trombonology

I'm confirmed for my Minnesota audition on February 26th. Huzzah! Except, how to get there? Flights right now are at $225. That's not too bad- but remind not to spend anything except rent until then in order to afford it.

Exhibit A: my bass trombone.
Exhibit B: the valve section.

Scenario: I have had this horn for four years, and NEVER have I been able to figure out how to get the damn valves apart so I could spiffy out the inside and put in fresh oil. See, you're supposed to take it all apart and clean it every so often, which is easy enough to do on my tenor but on the bass is like a frigging IQ test. And as we all learned in Madison this year, I can only do those when I'm drunk. I would prefer not to have to get drunk to perform maintenance on my $4000 bass trombone.

Anyway, I finally figured it out this morning. I was doing what I usually do before I give up and just send the oil down the tuning slide, but today I was particularly determined to do this thing. A few twists, a couple of turns, and one bright idea later, viola! My valves are finally separated and I can take each of them apart.

Yeah, there was some green shit in there. I am pretty lazy about maintenence sometimes, but I always get around to it...eventually. But Bernard is all clean and happy now, nobody's sticky or cranky, and things are working smoothly.

All this and it only took me something like two hours. Jesus. No wonder I always gave up.