18. Review and Plan for a Happy New Year

Don't practice quickly and hope it gets better;
practice excellence and hope it gets faster.
--Frank Campos

It is an old and trite idea to take the end of the year as a time to look back and reflect on what has been happening in one's life. But what makes something "old and trite" is that there is truth in it. Most of the time we don't stop to review and see where we have come. Why not take the end of the year as such a time?

Which is where the importance of the journal comes in. Remember a few weeks ago or so when I reminded us of the importance of keeping a journal of our practicing? Seems like busy work. But here is when you will appreciate it- and maybe get back into the habit since if you are like me you have not kept the journal for a few weeks or more.

I went back and looked at my journal from right after trumpet camp last summer. At camp we were given ideas on a regular practice routine. In addition I was given the idea to do the Arban's exercises from page 13 - 22 and 25-28. These are good, basic exercises that have been proven to be so fundamental it might be valuable to practice them on a regular basis.

So starting in mid-August I did that. For six weeks or so I made sure that I went through those on a regular basis. Now anyone who has played trumpet for more than a few months knows how to play these. There's nothing particularly difficult in them. For years I mostly ignored them since, well, I can play that.

But could I play them well? Could I play them at speed? Did I take the time to play them slowly enough to develop excellence? Often I would practice it quickly so I could say, "Did that. What's next?" Over these last five months I have discovered that there is an amazing depth in those exercises. They start easy; some are more difficult than others; they introduce us to key signatures and chord structures.

Last week, aware of reflection time for this week, I went back to page 13 and started playing through them. I hadn't done them all in about 2 months. I had worked on other things and had continued to notice my progression as a trumpet player. What would these sound like now?

I started with a medium tempo and found they fell into place smoothly. They moved along and felt right. Can I play them as the upper suggested tempo? Surprise. Yes, I can, at least many of them. I looked at my notes in the journal (minimal though they are) and saw that it took me a lot longer to play them in August and September because I a) couldn't play to tempo and b) missed a lot of notes.

I can talk about other reflections, but this is a good introduction to it. What I discovered was

• if I hadn't kept a journal I would have had to rely on imperfect memory for comparison
• if I hadn't taken time for reflection I wouldn't have been as aware of my progress
• if I hadn't slowed down when first working on these back in August I wouldn't have gone beyond "just good enough"

The natural question then is "So what? What do I do with this?" As I was working through these sections of Arban's with a little better insight I discovered the ones that were still causing me difficulty. I was reminded that there are always (!!) the basics that need to be worked on. It may be "easy" to breeze through and play some of these. But there is always the opportunity to strengthen the foundation.

That brought me to the result of review and reflection- planning. I have already talked about goal-setting, etc. but that will often return as a theme. In short, for this particular review, I came up with a specific plan to refine my daily routine. I have taken the sections between pages 13 and 36, some of the very basics, and divided them into three sections. At first I will play through each section every third day. I will be going through each section twice each week for the next 3-5 weeks. My goal- reinforce these basics and add a bit of "excellence" beyond "good enough." This will take about 10 - 15 minutes of each day's routine.

With all that aside, the biggest reflection for me is what has occurred in my trumpet playing since June when I attended the Big Band Camp at Shell Lake. The quintet I am part of then had a "peak experience" at the Vintage Band Mini Fest in Northfield, MN. I then headed back to Shell Lake for trumpet camp where my whole view of my trumpet playing took a huge positive jump. I have continued to play in two Big Bands, two concert bands and the quintet and have practiced 8 out of 10 days.

I am humbled and amazed at what has happened. I am grateful to all who helped, encouraged, challenged, instructed and allowed me to play along with you this past year.

There is more to come.

Happy New Year to all!

17. It's a Gift

Music is God's gift to man,

the only art of Heaven given to earth,

the only art of earth we take to Heaven.

-- Walter Savage Landor (16th C. English poet)

Gifts are on our mind today. It is the day before the day before Christmas. Any last minute gifts to buy? Any gifts I hope I get? What is a gift, though? The word comes from a word that means "give." Not a big surprise there. We know what a gift is, of course. The definitions come as no surprise:

1. a thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present.

synonyms: present, donation, offering, bestowal, bonus, award, endowment; 

2. a natural ability or talent.

synonyms: talent, flair, aptitude, facility, knack, bent, ability, expertise, capacity, capability, faculty; endowment, strength, genius, brilliance, skill, artistry

But the gift of heaven? Music? The only "art of heaven" that we can experience? I think I can agree with that, both as a listener and performer.

No great insights on that. Just a reminder that we as musicians at whatever stage of development we may be are gifted and givers of gifts. Be serious about your gift but enjoy it. The gift is useless if it isn't opened and used. The greatest gifts are shared.

Listen to music this week.

Make music this week.

Celebrate the "art of heaven."

The earth has grown old with its burden of care,

but at Christmas it always is young,

the heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair,

and its soul full of music breaks the air,

when the song of angels is sung.

--Phillips Brooks

16. Making It a Story

Where words fail, music speaks.

― Hans Christian Andersen

Who knows what Frank Foster had in mind when he wrote the wonderful Blues in Hoss' Flat or what Count Basie thought as he put together the band playing the number? It is a fine tune with lots of style, flair and pure joy. Most of us don't think much about the meaning behind the songs we hear or play, especially if they are instrumental. It is just a song.

But don't say that too loud. Music has probably been telling stories since the first cave dweller pounded in some sort of primitive time. Last year at the Big Band Camp at Shell Lake we did the Blues in Hoss' Flat. But first we watched this video- a classic by Jerry Lewis from his movie, The Errand Boy. Take a couple minutes and enjoy it.

Lewis is, of course, pantomiming a "chairman of the board" leading a meeting. Does it help to know that the original Basie album was titled Chairman of the Board? Even if it doesn't, Lewis' interpretation is a wonder to watch. I can never hear the number without this pantomime playing in my head as well.

My first real introduction to "serious" music appreciation was back in junior high (dates me, huh?) when the music teacher dropped the needle at the start of an instrumental piece. She gave us the simple instruction, "What do you hear?" No name, no introduction, just that question. Through the speaker came the opening bars of one of the great works of American music of the 20th Century, An American in Paris. It didn't take me long, even with my 7th grade ears, to hear a street scene, car horns and soon I saw people scurrying to and fro. After a few minutes, she stopped and asked what we heard. I don't remember what anyone else said. I'm not sure I even said anything myself. But when she told us the name and what Gershwin was doing I was blown away.

I had heard the story in the music. I had heard what the composer was trying to tell me without having words get in the way. That one day in class 55 years ago changed my life. I don't always hear stories in the music I listen to. Sometimes I look at the name a composer gave to a song and try to put it to the music. For example, I don't know what Miles had in mind when he titled one of his numbers, Solar. But I hear the sun and energy, light and bright skies when I listen. But then Bruce Hornsby, Christian McBride, and Jack Dejohnette put a different arrangement of the same song on their album, Camp Meeting. Now the sun and light and energy are placed in a different context. I still see the power and light, but now it's in the spiritual context of a tent or camp meeting. Same notes, same basic song - but now a whole new story is being told.

