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air beds & medical emergencies

4/15/2021

11 Comments

 
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Jolene and I were having lunch with friends the other day when the topic of air beds came up. My friend Tom asked, "what kind of bed do you guys have?" We were excited to share that we had bought a Sleep Number bed and, after a minute or two of raving, we realized we sounded like a commercial for the product. That's when the conversation morphed into a dismissal rather than a dialogue. Tom flat out said they tried the Sleep Number because they had heard so many great things, but when it arrived he realized it was an air bed and sent it back. The bed was, "a waste of money" because, "he's not spending a lot of money for air". Being sincerely interested in the psychology of is decision, I asked him if the bed was comfortable. His reply? The bed was great! He went on to say that he's an engineer and he's smart enough to not pay a lot of money on an air bed.  They bought a bed with steel springs because it was a good value and I'm pretty sure he thinks we're not the brightest people in the world for choosing a better night of sleep in exchange for more money.

I hear similar arguments in conversations on Facebook groups related to making trumpet purchases. A few people rave about high end trumpets built by myself, Eclipse, Monette, Van Laar, and others. Then the majority jumps on these people quickly informing them that their positive experiences are hilarious naive folly.

The dismissive nature of these interactions is what concerns me. Can we not have different perspectives and values while having a conversation? Is it no longer possible to hold a minority point of view? How do we bridge the gap between writing an idea off and having an open mind? How do we converse and find common ground in a world of text responses on a computer or phone screen?

I'll come out and say right now that I personally do not care which trumpet or mattress you choose. If it makes you happy and it doesn't effect anyone else in a negative way, I'm all for choice! But that doesn't mean we can't have a conversation, right? It is in fact possible and most likely healthy to enter into dialogue and discuss our different opinions, experiences, and beliefs. If we avoid this very crucial piece of the human experience, we do ourselves a disservice that could stunt our growth as a society. Is there only one right way and all others are wrong? Or are there many various possibilities with which we can learn, experience, and grow both as individuals and as communities?

My headache was blinding. I literally started losing my vision just a few seconds after playing the F above double high C. This was one of my favorite notes on this particular trumpet and mouthpiece combination and I was working hard to make this experience something my clients could reproduce on their own. How better to understand a problem than to experiment with isolated variables while playing the same arpeggio up to triple F hundreds of times? The only problem is that playing this set of notes, like many other similar riffs, causes me to have Aura migraine headaches, TIAs, and full strokes. Yes, these can be medical emergencies.

Having been a trumpet designer, builder, and performer for decades, I knew that playing high notes could hurt me and even put me in the hospital as this had happened many times throughout my life. I explained this to several doctors who dismissed the idea that playing trumpet could be related to these events and told me to go home. They often noted that I was young and healthy so there could not be any correlation. Rather than listen to my experiences and problems, I was dismissed and sent on my way. But what if just one of those doctors had chosen to have a real in-depth conversation with me? What could have been discovered before I nearly lost my life multiple times?

I had a recent interaction on a Facebook group with someone simply posting, "Wedge Technique, Go!" that resulted in dozens of people dismissing my response. My concern is that this technique can and does cause blood clots to travel where they otherwise may not leading to problems like heart attacks and strokes. There have been numerous medical studies that show a very strong correlation to using the valsalva maneuver (which is performed with the Wedge technique) and traveling embolisms. I was ridiculed publicly with the primary criticism being that I am not a medical doctor so I could not possess information worthy of discussion. And rather than making any attempt at having a conversation on this very important topic, several people attacked my character.

This experience is not unique to me or my posts. In fact, almost anyone who posts something that goes against the mainstream thinking on any topic can expect to be dismissed, ridiculed, and ostracized to some extent. On Facebook, this often leads to being blocked and then ridiculed further once you can no longer read comments.

My question to everyone reading is simply, what does this do to further our understanding of each other? Cutting off a conversation by saying someone is wrong because they lack a specific education or perspective is really not helpful to anyone. And regardless of how one caught in this type of interaction reacts, whether that be sharing experiences, citing specific medical studies, etc., it happens again and again to people from every walk of life.

