This is the 100th post on Trumpet Journey. As part of my Trumpet Happiness project, I’d like to shout out 100 things I’m grateful for. I’m not sure why, but being thankful helps me feel happier. 

I’m grateful today for:

1. A cat that keeps company with me during my 5:00 a.m. warm-ups
2. Parents who encouraged me and loved me
3. Trumpet teachers
   
   

   Michael Johnson, trumpet teacher at the University of Alabama from 1971 to 2003.

4. A teacher who enjoyed playing duets with me
5. A trumpet teacher who knew all about how to play first trumpet in a major symphony orchestra
6. A trumpet teacher who said funny, quotable things
7. Band directors who encouraged me
8. My first orchestra job which opened up a world of strings
9. My first listen to Richard Strauss’s tone poems on a record I checked out from my public library in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I was slack-jawed.
10. A mother who insisted that whatever I did, I had to have lessons
11. A dad who recommended that I do what I love 
12. A brother who let me have his old trumpet
13. Same brother, who taught me how to play my first note
14. Same brother, who taught me how to free buzz (a little incorrectly, but, still, pretty good)
15. A bugle, given to me for a Christmas gift when I was probably 10
16. A shameless inclination to show off when I was young
17. An unquenchable desire to learn music from my very first memories
18. A great piano that I could learn how to play on
19. A grandmother and great aunt who would play piano a lot
20. A trumpet teacher who inspired
21. An inquisitive personality
22. The U.S. Navy Band Brass Quartet
    
    

    U.S. Navy Band Brass Quartet performing National Anthem at Orioles Baseball Game

    
     
23. A great junior high school band director 
24. A great junior high school jazz band
25. A diverse high school marching band
26. Good competition at all levels
27. Mentors
28. A chance to study with two legendary orchestral players
29. A chance to study with a legendary baroque trumpet soloist
30. Two summers at National Repertory Orchestra, which gave me so much experience
31. A long drive to Colorado on my own, on the back roads, where I got a chance to jam with a blue grass fiddler
32. A principal trumpet job
33. The U.S. Navy Band
34. The Navy Band for letting me audition when there wasn’t an audition
35. Listening to the Cleveland Orchestra every weekend
36. The opportunity to study in The Netherlands
37. The nearly four year long honey moon in Europe
38. Galicia, Spain
39. Sitting next to a trumpeter who had perfect pitch
40. All of those thousands of little conversations trumpeters have during rehearsal
41. All of those funny conversations waiting for a hearse to show up
42. The gorgeous beauty of Arlington Cemetery
43. A family who understood my insane practice schedule
44. In-laws who understood my insane practice needs
45. The right woman
46. An intelligent woman–who is willing to proof my writing
47. Poetry
48. Navy medicine
49. Two boys
50. Two boys who challenge me every day 
51. Two boys with big hearts
52. Two boys with big ears
53. Two boys with different personalities
54. A friend who spent his time helping me learn how to play jazz
55. Friends who have listened to me talk about my crazy ideas
56. A terrible gig at the Kennedy Center that turned out to be my first composition commission
57. A music contractor who lived around the corner from me who helped me get my first gigs in Washington
58. The late J. Reilly Lewis
59. Coffee
60. The Navy Band “family”
61. My lovely, old house–big enough for my family, close enough to work
62. A housing bubble that helped me slide right into my house
63. Practice mutes
64. Trumpeters of the past who took the time to write methods, etudes and solos
    
    

    Jean-Baptiste Arban

65. The baroque trumpet
66. The cornetto
67. The cornet (19th-century)
68. The cornopean

    

    Cornopean  

69. Leaving a party just to check out the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble
70. The Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble
71. Long friendships from playing Renaissance music
72. Running when I was young, walking now
73. Learning how to keep track of my finances
74. A friend who has refused to join Facebook, but who sends me emails all the time
75. Ideas that have come to me when I am bored
76. Melodies that have come to me out of the blue
77. A recording device to capture ideas quickly
78. Trumpeters willing to share their time, advice and stories on this blog
79. Double record albums with artwork and information about the music and artists
80. My first record player
    
    

    I loved my first record player.

81. My parents record collection
82. Duolingo
83. Movie music
84. People who have volunteered their time to help me
85. Those hour long lessons which turned into two hours
86. The late night trumpet hangs
87. Suzuki piano accompaniments I got to play
88. Bach. Oh my God, Bach. 
89. Haydn, who deigned to write a concerto for the trumpet
90. Italian trumpeters who redefined the harmonic structure of music because of the limitations of their instruments
91. Jazz trumpeters who redefined the direction of music
92. An old professor who let me send Finale files to him across the country so he could give me advice
93. Invitations to perform which seem to come out of nowhere
94. Young Suzuki students who are just wonderful
95. Patient and resourceful Suzuki teachers I have observed
96. A Swedish woman who decided to start up Suzuki trumpet 
97. A patient and thorough recording engineer
98. A church choir that has taught me a little about singing and the choir experience
99. A singer who was willing to re-text and offer solutions to my untutored vocal writing
100. Readers from all over the world

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