Isn't that what we try to do when we play? More on this sometime in the new year. For the next few weeks spend some quality time listening to instrumentals, stories without words, and find the stories they tell you.

15. Sky Thinking

Hard work beats talent 

when talent doesn't work hard.

-Tim Notke

I'm actually not going to write about "hard work" but about what I may need in order to do the "hard work." That happens to be having "goals." In essence goals are the ways we know where we are going. Over the years I have been taught at many workshops that goals have to be SMART:

• Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
• Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
• Attainable – assuring that an end can be achieved.
• Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
• Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
-Wikipedia

Which means that my goal

to be an excellent trumpet player

doesn't really fit the criteria. But

to be able to play at speed the first section (12 measures) of Arban's 1st Characteristic Study by January 15

does fit. (And now that I mention it, might be a goal to work on over the next month!) I have a few goals related to next summer's Big Band and Trumpet Camps, including

to be able to comfortably extend my range to that elusive (to me) high C or D

as well as

to be more comfortable with dealing with changes in songs and do an improvised solo.

That goal of comfort in changes is a little too vague to really fit the criteria. If I have some specific activities and exercises that I am using to get in that direction such a long-range goal can tend to be okay.

The Edge of Unachievable is one way we learned at camp to find goals. Maybe we could use the phrase Sky Thinking. Even though that phrase is often used to mean things that are out of touch with reality, why do our goals have to be that way? How about, instead, may be on the edge of unachievable but not quite out of reach. With hard work informing and forming whatever talent we may have, who says we can't get there?

Hoping your Sky Thinking plans have been

Written Down, and traced back to exactly

what to Act on today.

-Bob Baca

Expanding on Bob Baca's wish for us at the end of camp, there are three things necessary for us to move forward.

• Do your sky thinking. Brainstorm. Take some time to think about where you want to be in a month, six months. I was talking to a young trumpet player the other week who has been working on the Carnival of Venice from Arbans. He has already played it for Solo/Ensemble but hasn't reached where he wants to go with it. He is still pushing his sky thinking.

• Write them down. Start a journal where you note your sky thinking goals and can see your progress. If they aren't written down, they are less likely to happen. The further out you go, of course, the less specific you can be. You also have to be ready to go with whatever life may throw at you. Don't be so rigid that you will break if something gets in your way. Writing them down may also be a way to share them with others- teachers, family, friends, band directors- who can help you.

• Translate into action. Ah, here's the work. I am great at spinning ideas and plans into thin air (the "sky" of sky thinking.) I can easily get side-tracked by those pesky squirrels that are everywhere. I can lose focus and direction if I don't have some form of plan of action. It doesn't have to be fully outlined with footnotes and explanations. I'm not that structured. But I need a flow-chart that keeps me on the ball. I need to have some way of knowing what I need to do today in order to get closer to my goal tomorrow.

Put this all together and I end up with a far better set of goals than I had when I started. I also feel better about what I am doing. I know I am going somewhere that I can regularly test by my own criteria.

Try some of these for yourself if you are having trouble in some area of your life. Where are you going? What do you want for you? Get out of the rut by going off into that almost unachievable place.

[By the way- since I listed some achievable goals above, I promise to let you know how I'm doing.]

14. No Wandering

On those long notes behind the trumpet solo,

if anyone lets his mind wander for a minute

he is dead.

-Don Ellis

Things are moving along nicely. You are in "the groove." You are feeling what the rest of the group is doing. It can be a concert band piece or a trio. You know the music is working its magic on you and you couldn't feel better.

Then for  moment you get distracted. It could be something out of the corner of your eye or a note that didn't land just right from you or someone else. Maybe you just remembered something you forgot to do before you left home. Perhaps a memory of another performance was triggered by a note or just a random thought drifted up from the unconscious.

Suddenly the whole mood and feel changes. You aren't lost- you know right where you are, but the groove is gone. You are not in sync with what's happening.  If you are in a concert band you may get away with it. If you are in the midst of a solo, as great trumpet player Don Ellis so bluntly put it- you're dead.

Now, I know Robert Baca said the same thing about "panic" that I quoted a few weeks ago. The truth is, though, it's true. It took me years to realize the truth of it- and why my performances were often riddled with moments when I "died." No one noticed most of them except perhaps the director and the person sitting next to me. But distraction is for me the worst of.....

Squirrel.

Just kidding. Another way of describing this result of distraction is that obstacles appear when we take our mind away from the sound, the music, or the goal. Obstacles are things that get in the way of doing what we want to or are usually able to do. When I have listened to recordings of some of my solos in the big band or concert band I have often noticed one thing in particular- the sound. Perhaps it is better to say that I notice when my "sound" goes flat or isn't alive. The obstacle is not that I can't keep a clearer sound, the obstacle is maintaining it when I am distracted.

Sometimes I get distracted by the fact that I just did the previous line or phrase better than usual. I take that moment to congratulate myself- and I am distracted. Sometimes I get distracted by paying too much attention to the audience and I get flustered. Sometimes in life I get distracted by "the small stuff" and miss the goals and hopes I have for myself.

Even good things can be distractions, of course. If it takes me away from my goals, it is a distraction.

High-wire artist, acrobat, and daredevil Nik Wallenda of the famous Flying Wallendas has this to say:

I've trained all my life not to be distracted by distractions.
Nik Wallenda

Perhaps the word for what Wallenda does is maintain focus and being mindful. Staying in the moment is essential. Notice that he says he has had to "train" all his life to do it. I do not think it comes naturally. We are easily distracted because that is how our brain is constructed. It is part of the ancient survival system. To learn how to do this takes time and energy.

We learn in the practice room when we work on our pieces so that we know them more than just technically. We learn focus as we become familiar with the rhythms and flow that make the music alive. We learn mindfulness as we take the time to sing the parts out loud to feel the movement. We discover awareness as we listen to ourselves play and how what we are playing fits into the greater picture of the music.

But we also improve our musical focus ability when we take five or ten minutes on a daily basis to meditate or focus on our breathing as a way of bringing ourselves back into the moment. What we do in the hours of the day when we are not playing music can have a huge impact on how we learn to avoid distractions. Our music is not a box we can separate from the rest of our lives. Nor is our life a separate box from the music.

As we learn to integrate who we are and what we do, we find that our music will flow from us.

And we can flow from our music.

Practice mindfulness. Stay in the moment. Pay attention to your breath. Feel the pulse of the music as you play. Remember the sound you want and play it. Don't think about it; don't analyze it. In your practice - just play it so it is yours.

13. In Gratitude

Gratitude is the music of the heart.

-Unknown

It's Thanksgiving Week and it is hard to move past the week without talking about gratitude.

Will gratitude make you a better musician? Not as much as practice will, but it will do something just as important that will have an impact- it will increase your mindfulness, your awareness of yourself and the world around you. THAT will help your trumpet playing.

• It will give you insight into your own life and emotions- an important part of being an advancing musician. 
• It will keep you in touch with those around you that will make your life fuller and more enriching. 
• It will keep you humble- which is another way of saying you will continue to be teachable- willing and ready to learn.
• It will increase your happiness levels on a daily basis, say a number of research studies.
• It will increase your energy and motivation more often.
• Depression and stress will be more easily coped with on a daily basis.

