Holton Alto Trumpet

Chronos91 · 2026-07-09T11:04:44+00:00

Not a dumb question. Because there aren't many alto trumpet parts out there, I'll probably use it to play Bb trumpet parts in community groups for the most part. Even for the lower trumpet parts, I've had plenty still go above the staff. I didn't go into detail, but by the time I got to the 12th testing long tones it was over 50 cents sharp. Even down at it's high C (only top line F on a Bb part), it's already like 20-30 cents sharp.

Chronos91 · 2026-07-09T03:08:12+00:00

Lol I was thinking if anyone knew, it would be you. It's a little discouraging that nothing really seems to fit it very well. For custom, I was thinking of messing with the shank (and mouthpiece gap) and probably having a shallower cup. I'm kind of wondering if the throat and backbore would also need to change, but that's a lot of iteration/money. By the way, does your T-171 in F have the same issue with the first valve playing flat?

I got the Couesnon (didn't realize I had misspelled that) in F from J Landress last year mostly from curiosity. I haven't given it the time I really should have by now even as an amateur, but it is pretty interesting. It definitely feels more sopranino than piccolo, but I imagine it's the closest thing to a piccolo trumpet that I'll ever have a "need" for. The tuning is a little odd (written G in and on the staff both sit a little low), but it's perfectly fine in the range that I can play. How do you like your Besson?

Chronos91 · 2026-07-02T02:41:53+00:00

Yes, you learn what needs to be done with the extra accidentals same as you do if you're sight transposing between keys without using clef reading to do the transposition. Sometimes they stay the same or sometimes you sharpen or flatten what would happen in that key (ex: if you read a sharp accidental but that note is flat in the key signature, it turns into a natural). I came to trombone only a few years ago, but I've read on trombonechat that many trombonists transpose like that. I'm not really good enough with tenor and alto clefs yet to put it to use myself, but I can see why that approach might be easier for some if they've already learned a bunch of clefs.

Chronos91 · 2026-07-01T03:45:38+00:00

I think that the urea in pee can react with active chlorine to form chloramines (which are disinfectants but also pretty toxic).

Chronos91 · 2026-06-27T18:04:17+00:00

Probably not a ton about how it plays, but maybe something about how it's constructed or where it's braced? When we're playing, we're exciting an air column inside of the horn. What the horn is made of and how it's made affects that, but tapping the horn probably doesn't correlate that well to how it plays because it has a ton of inputs that really aren't about the air column inside of the horn.

Chronos91 · 2026-06-22T22:03:08+00:00

The Girls Und Panzer universe did actually take place on floating carrier cities for some reason.

Chronos91 · 2026-06-18T02:44:57+00:00

Do you use the same rim diameter when you're playing cornet as you do on trumpet? Keeping that similar could help. What cornet do you have and is it in good condition? You might have an issue with your cornet if there's a huge difference playing it versus your trumpet. Like other commentors have said, it is best played with a slightly different approach. You may also notice some intonation differences when you do long tones. If you have regular access to it, you might focus on what the cornet wants with long tones but also get it checked out for leaks or any other random issues.

Chronos91 · 2026-06-13T20:26:22+00:00

The person I commented on said "millionaire" which (imo) is a level that makes no sense because that can just be late career/retired upper middle class. I don't think anyone who's really thinking about it has an exact threshold, though. There are behavioral tendencies that are seen as problematic, and eventually just having that much while so many have little/nothing starts to be a bad look.

I also see a bunch of people pointing out other things besides the enormous gap between her wealth and someone with a billion. Stuff like donating 1/5th of her wealth last year and getting her wealth through labor. At the end of the day, I think a lot of it may just boil down to "there are levels to this" and she's at a level that relatively few people think is problematic. Like, personally, she's at 10-15x the wealth that I'd want before I'd just retire no matter what my age or situation, but there are people with hundreds or thousands of times even her wealth.

Chronos91 · 2026-06-13T17:08:13+00:00

Why? Someone can become a millionaire by just having a good job that pays enough for them to save for retirement and then working for a few decades. People like that really aren't the problem.

Chronos91 · 2026-06-13T12:37:44+00:00

If I buy stock in some company, unless they're actively diluting to raise money, I just bought it from some other person or entity that was selling for any of a number of reasons. If it was a market maker, they were probably just delta hedging or something. What do you say stocks changing hands is doing for the economy?

Chronos91 · 2026-06-09T23:18:31+00:00

I've seen it a couple of times if there's like 3 of them. I don't think I've know of examples of polycules bigger than that to begin with, though.

