Lately, I have been feeling a little guilty about not blogging regularly. Of course, this happens to so many blogs. I let Trumpet Journey’s eighth birthday go by last weekend. Not even a “happy birthday” from me, which is a little ironic, since I send birthday wishes to Facebook friends, some of whom I don’t even really know that well!

I haven’t had much time to write, and I have gotten used to not writing. But more debilitating was the feeling that I was becoming irrelevant–that my ideas were not worthy. I have been noticing a rapid increase in great trumpet writing (Jason Dovel for instance), podcasting (The Other Side of the Bell is fantastic) and new video recordings (think of all the great pandemic etude recordings of Jim Wilt, Chris Smith, Andrew Bishop (posted on Facebook), Jack Burt and, of course, Håkan Hardenberger). Nevertheless, I have been experiencing a growing need to communicate more with my friends, students, colleagues and the whole trumpet world.

So, let’s get to it today. I have some advice for myself, as a trumpeter and a blogger, and for other trumpeters out there who might be struggling with a similar block:

Halfway is better than no way. 

This sentence cuts straight against our perfectionist ideas. Here are some examples:

I don’t want to practice if I don’t have the full hour. I don’t want to pick up the baroque trumpet if I don’t have any gigs in the near future on it. I don’t want to practice jazz because I just sound like an amateur. 

Can we forget that way of thinking? Let’s enjoy the trumpet and enjoy where we are. After all, we don’t WORK the trumpet–we PLAY it, right?

We do need to still make plans and follow dreams, of course. We even need to be organized. But we should be flexible in our plans–if we can do just a little of what we set out to do, that can be enough. Absolutely enough.

Oh, and by the way, happy belated birthday, Trumpet Journey!!

 

 

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