As preachers have been saying for years on Thanksgiving, don't just save all your gratitude for this one day. It actually will make you a better person if you learn to practice it every day.

• Dr. Amit Sood of Mayo Clinic suggests that you not get out of bed in the morning any day without some awareness of reasons or people to be grateful for. 
• Keep a gratitude journal and review it on a daily basis. 
• Don't repeat yourself- find new reasons to be grateful each day.
• Silently wish each person you pass in a given period of time, grace and peace.
• Meister Eckhart was a man of wisdom:

If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you,’

that would suffice.

– Meister Eckhart

One person who has helped me over the past couple years is Shane Burcaw. He is a young man with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and has been in a wheelchair his whole life. He also has a journalism degree, is the author of a wonderful book, Laughing at My Nightmare, is the founder of a foundation to assist others with Muscular Dystrophy and its variations, and has an incredible sense of humor. His attitude is nothing short of remarkable. No, he does not play trumpet (I don't think so, anyway!) but he is a person filled with energy- and gratitude.

Every week he posts a list called What Made Me Smile This Week. There are many things each week that bring a smile to Shane's face: meeting with college students at his Alma Mater (Moravian College!), eating turkey chili, giving a talk at an elementary school, writing, or just being able to stretch out after a long day.

Each week he makes me smile. He also reminds me of the wonders I miss around me when all I do is complain or find reasons to criticize. He challenges me, someone nearly three times his age, to see the world as fresh and refreshing each day. No matter what!

Maybe I should apply that to my trumpet playing and practice. How did my practicing today make me smile? What were the moments of gratitude and joy? Maybe I wasn't as focused as I needed to be, but what was neat about it? Maybe it was the particular exercise that is just fun to play. Maybe it was the ability to hit some difficult notes with a little more clarity. Maybe it was just the way I felt after making music.

What works for you? Where are you grateful today? Just enjoy it. No matter what!

12. Perception is Reality

Don't be afraid,
just play the music.
― Charlie Parker

As a counselor, one thing I always have to keep in mind is that when someone sees reality a certain way, they believe it. For them it IS reality. It doesn't matter whether it is true or imagined. Reality is often what we perceive it to be. So when they come into my office or group for therapy I have to start where they are- even if I know it to be false or mis-perceived.

As we pick up our horn to practice or to perform, what we consider reality will govern what we do next.

For years I believed I could not play a solo.

I was right. I couldn't play a solo. I would always mess it up. Even though I kept at it in church, for example, if I had a organ or piano and trumpet duet I never, ever got it right. Never. Something would always go wrong. I would miss a count and therefore come in early or late. I would miss a sharp or flat and play a discordant note. Any one of a number of things happened every time. Most people didn't notice it as significant most of the time, but I did.

"See," I would say to myself, "you can't play a solo."
I was proving the truth of Henry Ford's statement:

Whether you think you can,
or you think you can't--
you're right.
― Henry Ford

Fortunately I loved playing trumpet so much I never allowed it to stop me from trying or from continuing to play in bands. I would avoid solos, even in band. My trumpet soloing above even 55 other musicians would send my heart into high gear, the adrenaline would flow, the fight or flight mechanism would kick in- and I would mess it up.

Over and over the refrain- you can't solo, you can't solo, you can't!

My perception of reality was true- even if it wasn't.

Note that this was not a fear of being in front of people. I have been in public for 50 years preaching, radio DJ, cable TV host. I could stand and talk to hundreds of people and not be nervous. Put a trumpet in my hand and make me solo in front of a handful- forget it. I can't do that. So said my perception of reality.

So what happened, esp. since I wouldn't be writing about it if it hadn't changed?

My first step was to work with a teacher. Just to play in his presence was a big step. He gave me some assignments; I worked on them; I improved.

Second, I was invited to join a brass quintet. When there are only five of you, each part is, in essence, a solo. We had a lot of fun practicing and developing a repertoire. When we finally did play in public performance I did okay, but I still messed up somewhere in each performance. Again, not always noticeable and never as badly as I had before, but I was building confidence in myself- and reality was shifting.

Third, I began playing some first parts in our community band. I found that most of the time I could do that! But that wasn't a solo. Again- perceptions were changing internally.

Fourth, one year ago this week the community band had a concert and with a solo on one number. My teacher was also playing first and he told me that I was playing it. I didn't argue. I figured that if he thought I was capable, maybe I was.

We worked on it in my lessons. I could play it very well- at home or in the lesson. But not at any rehearsal. Never.

I can't play solos!

But I refused to back down. (Stubborn ol' cuss!) The director never suggested I give it to someone else. The night before the concert we had our dress rehearsal and ...

Nope, still not right.

Concert night. The piece comes up. ("Valdres March" by Hanssen) It starts with my trumpet solo. I do okay. A little weak, but not particularly strong, either. Maybe I can solo? Maybe?

We get to the end and approach the D.C. back to the top- and the solo. One last chance. As we move along toward the D.C. I have a conversation with myself.

• This music is supposed to be fun.
• You're not having fun.
• Have fun.
• You can do it.
• Screw it. 
• Play the damn thing!!!

Yep- it worked.

I nailed it. My teacher gave me a thumbs up!

The first solo I played well in almost 50 years.

Reality made a seismic shift and I was now a "real" trumpet player again.

After the first of the year I will be doing some posts on the idea of "The Inner Game" about how we sabotage ourselves with a "Self One" and a "Self Two". That's what this is really about. It starts with our perception of reality. What we believe is what guides us. Reality or not, if we see it that way, that's the way it is. Don't confuse me with facts.

Unless you want to learn to do it differently. I didn't realize that's what I was doing when I started this journey about five or six years ago; when I said yes to the quintet or decided to take lessons again.

So,

• Get out of yourself and seek support and new insights.
• Stretch yourself. Take some chances and risks. All you can do is make a mistake. It's not the end of the world.
• Keep practicing.
• Hear the perception of reality that is keeping you from doing what you can do.
• Then do it.

That's what I did over the years in my life. It works with any task I think I can or can't do. The trumpet isn't any different.

And it is supposed to be fun. Enjoy it!

(BTW: Thanks to Warren, Steve, and Mike for sticking with me through these past years!)

11. Keeping the Soul in the Music

Music in the soul
can be heard by the universe.

― Lao Tzu

We went to another "big name" concert last weekend, the second in a month. This time it was country music star and daughter of Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash. No, there were no trumpets with her but I spent a lot of time being mindful of her performance and what I can learn from it about performing and playing trumpet.Some were additions to what I saw and experienced with Herb Alpert in the previous concert. Others were new. So here goes...

Overarching the whole experience was the awareness that these people play this music day after day. How in the world can they keep the music alive in countless performances? How can they make it feel as fresh for this night as they did 20 or 30 concerts ago? Hence the title of this post reflects the question of keeping the "soul" in the music for every performance.

Rosanne did it beautifully. The power behind her singing was as soulful as anyone. The words to her songs took the music to new depths - and vice versa. So, in a sense, one way to keep the music alive is the way you plan the show.

