Psychic link of trumpet - life

[epoustoufle]

Has anyone noticed the peaks and valleys in life correspond with how they are doing on the trumpet? Today I was holding it in my hands after failing yet again at attempting to do some phase and suddenly had the emotion - "you b***ard". Looking at my horn.

20 years of personal ups and downs and YOU are the cause? With current practice and time/effort it feels I'm slowly coming out of the fog. And as the playing gets easier I notice my whole mood is lifting... after years and years.

[zaferis]

Yes, it is a wonderfully torturous device... day to day and moment to moment.

I do believe an effective approach to combating this is a solid daily routine. One that refreshes the memory of good things, touches upon fundamentals of the instrument and music, and promotes and extends your current abilities.

"Playing the trumpet is such a intangible experience. The player is compelled to start from the beginning and build anew each day... It isnt like building a house, where we resume where we left the previous accomplishments. Each new day we must rebuild the foundation of our musical structure." Armando Ghitalla


keep pluggin'
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Freelance Performer/Educator
Adjunct Professor
Bach Trumpet Endorsing Artist
Retired Air Force Bandsman

[gstump]

I used to call my wife on the way home from the theater. She could tell just from the tone of my voice if I had missed a few notes. Then I obsessed over it until the next night when I played a good show. Then life was good again.

I do not think trumpet players hold the franchise on this. If an elite athlete fumbles they often go through the same thing. But they have sports psychologists and coaches who are trained to mitigate negative thoughts.

How many trumpet teachers at music schools teach how to overcome negativity? Mine never did. There are some I am sure but most refuse to discuss ever actually making a mistake.

Good subject.
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Schilke B5
Couesnon Flug (1967)
Funk Brothers Horn Section/Caruso Student

[epoustoufle]

Yep I'm sure the phenomenon is known to all live performers (music, sports, comics, etc.). The thing that I've noticed as someone that has had + years and - years is that there is a strong correlation. No-one tells you this as a 15-16 year old aspirant.

If your embouchure turns out to be a dud after 10 years, you have a mental picture of yourself as talented that completely disagrees with the empirical reality. It's hard to maintain the dissonance!

Just after the "you b*******" thought that I had was something more profound. I need to make this work. My personality and self-worth have (maybe had now that I see it) become attached to playing this instrument well. The claws are in deep and it is a fight to the death. Sounds over the top but this all was plain as day in my mind for a few minutes.

I'm not laughing it off 2 days later. In fact it's grown into other areas. I was hanging onto discipine, drudgery and results = time x effort and not really figuring out the root problems. Analogy: if a plate of food items is placed in front of you, it takes all of 3 seconds to choose what you like. With embouchure I now believe it is the same.

If you can concentrate really deeply (and I did not do this for 20 years) and play G on top of the staff again and again and again - sorry neighbors - you might eventually stumble on the honesty to see (a) that there is pain/excess effort, (b) a way that works better, and (c) you then wonder why the hell you ever deviated from this. It's not natural to do things unpleasant and just keep doing it.

Well sorry this is a bit long - I'll just say I am looking at my career and other life decisions in the same way now. Figure out the best way, what feels best, what leads to the most fun, what is most interesting and do that. Why the hell would you do anything else?

[blbaumgarn]

With 34 years of sobriety in recovery it would be a lazy and "lame ass" excuse to say the instrument drove me to it. Trying to be objective though I see, being many years older that that same obsession that becomes alcoholism is right out of the same book that being an obsessive player is in. It was fine, it was great, it was perfect, oh yea I coulda done that better. The one activity I wasted hours, days, and weeks on. Playing trumpet was meaningful every single time I picked it up
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"There are two sides to a trumpeter's personality,
there is one that lives to lay waste to woodwinds and strings, leaving them lie blue and lifeless along a swath of destruction that is a
trumpeter's fury-then there is the dark side!" Irving Bush

[Nonsense Eliminator]

One of the many, many great things Bill Adam did was emphasize that you -- and everybody else -- have value as a human being, period. I don't think of this quote often enough, but of all the things he said to me, it's one of my favourites: "That's alright. You're okay. Do it again!"
_________________
Richard Sandals
NBO

[BGinNJ]

Yeah, they are inversely related. The rest of my life might be crappy, but trumpet is ok. And sometimes I think the rest of my life would be better if I quit screwing around with the trumpet. If I take more than a day or two off, life is easier, but trumpet is miserable when I pick it up again. My guitar doesn't treat me that way!