Chris Legaux, Tina Erickson, & Cliff Blackburn

The members of the Smokey Mountain Trumpet Guild, the Knoxville Tennessee based affiliate of the International Trumpet Guild, had the opportunity to attend a clinic/demonstration given by the makers of Blackburn Trumpets and TrumCor mutes. This equipment seminar was presented at the University of Tennessee on Feb. 21, 2010, having been organized by UT professor and KSO Principal trumpeter Dr. Cathy Leach.

Cliff Blackburn and Tina Erickson opened with explanations of the portions of the trumpet having the greatest impact on sound and intonation. The descriptions of the bell section, materials used, and thicknesses and shapes made the listeners better able to understand variables and their potential effects when considering instruments. The presenters were as entertaining as they were informative, describing among other things a motorcycle helmet integrated into a trumpet design.

Chris Legaux, one of the two men who make TrumCor mutes, brought in the equipment needed to create a mute and demonstrated the evolution of a blank disk of metal into a portion of a piccolo trumpet straight mute. Chris, it should be mentioned, has also built a life-sized, fully operational and very high quality trebuchet. As Cliff Blackburn is also an instructor in the use of firearms, one has to begin to wonder if there might be a correlation between trumpet playing and excessive interest in weapons.

Cliff and Chris both provided a brief and interesting description of their entry into manufacturing. That none of the three have a background in engineering or machining, all having studied trumpet performance and education, has to be an indication of their determination and standards as they produce their equipment with consistency. Watching Chris at work shaping the metal disk into a mute gave those attending an appreciation for the patience and physical effort that goes into working the metal. All the presenters showed that quality of the product is the primary objective, rather than yielding to methods and solutions that might produce higher output at the expense of quality. This draws a parallel image of a really good player in a practice room spending hours to reach the goal of playing really well, rather than laboring to practice just enough to get by.

Source: Stewart Cox, Smokey Mountain Trumpet Guild member, Dr. Cathy Leach, Professor of Trumpet, University of Tennessee