Cash is doing something unusual on this tour. She is performing her most recent album, The River and the Thread, in full and as recorded on the CD. She gave the background of the album and thoughts about each song, putting it into context and giving us a glimpse of her writing. It took about an hour or so and was the first half of the concert. I would say it was one of the more remarkable concert experiences I have ever witnessed. She never lost her soul. She connected with the audience and brought us into her world.

How do I do that when in performance? How does my brass quintet, for example, allow the audience to participate as more than a passive listener? Even though they are there for the music, what else can we bring to them. Both Cash and Alpert at the earlier concert do that through their interactions with the audience. Alpert took questions and responded to people's interest; Cash took us behind the music to allow the meaning of the songs touch us differently.

In our quintet or big band, I take the time between songs, if it isn't a dance with the big band, to tell the stories of the songs. I put them into context, their history, explain why we play them or perhaps how they showcase a quintet or big band. Some of that is covering for music changes, but it is also to bring the audience, metaphorically on stage with us. But it is also about my keeping my focus on the music's soul. I am reminding myself of the music's inner life, our inner lives as musicians, and why we are doing what we are doing.

On stage interactions are another set of issues for bands in performance. At the Cash concert I overheard two different responses to what was happening on stage. First was one person commenting that they enjoyed watching the musicians during the songs- what they are doing, different tricks and movements, how they are responding to the music. You will see how the drummer exaggerates certain movements to give a different emphasis, the keyboardist fiddling with the controls getting just the right sound, the guitarists closing their eyes and letting the music flow from their fingers.

For the audience that part of the show is just as real as the person doing the lead. If the band is not engaged, is just going through the motions and playing the notes, the overall experience will be diminished.

That was the second response I heard about the Cash show- the band seemed tired, they weren't as alive as Cash herself. I'm not entirely sure I saw that as much as the person I was talking to did. I wondered if some of the group just knew they weren't the stars so they tried to stay in the background? It didn't seem to me to diminish their performance.

But it does raise issues for any of us as performing musicians.

What do you do in your band when another person or section is soloing? Are you engaged or are you sitting or standing there looking bored? Do you give the impression that when it is not centered on you or your part that it isn't worth paying attention to? That can happen so easily since we are concerned about the next part or the water gurgling in the horn. Be aware, though, of how the audience responds to that as well.

We play music for a reason- it is a soul experience. We do it because we are moved by  it. In the end it will come to some performance. We are charged, at that point as performing musicians to communicate to the audience that soul experience. Whether you are the lead trumpet soaring on a solo or the 4th section musician doing little more than "oom pahs" your part is important- as is your interactions with the music. Your soul is part of the whole. Feel it and live it through the horn and your engagement with the rest of the band.

Again, as it seems to always be, the connection to life is hopefully obvious. How do you relate to the world around you? Do you engage or do you go through life with a sense of disinterest if it isn't centered on you? What do you have to offer in even the smallest ways to the soul of the situation?

Find your soul and then let it be lived.

10. Panic and Air

If you panic,

you will die.

-R. Baca

A couple years ago I was doing a hike near Lake Itasca here in Minnesota. There was this circular trail around a lake that branched off the main trail. Or, at least is felt like that. In reality it was just a loop that came back to the same spot and then back out. The problem was that at the spot where the trail started the loop, the two sides of the loop were almost parallel to each other. So, as I returned to the point where the loop started, I found myself facing a "Y" and I didn't know which way to turn. I turned left and realized I was passing things I already passed in the same direction. So I turned around and got back to the "Y" and turned right. Yep- wrong again. I was now heading up the loop from the other side. I wasn't sure of this until I got to a place where I took some pictures of a beaver dam.

By this time I am already later than I expected to be in getting back to the car. My wife would certainly be getting worried. (She was.) We were out in the wilderness and the GPS on my iPhone wasn't showing any map. I knew I wasn't lost. But I knew I could become like Winnie-the-Pooh going in circles around the same tree. The only lesson I could think of at that time was an old hiking reminder:

Don't panic! Your life may depend on it.

I am not sure I was quite at "panic" level on the trail, but I was beginning to get concerned. I thought I knew what I was doing. But it was getting warm, I was getting a little tired. How was I going to deal with this?

I stopped, took a deep breath or two, calmed my mind and set about figuring out that I needed just to be more observant of what I was doing. It worked.

So when Bob Baca said the quote at the top of this post at Trumpet Camp it resonated. It applies to playing the trumpet, as much as it applies to hiking Itasca Park. Don't panic.

We can sure panic when we aren't prepared to play that solo in tomorrow's concert. We can panic when we get lost in the middle of a complicated (or easy) piece in the band's gig. Maybe we're in the midst of the show and our lip decides to quiver and rebel. What are we to do?

First and foremost: Don't panic. It will work against you. We have developed quite a system for survival over the years of our human evolution. the "panic" response is one of them. Panic, or anxiety, can happen when we are facing a "dangerous" or even "life-threatening" situation. Way back in our human development such anxiety or panic got all the systems moving in order for us to survive.

We can call it today the "Fight, Flight, or Freeze" response.

But that quivering lip, the un-prepared solo or jumped line in a song is not life-threatening. Our response is just a left-over. But we can easily metaphorically "die" if we allow the panic to take over. The extra adrenaline pumping with an elevated blood-pressure moving blood away from the thinking brain so we react intuitively makes it more likely that we will not get through the panic. The solo will fail, we won't find our spot in time for our next entrance, the quivering lip just gets work.

But there is another response that we can learn and cultivate. Instead of fight, flight, or freeze, we can learn "Flow." As in "Go with the flow!" I don't know who T. McIrvine is, but I found this quote from him online about playing the trumpet.

Release the air,
don't blow the air.

-T. McIrvine

This is, of course, good advice at all times, which I may talk about some other time. For today, though, this is a great way to think when facing those moments of panic. Stop and breathe. No, not that short, panting breath or that heavy rush of air as if you were blowing out the candles on your 100th birthday cake. Something more relaxed, conscious.

So let's put these things together: Panic and air. Take it easy. Allow the air to fill from the diaphragm. Count to five as you are inhaling through the nose. Hold for a count of two. Count to six as you slowly exhale, letting the air move from your stomach. Do this a couple of times. Don't focus on anything but your breathing.

Can you do this while playing? Probably not to its fullest, but look for several measures of rest. Then do it. Sure you won't revitalize your quivering lip, but you will loosen the tension that only makes the quivering worse. Pay attention to the ease of playing- letting the air release through the mouthpiece and around through the horn. It may be just enough to get you through the rest of the gig.

In your practice on that day before the concert, it will slow you down enough to figure out what you need to do.

Getting rid of the panic response will reconnect you to the music and you will more easily recognize where you might be in the music. After all, you have been practicing and you know the piece, right?

Lots of ways breathing can work for us, not just making a better sound. Perhaps good breathing exercises should be in our regular routine. Long tones, of course, can help with that as can "releasing" air through the lead tube without the tuning slide. But regular daily meditative, mindful breathing may do as much for our tone and music as scales. (BOTH are important, of course.)

