Trumpet lesson with Noel Langley

Noel is one of London's top session trumpeters, and is also professor of trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I believe he is currently playing lead trumpet in The Producers in the West End.

This was the first time I have met with Noel for a one-on-one lesson. We focused on the fundamentals, particularly a good warm-up, including mouthpiece buzzing and long tones. He also talked about being disciplined with one's practice routine - sitting down to practice at the same time every day, also trying to keep the environment in one's practice room as conducive as possible, e.g. keep the clutter down to a minimum!

Something that is curious to me is that Noel's philosophy of how we physically play the trumpet seems to differ somewhat from that of my previous teacher, Charles Lewis Jr., at Berklee. I.e. specifically, what you do (or don't do) with your airstream, tongue and lips in order to change pitch, and what you do (or don't do) to change volume. Both Noel and Charlie are such accomplished players, it would seem strange for me to start debating with them. Maybe they actually do play in quite distinct ways, or maybe they just have different ways of expressing the same thing. Or maybe (probably) I totally misunderstood one or other or both! Oh well, without perfecting the Vulcan mind-meld technique, perhaps I'll never know.

One thing both these guys certainly have in common is their encouragement and care for the student. I really appreciated Noel giving me some extra time as it was our first meeting to get to know what I've done and what I'm up to these days, and what I hope to achieve. Looking forward to hopefully meeting with him again next month.

Trombone Joke

Just heard Harry Connick Junior and Branford Marsalis exchanging trombone jokes on Radio 4:

What's the difference between a trombone and a trampoline?
- People take their shoes off to jump on a trampoline.

ha ha!

Friday Night at the Azteca

Another groovy night at the Azteca last night. Mauro and Pierluca doing their thing, with me and Fred joining them later on as the horn section. The music is mostly kind of funky electronica, I suppose, but recently has been going more and more ska, especially when Fred and I go up to play.

The Azteca is at 315 King's Road, SW3. Mauro and Luca play on Friday evenings from around 9. Come down and say hi!

Pierluca struts his stuff.

Wow, Mauro's arm looks hairy! (I'm sure it's just the angle.)

..And here's me and Fred: the Entente Cordiale Horns. (Hmm.. I just made that up (Fred is French), hopefully somebody will think of a better name for us.)

Exciting-yet-mysterious film project

I'm currently working with composer Dominik Scherrer, who is writing the score for a forth-coming feature film. It's very exciting to be involved with this project, as there are some very well known actors appearing in it - but I'm afraid I can't say too much more about it at the moment..

Officially, I am supposed to be the orchestrator, but so far I've been helping out in any way I can: e.g. being an extra pair of ears at recording sessions, carrying heavy stuff, keeping track of takes, making tea, editing takes, and generally shoving my oar in. I've also been playing trumpet on a couple of cues.

I'll have more to post about this project as it progresses (and hopefully it won't all be about who I made cups of tea for).

Cat Incident #1

I saw a story on MSN yesterday, where a cat dials 911, and is declared a hero. Funnily enough, a similar thing happened to me several years ago, when my cat, Mooca, dialled 999 from my flat. The difference being that Mooca wasn't so much a hero, as some other four-letter word. Anyway, I had a special request from my friend to blog the newspaper clipping, so here it is.


This clipping is from the Daily Mail (click for larger version). The Sun included a photo of me in their article, but I look like a complete dork, so I think I'll let Mooca take all the limelight.

I had another emergency services/cat related incident about three years ago, but I think I'll save that for another day..

The Rugs Christmas Hangover

Had a great time playing with the funky Rugs in Tufnell Park last night. Apart from the festive tinsel display collapsing on the horn section during one number, it went very well I think.


Here's Mr Johnny White, taking a break from singing and retelling the story of the Nativity in his inimitable funky fashion.

The Rugs Christmas Party

..Like it says on the flier. (The Rugs are a funky band, Joey Fingas is a funky DJ. The Progress Bar is a bar, Tufnell Park Road is a road, etc. etc.)

Come along and say hi.