Let's all consider how we interact with others via social media, forums, and of course, in person. Each of us holds valuable experience and knowledge on topics outside of what others may consider mainstream. And each of us should be encouraged to share with others via healthy dialogue that bridges the distance between hard-headed beliefs and true wisdom. I'm the first to admit I have a lot to learn about most topics. I mean, I've suffered dozens of strokes and my memory loss has been substantial. I want to learn everything possible!

And let us not forget that the principles of scientific discovery are deep-rooted in people, not institutions, universities, and corporations. So many are quick to dismiss the experiences and truths of an individual in favor of what I like to call Popular Science, which is often an uneducated summary of an idea rather than an understanding of the principles behind it. Remember that the vast majority of scientific breakthroughs were discovered by individuals and small teams working toward bridging the gap between questions and answers. Isaac Newton was no more a scientist than an 11-year-old today performing experiments in the backyard. He simply sought more thorough answers in a time when it was illegal to question the nature of the physical world.

It is the innovative thinking people that ask the hard questions and seek the answers that often go against what is acceptable at the time that create the change necessary for a community to experience growth. Yet we are quick to believe that only those with phd's from prestigious universities are given the freedom and license to think, research, and solve problems. The more we believe this false narrative, the more reliant we are on a system designed to prevent the freedom of thought on almost any topic. The evolution of society, science, art, music, and expression is reliant on having the tough conversations often started by thinking outside the box. First, recognize the box, then recognize that it will become larger as you expand your ability to listen, converse, and bridge the gap between you and those with which you disagree.

Wisdom is found in the space where boundaries and questions are on equal terms.



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11 Comments
Christopher N/A Adamo
4/15/2021 10:46:00 am

Amen ! Brilliantly & eloquently stated Jason Harrelson !

Reply
HARRY NIJKAMP
4/15/2021 10:57:00 am

Yes. Agree 100%

Reply
thomas l butch link
4/15/2021 12:16:30 pm

I actually read the entire article--VERY ENLIGHTENING, JASON!...You have a keen sense for this stuff. I wish more people would get a grip on life as you do...BRAVO!

Reply
John Preston
4/15/2021 12:38:54 pm

Very well said. Just because some don't agree doesn't mean one or the other is wrong. How boring it would be if we all agreed on eveything.

Reply
Adam Compeau link
4/15/2021 01:13:01 pm

Fantastic! I would love to share this!

Reply
Dom Parisi
4/15/2021 01:27:20 pm

Agreed. But remember some ppl think that they are always right when they see themselves in their own eyes. Blinded ppl can not see.
Hmmm ... Don't like sleeping on a pressurized calibrated air suspension system/ bag .. but will flagellate under the blankets !???

Reply
Alison Shaiman
4/16/2021 07:45:44 am

Jason, simply eloquent and spot on.

Reply
Eric Ottem
4/16/2021 12:01:00 pm

Ten years ago I found myself steeped in what my wife calls my "Internet Horn Addiction". I'd been playing trumpet for 35 years, was never able to afford a Bach Strad, and I'd left my Olds Superstar behind in college for a $100 used King 600 student model with valves that never stopped coming up fast... the second marriage where I just wanted the opposite of what my Olds was giving me from her second valve. Of course the King backed up on me when I really pushed it. I knew it had something to do with the small bore. I started watching eBay for horns, researching every used old horn that looked interesting. And I searched custom trumpets, which led me to Harrelson, where Jason had left behind the crude sheet metal bracing for truly stunning and solid bracing/caps/buttons that made me really predisposed to want to admire these beauties for their inner character and not merely their enticing physique. I watched so many Jason Harrelson videos that when I finally spoke to him on the phone about getting a trumpet, it was like I was talking to a movie star, and even after so many hours spent reading about trumpets from the '50's forward, I still didn't have the vocabulary to ask the questions I wanted to ask.

And yet... there's a skeptic in me. And I read the kind of posts on the trumpet blogs that Jason cites in this post -- the "hot air" mattress naysayers. I can speak math and enjoy reading laymen's physics paperbacks. And yet... I didn't fully trust Standing Wave Efficiency, the big concept Jason's designs were built to manifest. Horns are expensive and I didn't want to be a sucker for a gimmick.