As we learn to breathe, life itself can be a lot easier to come with.

Here's a closing quote from a new book I just came across:

Sometimes it's okay if the only thing
you did today was breathe.
-Yumi Sakugawa, There's No Right Way to Meditate

9. All Life is a Privilege

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master

-Duke Ellington

It is so easy to think we are deserving of what we have and what we can get. It is a trap to believe that we are entitled to something, or have worked hard enough to have earned it.

Somewhere in the middle of trumpet camp, director Bob Baca made the comment to us:

• Everything is a privilege. We don't deserve any of it.

We all shook our heads in some kind of understanding. It made some kind of sense. We don't "deserve" it.

So as I started writing this week's post I decided to think more about the word "privilege" and was surprised to be reminded that the word can be very loaded with negative connotations.

Here are three ways to define "privilege." These are from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and show how it can certainly be a negative idea:

• a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others
• the advantage that wealthy and powerful people have over other people in a society
• a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud

Using the word "privilege" begins to sound like an entitlement some people expect or get simply because of who they are. It is a special "right" that not every one has and that can easily be used to put others down or elevate ourselves more highly than we ought to.

But that's not where I want to go with this. That's not what was meant when we were told that "Everything is a privilege." In reality, the word privilege when used in this was is actually a humbling word.

Let's look at the last one of the above definitions for our purposes here this week:

• a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud

I would expand that a little by using several examples:

• I have been privileged to have known a number of deeply committed people in my life.
• I have been privileged to be allowed to help other people in my work.
• I have been privileged to be part of an amazing group that helps others.

All these recognize that not everyone may have had the same "privileges" as I have, but these are not mine because of something I am or who I am or even what I have done. I have been given the honor of doing these things.

That humbles me since it is not by my good works or special talents that have allowed me this honor. Many times it may simply be that I was in the right place at the right time.

What does this have to do with my trumpet playing? How could this impact how I play, practice, or interact with others?

For me it starts with the awareness that the opportunities I have to be a musician start out as a privilege. Not everyone has these opportunities nor does everyone want them. I have been fortunate to have the opportunities, the time, (hopefully) the talent to do something wonderful like making music. It does not make me any more special than anyone else. It is simply what I have been given and worked at developing.

The key to that is to then remember that when I face someone who may have different skills or interests than I do. It means accepting the musician who is better than I am- and supporting the one who is not as good as I am. It puts me in the better position of having to prove anything- or disprove anything. I can simply be the player- and person I am.

It also means that I am also being given the privilege from time to time to give others of what I have been given. Through my music in the different groups I play with, I am giving to those listening and to those who play in the group with me, a piece of myself. If I believe that music is as important as I say it is, it is humbling to be able to share in whatever ways possible with others. The opportunities are endless.

But I am also privileged to receive from my co-musicians as we make the music together. It is all a give and take. When I live as if all I have is a privilege, I can make a difference in my own life as well as the lives of others.

Like everything else, and as I always seem to be saying-

that's a lot like life.

8. Efficiency and Planning Practice

Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.

― Plato, The Republic

 
Let me start with a confession… Sometimes we write about things that we aren’t doing in order to make ourselves research and then, if the stars align correctly and the rivers don’t flood, we may actually try what we are talking about.  In other words, I am, not good at this week’s topic:

Efficiency and planning in practice.

I never have been. I don’t believe I am alone. Most of us play instruments because we want to play music. Long tones, then playing scales or chromatics and endless lip slurs begins to sound boring. At best. So we collect song books, method books, lesson books, etudes, etc. in the vain hope that the more we have to choose from the more likely we will be to actually play them.

Sure we have Arban’s, Clarke AND Schlossberg. We may even have tried to put together some routine out of them. We are good for a while and then get sidetracked by any one of a number of things.

At Trumpet Camp in August we all received a handout that had the start of a decent daily routine. I added some Arban’s and Schlossberg to is and soon was in the groove of regular practice. With the exception of a period in September when circumstances were beyond my control, I have been doing quite well.

The result is as expected. My range, tone, style, technique, and endurance have almost skyrocketed. But the efficiency is beginning to wane. I am now finding myself being distracted as I am playing long tones or missing fingering on chromatics that we all have played for years.

In other words, I may be playing my trumpet, but I am not practicing as efficiently as I did in mid-August. Some days I do slurs, other days sight-reading. One day I will work through scale exercises and the next play rhythm challenges. Am I getting better? Sure. My embouchure is improving and my tone is the best it’s probably ever been. But I’m just kind of wandering around the practice. I am only now beginning to ask, “What is it I need to be working on?”

So I went surfing and Googling on the Web to see what’s out there. Let me start with a list from Wynton. (Do I need to give his last name?)

THE WYNTON MARSALIS 12 RULES OF EFFECTIVE PRACTICE:

1. Seek out the best private instruction you can afford.

2. Write/work out a regular practice schedule.

3. Set realistic goals.

4. Concentrate when practicing

5. Relax and practice slowly

6. Practice what you can't play. - (The hard parts.)

7. Always play with maximum expression.

8. Don't be too hard on yourself.

9. Don't show off.

10. Think for yourself. - (Don't rely on methods.)

11. Be optimistic. - "Music washes away the dust of everyday life."

12. Look for connections between your music and other things.

-Link

What then, to look at the top of Wynton’s list, should go on my list? What should my schedule look like? What do I need to develop?

Here’s a place to start on schedule and planning as found on The Trumpet Studio:

What is Skill Building?

Begin working on a particular skill (tonguing, scales, range) in simple, attainable steps, then increasing the difficulty SLIGHTLY. Practicing that level for many repetitions UNTIL MASTERED, then increasing the difficulty. It may take hours, days or weeks to MASTER a particular level. Mastery is obtained when you can play a particular passage or selection 10-15 times at the given metronome marking with no mistakes.

-Link

It is clear that this doesn’t happen overnight. On the Trumpet Studio the plan to move from single to double-tounguing mastery can probably take up to 6 months moving across all the scales. That picks up on Wynton’s #5- practice slowly, which can also expand into "Practice patiently."

What are my realistic goals? What are the essentials of becoming a more efficient and capable trumpet player? I need to look at what I can already do and see where the growth needs to happen. A year ago I decided to work hard at sight-reading, one of my poorer skills. I got the Getchell 2nd Book of Practical Studies and just started working through it. (No, I wasn’t very organized at it. I just kept playing the next exercise until I reached the end.) Did it work? Yep. Could it have worked better if I hadn’t been impatient? Yep. Am I happy with where it took me? Yep. Could I continue to do better? You bet.

But that “better” will be more than just sight-reading. It will be in technique as I learn to play the dynamics and tone of the song. But the days I work too much on that, I don’t do scales or slurs. There’s always a trade-off. That brings me back to the scheduling and deciding what my goals are to be. Which takes me to #1 on the list- an instructor/teacher. Yes, I have had them. But I have not been able to use them as effectively as possible.

See how it gets complicated and how someone like me who is not Mr. Organization can get turned off to practicing and end up getting nowhere?

