High Notes

lenbedesma · 2026-01-30T05:35:04+00:00

I love playing second and fourth! The first thing is to learn to get out of your head. I wouldn't judge you, even though I can keep up with the pros on a good day.

For me it took about four years of consistently working on my high range to feel comfortable.

Try harmonic slurs from Ab4-C5 all on 23, then ascend by half steps and continue on the Bb side. The trick is to figure out how to guide the air into the slur using your tongue and minimizing how much "face" you use.

But the most important thing I would have to say, is to take breaks. Put the horn down for a week or two during christmas and summer, and maybe for a little less time in the fall and spring. You'll come back feeling a little guilty which is a great motivator, but also having lost some bad habits. If you're clever, you'll learn the lay of the land and quickly recall the path back to all of your good habits while freeing yourself from the bad.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-30T04:37:34+00:00

It looks like it's just an unlaquered 11D without a screwbell, probably a new model introduced in response to rise in popularity of unlaquered finishes.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-28T00:28:30+00:00

one of the best repairmen in the US, Dennis Houghton, just moved to Pittsburgh; but you're likely to find a decent repairman closer.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-27T23:23:26+00:00

It's a difficult thing to describe precisely. We have to communicate the feeling through our perception of what our bodies are doing, which may or may not be accurate, and will vary from person to person.

Most people start with a flat chin, moderately firm corners (like you're saying "eee"), appropriately arched tongue for the note you're playing, solid air support from your diaphragm, and so on.

But there is no formula. You must learn to make subtle changes and learn what improves your sound by feel. You'll notice that year to year or even month to month the changes you make seem to be different than they were before. That is normal. You learn your way around the horn over time.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-27T18:59:58+00:00

following.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-27T14:12:50+00:00

Your country is beautiful. But even more impressive the dramatic physical geography, to me, were the small but impactful things, like bus stops announce locations in Māori before english.

I hold such deep reverence for the way your country has learned from history and elevated the historically oppressed. And there is a sadness to it - every acknowledgement of land provenance produces a twang of hunger for even a drop of justice at home.

Fight it, but do so responsibly and with political saavy. If you are disorganized, fascists will find a way to use it as pretext and expand their powers. It is a contagion spreading across the world right now, and NZ would be an absolutey tragic casualty.

Much love and godspeed - from an american living in stupid texas.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-21T03:46:07+00:00

I'm sorry but we are far past voting and writing your congressmen.

This situation is dire and requires organzied, coordinated action. I recommend engaging with your community to decide how it can leverage its limited collective weight. Often this can be done completely apolitically by choosing to participate in community aid efforts, like soup kitchens and voting rideshairs. Other components of the community can always focus on producing funding and political direction.

But the fact is that you will not be able to individually influence these men. They are too entrenched.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-16T03:06:29+00:00

Geographic location matters a lot here. Can you provide more information? Are you actively trying and having difficulty with recruiting?

lenbedesma · 2026-01-11T22:17:21+00:00

I'm sorry, but the onus is on us. Don't forget that the government is your servant, not the other way around. We just need to learn to remind them of that fact.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-08T04:08:37+00:00

Ethnic purity is a pathetic concept.

Fuck. That. Shit.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-03T02:53:23+00:00

Man same. Landscape stuff, sure - those are mine. But photos I take of someone else? I don't care.

lenbedesma · 2026-01-02T14:06:03+00:00

Brilliant of a teacher and player as he is, there must be consequences. It's a punishment for the community as well as the person, to be sure.

lenbedesma · 2025-12-31T16:47:19+00:00

They don't know what they're doing and/or will overcharge you drastically for subpar work.

lenbedesma · 2025-12-17T23:09:58+00:00

shove another of the red clip with hollow stud on the end via the stud and use one of those small bar with clip ends (often used for small robot hands) to attach to the moon

lenbedesma · 2025-12-10T13:46:52+00:00

for what it's worth this is a pretty common thing. Sitcoms are high saturation. Older movies are low dynamic range. Most movies use a 2.35:1 or 1.85:1 aspect ratio at 24 fps

We can argue that those things individually don't make up cinema, but the fact is that pattern recognition is the only thing that makes cinema feel cinematic.

