for your information:

Mic Smith received his formal orchestral training while attending the Peabody Conservatory and the Julliard School. His teachers include Wayne Cameron, Ray Moore and William Vacchiano. His professional experience includes performances with the Baltimore Symphony and both the Broadway and road companies of “Cats”, “Phantom of the Opera” and many other touring shows. He has worked as lead trumpet backing up many performers such as: Frank Sinatra, Celene Dion, Pia Zadora as well as many others. In the studio, he has recorded many radio and TV jingles as well as film scores and CDs. Currently freelancing in the Tampa/Orlando areas, he enjoys a wide variety of work from recording studios, solo engagements, and various chamber ensembles to corporate and Latin bands. Mic maintains the position of principal trumpet and orchestra contractor for the Spanish Lyric Theater.

To add, he has been on the road with Brian Bromberg and played lead for Arturo Sandoval recently... he can REALLY play, and I have asked him many questions on many aspects of playing which he has graciously answered! I will include one here, it is interesting reading.

My much abridged question:

How do you think you should find your own sound, and how does this fit in being an adaptable musician?

Mic's answer:

Your question about the sound ideal is a good one. Sure, with every context you play in you'll have to change your sound to a degree. Using the right mouthpiece is what I prefer as it limits the amount of adjustments I have to make. I could use the Curry 3BC (deep and dark) to cover a lead book but I would have to work very hard to brighten my sound and this can get tiring. With the 3Z (shallow and bright), the sound is already brighter so my effort is saved for the demands of the book. In the studios, I have to cover all the parts on a session, meaning I will be playing trumpet 1, 2 and 3 etc. Usually, they like to double the parts as well so that means 6 tracks for one tune. I like to use a different mouthpiece for the doubling because it fattens up the recording...sounds like different players were involved. Since you're really asking about your personal jazz sound, you already have that. Of course, you've listened to Freddy, Clifford, Miles, Brecker, Botti, Dizzy, Wynton, etc., and have their sound in your head too but if you record your solos, you'll find that you do have your own sound. Each time you practice or play a gig, you're taking the sounds you've heard from these guys and mix it in with your own so a "sound evolution" of sorts is always taking place. In a jazz context, there is a lot of room for sound variety...everything from dark and diffused to bright and centered. In the classical style, there is a much smaller target for sound. Here, you need to play with a darker, fuller centered sound that more closely matches what an orchestral trumpet player would sound like, even in a solo setting. Its logical because everything in a classical setting is more strict. I have to change my sound all the time in the studios because I might be on a film session (orchestral) from 10~12 and then a commercial lead session (accuracy + high notes) later in the day.

The bottom line is that if I were you, I wouldn't worry so much about your sound. Let it develop and evolve. You sound like you know what you're doing so this shouldn't be a problem for you. Each player out there has their own sound, even in an orchestral setting. Listen to a bunch of recordings of the opening of Mahler 5 and you'll hear many different sounds. If you're worried about your sound getting lost in the mix of all of this, make sure you dedicate time in your practing to gaining control over your sound. Take one of the Charlier etudes and play it several different ways. Try it with a big, dark orchestral/soloist sound, then repeat it with a more relaxed maybe jazz-like sound. You can develop a lot of control over what is coming out of the bell this way. Of course, as you know, when we're playing with other trumpet players in a section, we need to keep a lot of the personal inflections out, such as vibrato and we need to blend. The principal/lead player will have more flexibility with this but not overly so...he still needs to sound like part of a section. So, you'll find yourself using a generic (wallpaper) sound for this only because the section as a whole is more important (in this case) than the individual player. When you are the soloist, you can make your sound what YOU want it to be as long as you're staying within the genre.

Great answer I thought, and it has helped me a lot - thanks Mic!

Check Mic's playing out:

http://www.myspace.com/micsmith

http://mic.bandcage.com/
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/micsmith

Ok, I have some more of his emails concerning playing which are very informative, I will add these at a later date!

Take care and God bless,

Mike

Demo tracks!

After some serious practise and a lot of planning to make this happen, I have my first 4 demo tracks done, so before I start writing rubbish about bio-mechanical death monkey-sharks I will post the appropriate links!