Let me challenge you and me, then, to begin to make a list of the goals we want to achieve in the next few months. Let’s talk to our instructors about ways to move forward. Agree to a schedule but don’t be so rigid that you get angry if you miss it by a day or even hour.

This is supposed to be fun.

And make sure you take time to play music. After all, that’s why we practice.

Which, as I have said before, is a lot like life. And as ever, more to come as these continue to develop.

7. Bloom Where (and Who) You Are

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Blow your life through your horn.

Arturo Sandoval

One could ask, who else's life could you blow through the horn? Well, sadly, many times we try to be something or someone we are not. We can have role models, but we can't be them. We can wish for other times or places, but we only have what we have in front of us. Here's my "back story" for this post.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost 50 years ago I attended my first professional, big-time concert. It was August 1966 and I had just graduated from high school. I had been playing trumpet for almost four years, had achieved first chair status the previous year, and played in a local "garage band" that covered Tijuana Brass music.

That first concert I ever went to was at the Allentown Fair in Allentown, PA, and featured my hero- Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. (Sergio Mendez and Brazil '66 opened for them with their lead singer, Lani Hall.) I was in heaven.

A few months later the TJB came out with their seventh album, S.R.O. and there, on the back was a picture taken at that concert!

Jump ahead by these past 49 years and 2 months. That 18-year old trumpeter (me) is now a 67-year old trumpeter, probably better than I ever was. The trumpet player on-stage is now an 80-year old trumpet player with a new album just released and in the middle of a concert tour.

Both of us are still playing, Lani Hall, now his wife, is still singing... and I had the pleasure and exciting honor of attending their concert and meeting him two weeks ago at Rochester's Riverside Live! Concert series.

Herb Alpert is also better than ever.

While this is not a review of the show, I will say that it was amazing and far more than would be expected. His ability at the trumpet is outstanding and his sense of music-making is better than ever. He plays jazz in a number of different styles, engages the audience in questions and answers, and is having a great time. He is doing this, I am sure, because he likes it. Music is his life and he needs to share it, on-stage, with others. He doesn't need to do this- he likes doing it.

That's part of the "who" of Herb Alpert. He tips his hat to the music that made him famous with a medley of TJB music, but that's not the highlight of the show. The Tijuana Brass is who he WAS. Many other artists would capitalize on that old music. Alpert is not interested in that. He wants to entertain with who he IS.

He capitalizes on his skill and the ability to do what he does with style and professionalism. He is not a "screaming" trumpet player. He takes the horn and makes the music that he knows he can make with presence and quality. Within that he uses all the notes of the horn in his solid range. At age 80 he utilizes the wisdom he has acquired over decades of making music to enhance his style and move it forward.

Within the solid range of the trumpet he advances the music as both confident soloist and self-assured leader of the quartet. He plays standards then improvises and innovates. He trades fours with the drummer who moves into an extended solo that Alpert returns to as it falls into place.

That is the "where" of Herb Alpert- the here and now. Someone from the audience asked him who he wished he had played with and he commented that he had the opportunity to play with Miles Davis. But he added that he didn't feel it was right. That wasn't who he was. (I would disagree, but then I am a fan of both of them.)

One can listen to Maynard Ferguson and try to be a "screamer." But without the skill and "chops," doing that will become a disaster. One can try to continually repeat what used to be. That, too, wouldn't work.

Being real- being oneself- is what life is really all about. It shows up on the trumpet, but it also shows up at home in our families and at work with colleagues as well as in whatever we try to do on a daily basis. If I try to be someone I cannot be- or someone I once was- it will not be real.

Who am I?

Where am I in my life's growth?

How can I use my here and now skills and resources to keep moving forward into whatever comes next?

Answer those questions- every day. Seek to build on where you were yesterday, moving into where you want to be tomorrow, by doing what you can do today!

I sat in humility watching and listening to Alpert, but he also encouraged me by still doing what he does better than ever.

We do not stop innovating because we have gotten older.  We do not stop improving what we can do because we don't have the same skills as someone else. We can each find our place regardless of age, skill, or time.

If we are young, take heart that you haven't reach the pinnacle of what you can be. Keep at it. What does Herb Alpert do when he is not on a concert tour or on days he performs? He does scales. The simple, basic building blogs of all that we do. Scales. (I am sure he does a lot of other things, too, but he builds that on the basics.)

So, Herb Alpert, thank you for growing and still performing, clearly enjoying life and taking time to greet me and remind me what life is all about.

6. Hear the Inner Music

Music is the language of the spirit.

It opens the secret of life bringing peace,

abolishing strife.

― Kahlil Gibran

More than once on this blog you will find me writing about the "Inner Game." This is based originally on the work of Timothy Gallwey's 1972 classic, The Inner Game of Tennis.

Where I want to start in this post is to talk about what is there, inside, where we do the work of the Inner Game. What we find there, I am convinced is the soul, the spirit, that we all have in common but which is expressed in unique ways in each of us. In the midst of that spirit is music, the language of the soul. A large part of what a musician does is get in touch with that inner language and then use the tools of the Inner Game to move that language outward.

We can easily lose this when we think about the music too much. If we try to read it, analyze it, dissect it as if it were a science experiment, we won't hear the music.

When we begin music it is like learning any language. Whether it was as infants picking up our native tongue or learning a second- or third-language as we got older, we start first with listening and then the basics of the language- notes, time, etc.

Surprisingly (or not) with the language of music it is actually a short jump from "This is a note." to "This is a measure." and on to phrases, songs, and beyond. I watched an instructor take a complete non-trumpet player from nothing to playing a simple song in less than 30 minutes. That included learning how to make the sound.

I'm not going into detail on that at this time, but it was fun to watch. The volunteer was doing this in front of a room full of trumpet players and was somewhat nervous. But in the end it worked. And we all learned something.

One of the things that I think makes this happen is simply that there is music within us. Our minds, bodies, spirits all respond to music in one way or another. We have an inner rhythm (our heartbeat, for instance) and an awareness of the music around us.

The fact is that at any level of playing music, we have to, in one way or another, hear the inner music. With some songs it is easier than others. There is a hook, or phrase that gets our attention. A local composer has written a few marches for our community band. One run through and I found myself humming the tune. I don't know what it is, but he has a way to connect with my inner music, and I guess the inner music of others.

Then as you work on a musical piece you can be freed to move within the music and no longer be an observer of it. That's the part of the inner music- singing it to yourself, reading it as music, not notes on a staff. The desire to "figure it out" through logic or tricks doesn't allow the music to flow.

We aren't used to learning music through the inner music. Brandyn said to me:

If you think about the next passage instead of just hearing it you'll create obstacles and that's bad. Just keeping that mindset of singing everything and letting go of everything else is by far the hardest thing and most unfamiliar thing for me to work on.

But when we learn how to do it, it will amaze us. The music we will be able to make will increase drastically each time.

That is where we will look in later periodic posts at the inner game of music. How do we free up this inner music? How does part of us (called Self 1) keep us from doing it and how can we free Self 2 to allow it to happen? It works in all of our lives. The result is musical.

