[Trombone-l] Beyond Dentures

[DAVID FETTER]

Regarding dentures, or, here, another device:

When I was in The U. S. Army Band in, I confess, 1962-65 or thereabouts, there was an older gent in the trombone section, Al Goepper (spelling?), who used used cut up pencil erasers, pieces about 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch by 1 inch, to keep his jaws apart when he played the trombone.  He chewed up the eraser pieces as he played.  An especially heavy band program could be a "two eraser night."  His wife prepared the eraser sections for him by boiling them in clove water and storing them in a plastic tub.

With my straight tone as an orchestral player, after I played the Berlioz Recitative and Prayer as a soloist one summer with the band, Al, in a not unkindly voice, described my style as "Moo moo."

Another trombonist, a tall distinguished, aging gent who doubled as back-up drum major, lurked in wait for any long Rossinian crescendo in the music, so he could lean over to me and say, quite accurately, "Sounds like sunrise on a turkey farm."

David Fetter
Conservatory Trombone Faculty Member
Peabody Institute
1 East Mount Vernon Place
Baltimore, MD 21202
410 659-8100, ext. 1254; fax 410 783-8562
home 410 889-2277, cell 443 691-2686
web page:  www.peabody.jhu.edu/DavidFetter