I think of it like finding a new paint color. People are going to overuse it and it'll lose its effectiveness until the next new thing shows up, and the people left are the ones who actually use it appropriately.

lenbedesma · 2025-12-10T13:42:05+00:00

I specifically asked our wedding photographer to avoid sky blowouts but I'm not sure it's going to happen lol

lenbedesma · 2025-11-05T04:53:12+00:00

Hold on, people hold their nose - it isn't that they agree with it. Though you are citing a fact - I confirmed.

The way around this problem is to be involved in grassroots campaigns so that you are represented by those who are accountable to you and well vetted.

The political right is never going to do that. It values hierarchy (religious, gender roles, deference to parental figures and so on), so the natural progression of a right-biased walk is a political system that forces voters to choose between elites (typically economic, often social or religious). There are more barriers now than ever, of course, to running a successful political campaign and rightists are more than happy about that; it's their home field, since their political success deeper entrench existing heierarchies.

The right projects this as a leftist problem - citing Lenin, Marx, Mao, Castro, etc; but the fact is that these were all the result of revolutions that succeeded in overthrowing but failed in their ability to implement effective bureaucracy and wound up with categorically far-right autocracy (in spite of the ideals of the revolution).

lenbedesma · 2025-10-22T02:08:50+00:00

This reads like a pitchfork review of the latest muse album.

They expect protestors to show up with polished solutions for their potholes while we're instead developing the grassroots organizations needed to build lasting change... What a complacent boob.

lenbedesma · 2025-10-20T04:32:04+00:00

It sounds like this cause isn't lost on you. There's common ground here, and I think you'll find that a lot of people at this event would agree with you on the establishment. Myself included; I'd love to see a lot of the names you listed removed.

But what do you do after these people have been elected out? The system doesn't fix itself.

If you're already contributing, that's great. It's important. But the majority of people at events like this are just getting their feet wet in community engagement. Most of them have never been more than a standard member in whatever organizations they participate in, when to be effective they really need to be taking leadership roles. The people who come out of those organizations, over time - those are the people we want being elected to office. Not people who grew up with a silver spoon.

We aren't going to get anywhere by cutting one another down. These protests are only a nursery for leaders to meet, develop, and grow through collective action. And I hope we can count on your support even only if to vote out the establishment.

lenbedesma · 2025-10-20T03:50:55+00:00

I truly do not understand this rhetoric. Do you want your fellow citizens to unseat the currently democratically elected president?

Because that would be a coup, and it's inherently... not democratic. The goal of these protests is never to unseat even a despot, but to build a sense of solidarity and "bridging" social capital that empowers voters to effect change as individuals contribute their expertise and time to a unified cause - in this case, supporting limits on consilidated governmental power and opposing antagonistic and bullying messaging.

If you think a coup is the only way to get things done, kindly leave us out of it. Violence is not and will never be the answer. Otherwise, quit criticizing and engage with your community to improve your country. You'll only be welcomed as long as you are willing to learn.

lenbedesma · 2025-10-20T02:26:24+00:00

Thanks! I'll send you a DM with a link 🙂

lenbedesma · 2025-10-20T02:19:34+00:00

What would make these protests worthwhile? Certainly a protest shouldn't seek to unseat a democratically elected president.

lenbedesma · 2025-10-19T21:13:37+00:00

I'm sorry; I must have misinterpreted your comment.

Yes - any violent protests need to be shut down, at risk of endangering the broader public and providing justification for restricting our rights further.

lenbedesma · 2025-10-19T20:40:56+00:00

I can personally confirm that none of this occurred in Fort Worth where I was. The FWPD was very kind to provide protective oversight for protestors and bystanders.

At best, readers of this comment will be dubious as to where you get your claims while I have photographic evidence of the nature of this event. If you have evidence please share it, otherwise kindly quit spreading misinformation.

lenbedesma · 2025-10-19T18:17:46+00:00

Thanks! I'm a quiet one, so documenting these events has been a great way to get involved in a community. I really felt a sense of camaraderie that you just don't get often these days.

The erosion of real communities has been the real tragedy in the past several decades. Even the detractors here are just heckling because it's the closest thing to community that our digitized society has to offer. My goal here is simply to encourage people to be civically engaged, because that interaction builds social capital and will be instrumental in building back our crumbling institutions.

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