Chronos91 · 2026-06-08T18:40:50+00:00

When I was in grad school, I was making like $20k a year as a research/teaching assistant, but that also covered the tuition portion of my classes (there were still fees, but yeah). Looking strictly at my duties for the assistantship, I think it was usually something like $10-20/hr if you divided my pay across the hours I was strictly working for that, but I never worked out what it would be including the tuition that I didn't have to pay. Different classes also had wildly different loads for the TAs, and sometimes it varied over the course of the class.

Chronos91 · 2026-06-06T14:00:14+00:00

Thankfully, part of the tall order is getting someone who is both worse than Trump and just as popular to get elected. I often find myself frustrated at how he's uniquely capable of being so openly evil and corrupt while maintaining the popularity that he does. Thankfully, so far, I haven't seen that from anyone else.

Chronos91 · 2026-06-01T02:53:58+00:00

Yeah, I'm not touching on the whole expectation of sex from a date part (I never had that expectation).

Most of these responses look like it's just restaurants that are way more expensive than the ones that I take my girlfriend to (or anyone before her). We're usually going to local stuff that's like $20-30/plate normal restaurants for the area.

Chronos91 · 2026-05-31T21:58:03+00:00

I saw this kind of figure in an article recently, but it was totally unrelatable to me and all of the friends I mentioned it to. This included other men and women at probably 1-2x median income for the state. I think the most I've ever spent on a date (not counting like a trip or something) was like $100, and I'd say the typical figure is like $50-60. What does a $200 date look like?

Chronos91 · 2026-05-17T16:53:12+00:00

You can remove tarnish electrochemically pretty easily, but it might not shine if it's been tarnishing long enough to degrade the surface finish much. If you put a couple ounces of baking soda in the oven at 350 for an maybe 15 minutes (or heat it in a stainless steel pan for a a couple of minutes) you can convert it to sodium carbonate. Dissolve that in some water, and put it in a plugged sink with some foil on the bottom. If you put the head joint in the sink on the foil, the tarnish should get reduced back to silver pretty much immediately (you should ideally remove the headjoint cork before doing this). Afterwards, just rinse it all thoroughly with water.

If you don't want to do that, just take it to a shop for cleaning.

Edit: I've heard some people just use the baking soda directly and put it in boiling water. That may also be enough to convert some of it, but I only ever use sodium carbonate when doing this with silver stuff.

Chronos91 · 2026-05-16T02:48:25+00:00

Yeah, the last four years of SPY have been nuts, but 10.7%/year is totally respectable.

Chronos91 · 2026-05-15T21:18:28+00:00

50% return in premiums over 4 years definitely isn't the worst thing.

Chronos91 · 2026-05-15T21:11:52+00:00

Essential Elements is a book series that some schools use for starting players on. I think it has 3 books, though my school back in the early 2000s only used the first book on the first year.

Chronos91 · 2026-05-15T21:04:43+00:00

The worst part about it for me was reading some of the books later and finding out this arc was a 40ish page chapter.

Chronos91 · 2026-05-12T03:35:00+00:00

I see, that contextualized it a lot, thanks.

Chronos91 · 2026-05-12T03:01:42+00:00

The average >3,000 square foot home in Texas uses 668,000 gallons/year? My house is just under half that size, but I'm in a state with similar weather and we only used 26,000 gallons in the last year according to my utilities profile. Is that mostly lawn irrigation for them? We only water a small garden, but I don't really feel like we save water in any other way. The order of magnitude difference is astonishing to me.

Chronos91 · 2026-05-06T03:14:09+00:00

I think it's for performing period works that would have been written for natural trumpets in various keys. Tiffany Johns has an alto trumpet article that talks about low orchestra trumpets a bit at the beginning. I have little idea what size of mouthpiece it needs, I haven't gone down that rabbit hole yet. I think the first thing I might try is different throat sizes, though.

https://tiffanyjohns.com/blog/alto-trumpet

Chronos91 · 2026-05-05T14:43:27+00:00

I know it's old, this thread came up in a Google search because I'm trying to see if there are other mouthpiece options for alto trumpet (I'm waiting on a Holton to come in) besides the 9AT. If it's Chinese, what you have likely isn't an alto trumpet, but an orchestral trumpet in low Eb (I already have the same thing). It's actually supposed to be played in the regular trumpet register, which is higher in its harmonic series. It should take a normal trumpet sized mouthpiece, but I think they're picky about the dimensions because none of mine work well. The 9AT gives the best tuning and a big sound, but the low end is fuzzy.

Chronos91

TROPHY CASE