Comeback Update

[kozzicomma]

October 30, 2019 marked one year into my comeback. Just thought I'd share my experience over the past year and highlight the things I found to be most or least helpful throughout the year.

For a little background, i never really took a super long time off from the horn, compared to some people I've heard from over the years. I am 43 years old, and I studied trumpet performance in college, then played for several years after school in various groups. Took an engineering job at 23 years old, but continued to play. As my career in engineering was developing, I started to take longer periods of time off from the horn. Finally, my longest time away from the horn was probably around 4 years.

I made the decision to give it my absolute all and go the distance one year ago, October 30, 2018. I started working slowly, but without a teacher at first. My plan was to get at least a little bit in shape and then hook up with a local pro to continue development. At the start of February 2019, i met a great local pro/teacher and realized I should have started off with him! Hindsight's 20/20, but nonetheless, my real development started at the beginning of February 2019.

The first order of business with my teacher was to start working on recovering my core sound. At the time of our first lesson, after three months of working on my own, my sound was not centered and could be described as having "too much air" in the sound. Not enough core. This leads to some very inefficient playing, fatigue, sharpness of pitch in all registers, etc. etc. I believe that it would have taken me a very long time to discover this on my own, i'm ashamed to admit. Not having good teacher was definitely a hinderance at the very least.

I started to develop much faster with the aid of a good teacher (mark having a good teacher as most helpful). The next order of business was regaining range, endurance, and flexibility. I hesitate to say these were "accomplished by", but let's just say that these ARE being accomplished by working on the standard range of pedagological materials, Clarkes, Irons, Arbans, etc. etc. These things, as many know, are lifetime efforts, so my progress on those fronts are well.... still in progress. But for reference, my usable range prior to working with a teacher was limited to around G to A above the staff. After 9 months with a teacher, my usable range is now a D above high C. My endurance prior to the teacher was around 30 minutes before I felt worn out. After 9 months, I feel the same level of fatigue at around 2 hours. HOWEVER there is more to this story, which I will detail next.

One of my biggest problems and struggles is with balancing progress with beating my face up. I tend to beat my face up. When i started working on my own in October of 2018, I used a journal to keep track of how much time I was spending on various material. My method of entry was a notebook and pen. I would simply record the amount of time spent along with short notes, e.g. Clarke #3 88 BPM, F# to C, felt good, felt bad, lips sore, etc. etc. As material was added to my routine this became very tedious. If i didn't have a day job, i may have continued to use this method of entry, but as my time is limited, I began to not use the journal at all. Mark this as least helpful (I should have found another way to document my journey!). Fast forward through the year and I think you would see that my routine had become somewhat disconnected and aimless. I began spending less time on fundamentals than I should have and progress on certain aspects had stagnated, i.e. range, flexibility, etc. However, overall my approach was to work each day until I covered as much material as I thought I needed to cover, and at the end of the day my chops are just absolutely worn out. I was making some progress, but I do not believe that I was making as much progress as I could have been making.

SO, back to journaling and my method of entry is electronic. I am using a timesheet app on Ipad (and i'm open to other suggestions) called TimeTracker. I am using this in conjunction with Evernote. I keep track of my time with TimeTracker and track my progress in sound and personal notes about how I feel with Evernote. I record specific things in Evernote like orchestral excerpts, etudes, improv, etc. I usually don't bother recording long tones, flexibilities or technical studies, although I may find a reason to do so. I'm going to make a strange correlation so bear with me: keeping track of my time in practice is much like using the Weight Watchers system. No matter how much I think i'm sticking to my Weight Watchers points, if I don't track my point usage, i end up going over my points and not following the plan. When I track my time in practice, I stick to a well balanced routine and I make real progress on all fronts, range, endurance, flexibility, sound production, etc. etc. So mark keeping a journal as most helpful.

This has become a long post, so I'll end with these last few remarks. Having a good teacher has been the best thing I could have done for my comeback. In addition, keeping a journal helps to make me stay on track and to make sure that I'm doing what I need to do each day. Sure, there are more disciplined players out there who don't need this, but I feel it helps me tremendously. The biggest take-aways for me over the past year has been to BE PATIENT and to not overdo it and always play with a great core sound. As I said, i tend to beat my face up. Making sure I make progress on all fronts just a little each day and not overdoing it has been incredibly beneficial to my progress. Progress takes time! Aimless practice does nothing but wear my chops out!

[Tenring]

Hey kozzicamma,
I'm 43 and just started back a few months ago when my 12 year old daughter decided take beginner band and chose the trumpet. I only had four years of playing when I was young so I was never very accomplished, but I do think I could have been if I stuck with it. I just got her signed this morning with a local teacher and I hope to get started myself. I hope he is good because he is the only one I have found within an hour drive.

I can totally relate to your journey and 100% agree with your decision to use a journal. I am a somewhat accomplished competitive rifle shooter that has studied several great shooters and the top shooters journal their daily practice to track their progress and discoveries. In competition you cannot think or worry and be positive at the same time. It is not possible for the conscious brain to do that. So performing has to become a habit/routine and practically robotic so the subconscious mind can take over the mechanical aspects so the conscious mind can track changing variables. A routine has to be done and the mind controlled where negative thoughts don't affect performance. Always dump the negative and move on...I can go on and on.... But the point is if you DON'T journal it is very difficult to improve on a consistent basis. Or in other words if a person does journal their performance improvement will surely come faster.

I developed a spreadsheet to track my numbers, but it was no substitute for the actual notes I wrote in my journal. IMO I'd continue as you are but be specific in how and what you journal. Keeping in mind always using positive directional language. You could have four or five or any number of sections per page to take specific notes about. Somewhat like a teachers lesson plan...

Event:
Date:
Duration:
Objective:
What I did today and what I learned:
I am looking for a solution to:
What I did well today:
Goal Statement:

Use it as a "systematic" way to track your performance. Bookmark milestones or significant lessons learned.

It seems like you are well on your way.

I think I'll do it too!

Charles

[kozzicomma]

[Tenring]

And I wish you great success Michael. I'm glad I have something I can enjoy with my daughter. Its been a struggle for her so far, but I think she see's me struggling and that it is OK! It's not what comes easy to us that make us who we are but the difficulties and challenges we overcome. If I can at least teach her that by way of playing the trumpet then at least I accomplished one small thing in life.

Charles

[BGinNJ]

I've had numerous "comebacks" in the last few years, but about 5-6 years ago when I picked up the horn, I made a point that "this time it's going to be different". Prior to that, I'd practice the same stuff, same way, that I'd learned so many years before as a kid and young adult. Predictably, I'd hit the same frustrating plateau of range, endurance, sound.

I found a Skype teacher whose approach made sense to me- didn't take a lot of lessons, but enough that I changed my embouchure and approach. Recently, I've taken a few weeks or even months off, but in a few short days my range is back (like useable high E in a couple of days), though stamina and articulation take longer.

I've long used training logs for physical activities like bicycling, running, but I haven't found that approach helpful with trumpet, aside from occasional written notes. Trumpet is a much subtler fine motor skill, I feel like it finally got easier from learning the right way to play, not muscling my way through .

[mrhappy]

[MiddleStaff]

Congrats on your progress and thanks for posting what worked for you. A good teacher, patience, and tracking your progress. Great formula for success. Godspeed.
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1972 Bach Strad model 180 with #37 bell
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