5. Watching with Wow!- and Insight

Last week I talked about the  "Wow!" factor and how it is  important not to fall prey to it in the sense of being overwhelmed and not getting intimidated by the music (or other things.)  Well, this past week I came across a trumpet quintet video that blew me away. My first reaction was "Wow!" But as I kept watching I allowed the music to move me and my understanding to flow from it.

Here's the video. Take 7 1/2 minutes if you like to watch and then read on.

Oklahoma State (Division Winner) perform Toccata and Fugue in ...
Oklahoma State University win the Getzen Trumpet Small Trumpet Ensemble Division with “Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Bach)” at the 2015 National Trumpet Competition.Video - Michael Cano
Posted by Auckland City Brass Band on Thursday, September 24, 2015

My first thoughts- any brass group doing a decent job on a Bach transcription deserves the "Wow!" The music of J S Bach is always spectacular and moving. Bach touches so many sides of the human experience that one must allow the music to live on its own. Math and magic and amazingly well-constructed phrases make Bach untouchable. His "Toccata and Fugue" ranks among his greatest works. The toccata shows the "improvisational" touch and the fugue the polyphonic structures. Originally written for organ, a brass transcription has to take certain liberties. Any group wanting to perform it has to know the music and their place in it.

So what was it about this group that caught my attention and my "Wow!"

First, they just start out with such confidence. The opening phrase sings and in so doing lifted me up into the music from the word go. "Now that we have your attention...."

That took poise and confidence. So second I was aware that this group was comfortable with itself and its musicianship. They are performing at a competition, so they have worked hard to get to this point, but they don't appear in the least bit nervous. They are there and want you to listen to them. They like what they are about to do- and they want you to enjoy it, too. They also trust each other that the other people will do what they are supposed to do.

As they play, I noticed, third, that they are aware of each other no matter what is going on. Even when the one moves around to the opposite end the whole group is involved. Their body language throughout let me know that they were playing as a unit. More than a team, the unit moves together with all parts moving smoothly.

Fourth, and I know this may be part of watching on a computer monitor, at times it is difficult to separate which player is playing at any given time. That is part of the movement I mentioned above. But it goes beyond that into the smooth transitions from each musical phrase to the next. The handing-off of the melody is seamless.

 Next, fifth, when they are having to move around, change instruments, adjust the tuning, they do so with class. Part of that is the awareness of each other, but it is also, I think, that they are aware that even when they are not playing, what they do is part of the music. That is an often overlooked aspect of a public performance. Yes, people are there to listen to the music, but the performers can do things onstage that detract from that. These musicians are very aware of that and work very clearly to keep it to a minimum.

Everything else falls into place for me as I notice these aspects. It allows me to revel in the wonderful sound they present, the fine technique that is always evident, the deep knowledge of the music itself since they are not using music.  The entertainment value of the music is enhanced. The success of the group is in their relationship with each other and the music.

Instead of just going "Wow!" I found some things for myself, none of which is profound in and of itself. We all know about working together with others as "teams" and "units." We are all aware that we need to be sensitive to those around us and their part in what we are doing together. We agree that if we do not feel comfortable or competent with what we are doing, we will not succeed.

I may never play the Toccata and Fugue in a trumpet or brass quintet, but the inspiration of this performance will have an impact on what I do play- and beyond that- to how I interact with people every day.

4. Wow!- or Not: A Musician's Mind

Music is the shorthand of emotion.

― Leo Tolstoy

Like most of us I have been “Wowed!” by a performance, event, situation. I will sit there with mouth agape wondering how in the world they did that?

In doing some surfing on the Internet I discovered that there is a whole understanding of “Wow!” as something to aim for. Two headers on a Google search said:

• Good Customer Service is Over -- WOW Your Customers
• Ways To Stop Satisfying Customers And Start Wowing Them

I even found a book for choral musicians

• The Wow Factor: How to Create It, Inspire It & Achieve It: A Comprehensive Guide for Performers by Steve Zegree

The Urban Dictionary defines the “wow factor”:

• A set of properties belonging to an object that pleasantly surprise a watcher.

And the Cambridge dictionary says:

• a quality or feature of something that makes people feel great excitement or admiration:

Pleasant surprise, excitement and admiration. Yep.

As a musician such a moment can be inspirational to me- or send me to give up on even trying. My favorite joke when listening to such a trumpet performance is simply, They didn’t put those notes into my trumpet.

Which of course isn’t true.

But being "Wowed!" by a performance may actually work against us as musicians. It can get in the way of experiencing the music on a deeper level. When we feel "Wow!" we move away from the music itself and fall into our emotional response. Not a bad thing, of course, as I will talk about in a little bit, but at that moment we end up becoming lost in our response and ignoring what is happening in the music itself that is making us feel this way.

I don't mean that we should sit in detached disinterest and listen to the music as if it were some class assignment. Nor do I mean that we should sit and analyze every moment of music that we hear to see what it is doing.

Rather I see the need to catch the "Wow!" and let it be real, not an overwhelming of our emotions by the music, but having the music flow through us in a way that we can feel and touch its meanings and movements.

The emotional response I mentioned is not something to be avoided or to fall 150% into. Rather it is a cue- a trigger- that says to me, when it happens, that there is something exciting and important happening here in this music. It is moving me; it is making my inner self sit up and pay attention; it is grabbing hold of me.

• What is happening? 
• What's going on here? 
• Why is it touching me in this way?

Another word to describe this is one I feel is an essential to daily life: Mindfulness.

When the "Wow!" happens it is calling me to mindfulness. It is calling me to pay attention to what is happening in my life at this very moment through this music.

I remember a Wynton Marsalis concert I attended 25 years or so ago. I no longer remember the piece he played, but I remember a moment when he finished off a solo in the most incredibly moving way. As it ended and I exhaled with a quiet "Huh!" I heard someone else in the audience do the same thing just before the applause started. I figured it was another trumpet player who understood the feeling of that solo.

I didn't analyze it, I let it happen and gave thanks for the moment. It was not a "Wow!" as much as it was a moment of awareness. I felt myself as real IN the moment as Wynton's notes touched me. When we get stuck in the "Wow!" we can lose that mindful awareness.

To grow as a musician I need to listen to the kind of performances that might contain the "Wow!" but I cannot be overcome by them. I have to learn to live in them and them to live in me. I can then learn to find that same mindfulness as I play my music. It's just being present. And experiencing it.

Which is what mindfulness is daily life is all about. When we are willing to be open to what is going on around us and acknowledge its power, we are not being "Wowed!" We are rather, living in the possibilities of the moment.

3. About Trumpets

"Ah, the trumpet.

Now there's an instrument on which one

can truly embarrass himself!"

(G. Keillor to G. Bordner)

A trumpet is a musical instrument. It has the highest register in the brass family. As a signaling device, trumpets have a very long history, dating back to at least 1500 BC; they have been used as musical instruments since the 15th century. They are played by blowing air through almost-closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the instrument. Since the late 15th century they have primarily been constructed of brass tubing, usually bent twice into a rounded oblong shape.
-Wikipedia

What is so special about the trumpet?
First- it is often the lead, giving the melody a good ride, soaring over the other instruments. Yet, it is not the only lead. Others can and do take the lead parts that give new insight and direction to the music.

