C'ORNETIST CONFESSESDel Staigers Tells a Few on Himself

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HE first big thrill Del Staigers remem-bers-and he'll never forget it-was

he one he experienced when six years old,vatching the Muncie, Indiana, Boys' Band

rching up Main Street. Whether thehrill was occasioned by the sight of theflashy blue and red uniforms worn by theand members or by the playing of the band,Staigers is not sure. But he does know thathe decided then and there to become a bands-man.With the permission of his mother, he ap-

olied to Professor E. W. Garrett of the~funcie, Ind., Conservatory of Music forinstructions' on the cornet, after schoolhours. The Professor rented Del a hornat the rate of ten cents a week and told himto go home and blow it. Del blew it, up-stairs, downstairs and in the cellar untilfinally through the insistence of his mother,ook it out in an empty lot and blew it. Hewill not say whether or not there was a"Public Nuisance" law.in .Muncie aLthattime. Just the same,two years after rent-ing his first horn, he occupied first chair in>he Muncie Boys' Band.

A Boy Wonder

The year following, he was advertised asthe "Boy Wonder" at the Winona Lake, In-diana, -Chatauqua. After attaining thissomewhat doubtful distinction, there .fol-lowed several years of study, general as wellas musical. Del recalls with ease each littleexercise he went through in those days andthe method of practice he used on the vari-ous exercises, Contrary to the general runof experiences, he liked to practice, In facthe never seemed to tire of tooting a horn.

His first professional engagement came atthe age of thirteen, in Dayton, Ohio, withthe N H DV S Band. However, during thatsummer he won a scholarship at. ManliusSchool, and his professional career was tem-porarily side-tracked. Not for long, how-ever, He had attracted the attention of PatConway while playing in the Manlius Bandand was engaged-to play the following sum-mer in Conway's Band at Willow. GrovePark, outside of Philadelphia. '. , 'His first appearance in the band shell was

riot according to Hoyle. He tells of how heeventually sat down on the third chair (rstB.flat cornet) for which position he hadbeen engaged. Upon opening' his book hefound that it was marked "first E flatTr~mpet." He says that he had heard ofthd:se things before, but he had never seenone, I asked him what he did under thecircumstances and he replied, with his usualcQl}1placency,"What could I do ? I supposethe; matter would have been straightened outif) had asked Dolan, in the first chair, but1.}hought maybe I was supposed to playwl\9.tever copy was given me, so I dug in anddid. my best. Somehow Lfigured the best

The Metronome, December,

By l)A VE KENYON

th~ng for me to ~o would be to play every-thmg a fourth higher, and luckily I "at bvwith the concert." '" ,

The Sequel

The~e is. a sequel to that story. On thefollowing night, Conway, who had a habit ofwalking around between numbers came overto Del's position and asked him h~w he likedthe work. Del was just about to reply when

...Championing }he Cause of the Cornet Player

Conway spied his music.' "Where in hell didyou get that from ?"he yelled so loudly thatsome of the' audience must have-heard him,and proceeded to upbraid his brother Mark,who 'Was "the librarian. Quite a few ex-amples of 'choice language were exchanged,but in the end DeI- was furnished -with his"First 'B flat book. " In laughing over thisincident Del says that' he immediately reo.solved to learn all of the transpositions andadvises all cornetists 11:0 do the same as heconsidered thisjust as necessary an adjunctto the trumpeter's equipment. as. keepingtime.

After a few more years of study and twoyears of traveling over the Keith and Or-pheum Circuits, he was engaged as assistantsoloist with the Sousa Band. At this. pointhis experience as a trouper really began.Del can spin yarns by the hour of railroadwrecks, being snowed in, missing trains,sleepless nights, impossible hotels and worsefood. .He tells of. many practical Jokes played

during his tours with the Sousa Band. Dur-ing one concert, the flute player was assigned

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a solo which was interpolated by the r;ngingof the triangle. Prior to this solo, sorneone

- ' having access to the part played by thedrummer, had erased the triangle part andsubstituted a coo-coo part. We can imaginethe confusion of the soloist, when, aW:litingthe soft tinkle of the triangle, he was greetedby the gentle voice of the coo-coo bird.

