Brian plays a game in which two fair, six-sided dice are rolled
  simultaneously. For each die, an even number means that he wins that
  amount of money and an odd number means that he loses that amount of
  money. What is the probability that Brian makes money on his first
  roll?


To find the probability, do we need to find the even numbers only. There are 36 outcomes from the two dies. So is there an easy  way to get the arrangements? 


Question: Is the particular skill of singing the melody correctly necessary to be able to play the trumpet?
Answer: I have owned a Holton T602 trumpet. I bought it new 20 years ago or so. Very nice sounding trumpet although it needed more frequent cleaning than other brands I played. It originally came with a "Frank Holton 7C" mouthpiece but I have been using all sorts of trumpet mouthpieces on it with no problem. The only thing it wasn't very fond of is very big mouthpieces like Bach 1C and bigger, wich would make the tuning too low. After trying out many many mouthpieces I settled on a Bach 10.5C wich is considered quite small by modern standards (not by older standards), but perfect for me, even though I am a tall guy. No idea about you, mouthpieces are like shoes, they have to fit. For some reason, the general consensus is that bigger(lower number) is better, based on a 1920ties recommendation from Vincent Bach that everyone keeps repeating, but I don't agree with that. I'm sounding better than ever on this small piece and it's less straining also.