Second- it is easily learned, but is deceptive in its difficulties. To maintain one’s skill at trumpet, one must be willing to work, regularly. Too much time off and you notice the problem. Again, other instruments are in the same boat, but because the trumpet stands out so easily and carries so far it can be downright embarrassing when you are not at your best.

I was sold on the trumpet with three individuals who I will no doubt talk about more over the months. I am not even sure any more who I heard first. The three settled my mind on the trumpet and no one could keep me from it. Louis Armstrong, Al Hirt, and Herb Alpert set me on this road. When the Saints Go Marching In, Java, and The Lonely Bull/Tijuana Taxi were the songs that allowed the trumpet to shine.

Many others have come along and had a great influence, but these three set the tone for me. But I also learned that the trumpet has a great part in classical music as much as it does in jazz. Sousa marches added another dimension.

Some might say that the trumpet is only interesting to those who like to stand out, be obvious, overpower others. While there may be a (very, very) small kernel of truth in that, the place of the trumpet allowed me to express myself in ways that my uncertain shyness never allowed me to. What a joy.

Of course the trumpet isn’t the only instrument in the world that can do this, in spite of what most trumpet players might have you believe. For me, with the trumpet, depending on the part you are playing, the trumpet can have all kinds of different ways to express itself- the lead in first trumpet, a nice counter-melody in third, wonderful harmony in second, sometimes doubling the passage with other instruments, sometimes being there on your own.

Sadly, in many bands, even community bands, it is often the practice to use the stronger trumpets on first and the weakest on third. This can happen because, naturally, the weaker ones cannot play the first parts. But I have found that a section of trumpets where all can play any of the parts, makes for a strong sound from the trumpets. Plus, having accomplished players playing with the weaker ones on 2nd or 3rd, helps the weaker ones grow and develop.

There are no secondary or inferior parts. We only make them that way by our attitude. As the great trumpeter and composer W. C. Handy said in the quote at the top of this post- that’s a lot like life itself. The trumpet does not play itself. One does not become proficient at anything, including trumpet, without putting work into it.

Nor does it mean that because one does not have all the incredible talents of the “stars” that one is inferior as a human being. I will never be Louis Armstrong or Maynard Ferguson, but I can be the best I can be. In my life, as an old Jewish story goes, God will not ask me why I wasn’t Moses or Abraham or any other great and talented individual. God will just ask me why I didn’t do the best I could with what I have and who I am.

2. The Mind of a Child

The greatest invention in the world is

the mind of a child.

-Thomas Edison

Watch a child discover something new. They will explore every bit of it. They will turn it over, touch it, play with it, even put it in their mouth if we let them. Watch a child watching and you will see wonder expressed. Watch a child thinking and you will see wheels turning that we have long forgotten in our rush to adulthood. Life is always challenging, wonderful, strange, new, scary, hopeful, eternal.

Watch a musician learning a new song, attacking a difficult passage, playing a solo and nailing it. You will often see that same wonder being expressed. That sound, that passage, that solo has never been played like that before- and the musician knows it. To come to the music- and life in that way allows for the possibilities and surprises that result in awe and joy.

Just like kids.

I posed the question of having the mind of a child to the group from the Trumpet Workshop. (I hope to keep this going as a way of adding broader insights to the posts.)

Brandyn described it to me:

Kids don't think they just do. When I play and sound my best I'm not thinking about anything except the music. I literally just sing it in my head at times and it’s amazing. Just gotta keep the mind of a child and go for the music!

Cody said:

that when "Having the Mind of a Child" you don't let your ego interfere with the learning process. For example, in "The Inner Game of Tennis", Timothy Gallwey uses the example of the when a child learns to walk. When they fall, they don't get down on themselves.

It's a shame that we lose the mind of a child when we grow up. Not that we should continue to be immature or illogical, but that we should be ready and willing to let the creative juices of childhood flow. We should be ready and willing to kick back and let the moment happen.

Sometimes the best answer is the simplest that doesn't take a lot of complex interpretations. Sometimes it is just letting our lives become the lives they already are and not worry about what that might look like.

It is in the trying that we achieve our first successes and not judging the goodness or badness of what we have done. Like Cody said- keep the ego out of it. It works when learning to play music. It works when learning to live life.

If it works, why stop?

1. Introduction

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - 

it's really a stupid thing to want to do.” 

― Elvis Costello 

So why do this? I’ll start back in June when I first went to a Shell Lake Arts Center Workshop on Big Bands. I was inspired and motivated. I have been a trumpet player since 1961 to greater and lesser degrees, but always still playing. As part of the workshop we had a Master Class for the trumpets. Bob Baca, the leader, did one small thing on playing trumpet. I was blown away. My playing changed almost immediately.

That’s part one.

Part two was the first week of August when I went back to Shell Lake for the Trumpet Camp Workshop. Unlike the Big Band weekend, this was for all ages, although most were high school and first year college students. This was even more exciting and motivating, led also by Bob Baca and a faculty of diverse trumpet players. They were a class act that saw trumpet playing as more than just the techniques, but included the motivational, psychological, and social insights about success.

Again, I was challenged and blown away. This time my embouchure (lip) was in good shape and I was able to play longer and in better tone than in June. I also discovered again the real joy of being in a place where music ruled. One of the other “adult” students commented that it was great to be around a large group of “trumpet nerds.”

The faculty gave us lessons, challenges, and opportunities to play. The showed us how to practice and shared their many stories and experiences with us. On the last morning we all sat in the rehearsal hall and were asked to share what we remembered from the week. Since most of us only remember things for about three days without reinforcement, this was an important part of the “taking it home” process. Most of what was remembered were the ideas and thoughts that motivated us.

As I took notes I thought, “This would make a great blog series!” Next I decided that it needed more than just my usual Wanderings of a PostModern Pilgrim blog. It needed a blog of its own, even if I cross-post on both. Since much of what we learned and experienced is more than applicable to the ways we live each day I knew that it would also be a reflection on how music and our experiences at the workshop made a difference in the rest of the year. So why not do a weekly post that keeps the ideas and motivation going for the 48 weeks left until the next camp?

Which brings me to the title: The Tuning Slide. On a trumpet, that’s the curved “C”-shaped tube at the opposite end of the lead pipe from the mouthpiece. (To the right in the trumpet above.) The slide is to be used to bring the trumpet into tune with the other instruments.

When you are in tune

• The music flows much more smoothly. 
• You tend to get into sync with the other musicians. 
• You don’t get as tired while playing since you are not constantly trying to “lip” the notes into tune. 

In short, the tuning slide keeps us moving more smoothly in the right direction. That is what I hope comes from this blog and these blog posts- ways that even non-trumpet players and non-musicians can discover how to keep life more "in tune."

Each Wednesday I will post on an idea from the camp, share some thoughts about it, apply it to life, all inspired with some quotes about music and life from both musicians and non-musicians.

I may post other ideas, videos,resources and the like on other days of the week, but the main post will be on Wednesday.

So join with me and the faculty and students from the trumpet camp of August 2015. There are some neat things to share and hopefully you will find yourself staying in tune to yourself and others around you.

Trumpets at Shell Lake