At another time some joker cut the sl:ringsof the bass fiddle almost in two so thai: dur-ing the concert the strings broke, one afteranother, each break sounding like a rifle shotand completely disrupting the concert

The Governor

. Del says "The Governor" always a.ppre-ciated these pranks, unless they interferredtoo seriously with his programs. When hethought the fooling had "one far enouzh hecaIl~d '

A Cornetist Confesses(Continued from page 25)

been something else to which he hashad to give his attention.

Not so many years ago, just as hehad finished a program at the oldWEAF Station at 195 Broadway. in.New York City, he was informed thatEdwin Franko Goldman wanted himto call. There was only one telephoneaccessible to him and that was con-tinually busy with all sorts of mes-sages coming from the outside. Whenhe finally arrived at his home anothermessage came indicating that Gold-man wished Del to get in touch withhim immediately. Tired as he was,and not knowing what it was allabout, Del called on the telephone andwas informed that the cornet soloistof the Goldman Band had suffered anervous break-down, that : Goldmanand his scouts were seeking a suitablesuccessor and that Del had been men-tioned as a likely candidate.

Del and the band master met, andafter a long conference, during whichmuch business and finance were dis-cussed, Del agreed to 'appear with theband provided he 'could arrange mat-ters with his scheduled broadcastingprograms:

All of the conductors, with whomDel was working hated to have himleave their organizations but werevery fair in wanting to give him anopportunity to prove himself else-where.

First Solo on the MallDel's first solo appearance on the

Mall in Central Park, New Yorkhasbeen- very' ably described by a writerill the New York Telegram fromwhich I quote.'

"He unfolded his instrument andbegan to play. The first note 'thatthundered forth astounded the oldestband man. Then came one as true assteel and as soft as the rippling breezein the orange groves of Florida. Heplayed with his fingers, with hisbreath and with his .brains, and it isno wonder a .smile of' satisfactionrested on the face of t~ band master,and it is no wonder that 25,000 musiclovers in Central .Park were sur-prised, astonished and thrilled . by hisaccomplishment. .'

"For a moment after he had fineished, there was silence. Then theband members themselves, veteransof the platform, as one man arose andgave vent to vociferous applause andbravos." '....

And that is how Del became asso-ciated with the band. He says "It wasvery hard work, but I loved it. Some-times I would get home at midnightand sit up until four or five o'clock in

- the morning arranging my. solos. Iknew that any new arrangement andany more practice I could put into itwould be appreciated by my audiences.

Then came the summer at AtlanticCity, on the Steel Pier, his appearanceat Madison Square .Garden, called the

f First Annual Musical Festival, hiscalf to Schenectady for the first World

; Wide Television experiment, and then,his most touching moment, when he

I was chosen to sound "Taps" over thet

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grave of his old friend, John PhilipSousa.

It was during these extensive tripsthat he first gave thought to the possi-bility of circulating a correspondencecourse in cornet playing. On accountof the fact that after every perform-ance he was besieged by local cornet-ists requesting advice and instruction.Del found all of his spare time de-voted to missionary work for the ad-vancement of cornet playing. In hisposition as a member of the band, hedid not have the time, between jumps,to give extensive instruction, . How-ever, he conscientiously noted all thedifficulties apparently confronting theaverage cornetist and has incorporatedthe solutions of these difficulties inhis Modern and. progressive. Corre-spondence Course for Cornet andTrumpet, which has recently been pub-lished.. . . .. .

Quiet, reticent, vitally interested inthe music problems of others and will-ing at all times to help, he has pre-pared this course, to assist; not onlybeginners, but professional musiciansas well. Lessons are mailed. eachweek in consecutive order. The re~~'son for this plan is that nine out ofevery ten students will practice theback of the instruction book beforethey even try the simpler lessons inthe front of it. In mailing but one

lesson a week to a student this possi-bility is avoided. Each lesson mustbe mastered ill its proper sequence.