Myspace (feel free to add me as a friend!)

http://www.myspace.com/michaelbarkley

And tracks on Box, which will probably be a better quality and can be downloaded (all 320kbp/s MP3s)

Softly, As In a Morning's Sunrise:

http://www.box.net/shared/8zlj064xb1

I Remember You:

http://www.box.net/shared/h3rxlzeyq7

Footprints:

http://www.box.net/shared/u2i2oh9bpg

Killer Joe:

http://www.box.net/shared/8aj9s9n4uh

The musicians on the tracks, again, were:

Michael Barkley - Trumpet and Flugelhorn

Scott Flanigan - Piano

Dan MgGeown - Double Bass

James Anderson - Kit

And the sound engineer was John King.

I want to thank these guys again for the fantastic playing, and for coming to record with me! John I want to thank for doing such a great job on the recording and mastering! Thanks!!

Recording is totally new to me, and so some of this is a little green sounding on my behalf. It has highlighted areas in my playing that need attention and it has been a great learning experience! I can't wait to stop being sick, get back to practising, and start planning the next one! Next time I will really hope for more time for the recording, and perhaps write some original tunes for it.

I don't have too much to say in this entry, so do have a listen to the tracks, and drop me an email if you want:

michael . barkley 07 (at no spam) gmail dot com

Cheers and God bless!

Mike

Sushi, Ambient Music and Trumpet

Another day, another dollar... or in my case no dollars... come on job!

Trumpet

----------

Since the recording my practise has become a bit slack and I am annoyed at that, I do have excuses, but they don't exactly get your practise back. Must focus, and get my books back from my wee bro and buy him a set! Can you believe an 11 year old Tuba player (EEb) does about 2 hours (sometimes 4) a night on Arbans, Collins, Caruso and all the other goodies I should be working on!? It is no surprise that his ability is sky-rocketing! I should probably rename this section 'Tuba', I have spoken more about Andy than myself! His range is impressive as well, from C# above double pedal C to top C at the starts of most days... puts me to shame! Anyhow, Trumpet can lead to some interesting gigs, see below...

Ambient Music

------------------

My friends Ricky Graham and John King asked me to come and take some pictures and sit in on their session at the Black Box last night, so I was game! Trumpet, harmon, Nikon, clothes (optional!). The music they play is interesting - looped lines, quite ambient, improvised and a heck of a lot of computer wizardry from the both of them! Ricky plays a guitar that I made him a few years back, recently I fitted some cool gizmos to it which facilitates the type of music which he now plays. A multi-phonic piezo system on each of the 7 strings and a sustainer pickup which allows for infinite (ok not infinite, it is battery powered) sustain with the choice of the pitch or the 2nd octave harmonic if I remember correctly. John takes these signals and works some jiggery pokery with it, so the 7 signals all break out into 7 outputs and then add a mono (normal magnetic pickup output) to this and you have a really neat instrument. You can pan all of the strings to anywhere, and as Ricky says, it is like a small orchestra!

Anyway, I was playing on the 2nd section on this, and we jammed it out in the day time. This was really new to me, I was uncomfortable at first because of my background in playing - mainly studying Jazz or trying to read Classical music. I used the harmon just to have a bit of a cut in the mix and not to dominate at the same time. It was a great experience, playing just really long chord tones, or working with small amount of pentatonics or in cases the leading tone. It gave the ears a bit of work, though we were in concert E (F# major for me) and the overall harmony was basically Emajor9, the usual Jazz clichés or lines would not fit! Anyway, I think it went fine, the guys played well, and I am going to Derry to play with them again tonight, see if I can't learn a bit more now! I will try to get those multiphonics working a bit better this time!

Sushi

-------

On the way home I grabbed some Sushi from late night Tescos. It was amazing! I do love Sushi! On the less classy side of life I bought 17 packs of 9 pence noodles, mainly Chicken flavour. Nice!

Time to go, the coffee is brewed and there is only 3 minutes of the morning left, calls to make, coffee to drink, practise to do!

Mike

I just remembered - I decided to practice my trumpet at the train station on the way home, very few people about, but those who were there thought I was mental. Also practising for an hour in the dark before the gig got a few looks :) I like playing in the dark, it is nice to cut out all the distractions and just relax.