I took a trip to Minnesota to seek out Jason's laboratory, to get fitted for a horn. I knew the sound concept I was after, but had no clue what "sleep number" would dial in that sound, given the combinations Jason had then, which are dwarfed by combinations he offers 9 years later. Some customer had just stolen (by not returning) the cool demo kit Jason had built to screw parts together and truly dial me in. But I got to play a few. And I got to play a Monette he'd taken in on trade, and a Taylor flugelhorn against one of the Harrelson prototype flugels. I played 2 C horns that sounded as fat and luscious as a Bb. (If I played a C more, I'd own a Harrelson.) I wound up buying the biggest, heaviest Summit (pre-adjustable gap, pre-MMR mouthpiece, etc. etc.) I could get. And I'd never sell that horn which I got to herald in my fifties! I can't play it on every gig because my sound is so big out the bell of that thing. SWE is real. But the real problem is that I turned out to be a "player" in the bad sense of the word. I love to collect old horns and other custom horns and hear/feel all their characteristics. If I had made that Summit my only horn, I'm convinced it'd do everything I could ask of it, despite its "gravity" and what some might be convinced isn't "flexible enough" to fit their concept or bag of tricks.

I don't make my living off my horn, so I can be unfaithful and just be in love with many horns. Great players I know are so co-dependent with even a mediocre assembly-line horn they're currently on, and when they're trying an amazing custom horn built to their needs, and I can hear and point out the solidity of notes in recordings of the new horn vs. the current horn, they can't leave those old horns any more than my parents could bring themselves to get rid of the ancient lumpy mattress they'd slept on for 30 years! At least they don't disparage the new horns; they know they're superior, but they just can't commit to the time it would take to trust the new horn. That's how I acquired my Van Laar Oiram that VL would've paid my friend to play! Built for an amazing player and I took it off his hands for 20% off from VL because it was used!

I've never talked to Hub V.L., never read anything he's written. His horn is great. So is the Stage 1 Jason remodeled and sold on eBay and I snapped up. The Harrelsons are still the flat-out sexiest horns you can get. I love the valve clusters on the old Bueschers (the original heavy horn!), but not everybody wants to drive a '57 Chevy. Jason's horns are Ferrari's. He just happens to have an amazing artistic eye to go along with the physics he believes in. His horns are evolving, and mine was out of date 7 years ago! I'll buy another as soon as my wife isn't looking.

And I appreciate Jason's sensibilities as a human being, as a horn lover whose creative gut has pushed him to keep people like me up at night, not getting a wink of sleep, looking at the stuff he makes on my phone screen, watching his videos, cheering him on.

The Summit he's after is in the clouds, where it should be, a little moisture hanging on nothing but air.

Reply
Edson Sossai
4/16/2021 12:36:36 pm

Very Good Jason!!! Well said. Unfortunately the worst blind people are not the ones impaired by their sight but the ones who doesn't want to see.

Reply
John
4/16/2021 05:17:32 pm

I agree 100% Jason. When it comes to trumpets and the truth if you have not been banned from Trumpet Herald and Trumpet Master you must be a conformist and into pop culture musical voodoo or famous! Facebook is not much better if talking to musicians! Most are very ignorant of science and how their instrument actually works! There are plenty of credentialed expert that are likewise ignorant, poorly informed or liars. Not all Doctors are created equal for instance. There is a shortage of intellectually honest people that are actually tolerant and well informed. It is rare to find someone that can listen with out becoming emotionally charged at the drop of a dime.

Reply
Gary Mowery link
5/9/2021 12:28:07 am

'The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.' - Psalm 111:10 kjv

I hear some hurt, exasperation and even a little confusion in your words as to how so many of us have become so cold and 'dismissive' toward each other.

Your seriousness and enthusiasm in pursuing scientific methods for improving everything about the trumpet playing experience is very appealing. I respect every fact or opinion I've ever heard you speak or demonstrate. Your tools have been educational and very helpful to me.

There is One Person who will take these burdens from you. Not all the BIG answers we seek will ever be found in THIS world.

Jason, my birth year is 1952. I have a life story and a Christian testimony. And one very special date, in January 1996. A trumpet-playing evangelist named Phil Driscoll pointed me directly toward a new, eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Over 25 years I have proven, to MY own satisfaction and faith, that the words in the scripture below are true - God's words, not mine.

'Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.' - II Cor 5:17 kjv

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