Applied Calesthenics"Many Americans in the past few

years, have learned ~he value of calis-thenics." Del says, 'and I apply calis-thenics in the course, to facilitate play-ing 0 f the trumpet or .corne.t."Just as a gymnasium instructor

starts a pupil on elementary exercisesto develop the body, so my coursestar.ts with elementary exercises andprogresses gradually with .a view tobuilding up' a perfect coordination be-tween fingers, tongue, lips and lung .

"Naturally I cannot guarantee oreven hope to have a pupil in cornetreach High C in two weeks, but by

II constant application to the instructions,he has just as much .chance as I had,.and I can' do it .and more., . .

"But one of the chief reasons Iwrote this course was because Iwanted to do away with much of thebunk that has been written about thisand that system of playing withoutpressure practice, or what have you.No realiy great artist has ever playedaccording to these systems. They maysound great in your bath room on aSunday morning, but nobody ever re-ceived. anything for bath room solos.except complaints."

STEVE- BROADUS, INC., 1595.BR.OADWAY, N. Y.The Metronome. December.

DEL STAIGERS RECOMMENDS NEW"KING" TRUMPET

Mr. H. N. White, November 10, 1933.The H. N. White Company,Cleveland, Ohio.Dear Mr. White:After p!aying the new King Liberty No. 2 Trumpet, in all branches' ofmy wor.k for a periodof eight weeks, I cannot speak too highly of thiswonderful instrument. .Many fellow musicians who have t~ied "it are of the same opinion.I think it would be advantageous .to .your firm if you were to stressmore the marvelous intonation of. -this .trumpet, it's' wonderful .;

.~._~ Very truly yours, .

A:D~~~C u.s. (Signed) Del Staigers. ,_ 00 O\Ht MIlT ;"."

IT'S THRILLING TO SEEAND PLAY IT!

You get a thrill f'rom looking at, the illustration of IId8 Trumper,t he Liberty No. 11 and what: a greater thrill when you huve it ill yourhands, it is so strikingly beautifnl. it fas 'inules-you huve an over-whelming desire to try it' to see if it pluys as it looks. EverYlhing isnew from the mouthpiece to end of the bell. Sweeping lines and anglesrepjace curves in bring out the modernistic motif of the design. Neverhas beauty in design been better exemplified. It is exquisitely beau- Irif'ul, And what a sensation when you try it. You are amazed. Sosensational are the improvements in the tone and playing qualities thatyou can hardly believe your ears-u sparkling, brilliant tone, pulsaungwith power and a vibrant richness and resonance that astounds you andwith it a most remarkable ease of playing. You experience the sensa-tion of never wanting to lay the instrument down.

High tones come with astonishing ease-low tones with a rich-ness, volume and flexibility that enables you to express yourself a.never before,

In the new Liberty No. 11, you get a magnetic brtllianeefn the.tone with luxuriant warmth and color, that inspires and gives you afeeling of confidence you have never' known before' and as you in-crease from a whisper to a mighty crescendo, you feel the instrumentlaking all you can put into it with astonishing ease the tone steadilyincreasing in volume and power until you reach undreamed-of heights.You cannot break the tone, no matter how much force you use.

Here is a Trumpet that has everything you. have ever craved forin an instrument-an intonation so sure, you j;;si' n;'t11r~Ily play it intune-a balance; so when held in playing. position,'you' have perfectcomfort and eontrol in. playing, making y.ou (eel the master of theinstrument-the finest, surest, arid fastest' valve aetton-c-dlsrlnction,grace and beauty all ~oulded into a' modern ideal Trumpet thatfascinates you, is irresislible::-a Trumpet that is .

EVERY TRUMPET PLAYER SHOULf) TRY THIS NEW KINGLI13ERTY NO.2 TRUMPET

EVERY INCH A KING-EVER,Y 'INCH IMPROVED

Ask Your King Dealer or Write to the Factory

I--~-THE H. N. WHITE COMPANY----Manufacturers of the World's Famous King Band Instruments. 5225 SUPERIOR AVENUE, CLEVELAND, OHIO

4 C,T heM e t r 0 nom e , D e.e em b e r , 1 93 3