Last week, I did a small vacation with my 17-year-old son in Summit County, Colorado. We decided at the last minute to try hiking to the top of Gray’s Peak, a “14-er” (a mountain that is more than 14,000 feet high).

There was one major problem with our plans: the three-mile road leading up to the trail head was too rough for my Prius, so we had to walk this road. In my mind, I thought that three miles wouldn’t be too difficult, but these three miles were mostly at a 5% incline and were starting off at 9,500 ft. in altitude, so they took twice as long as a normal walk (and exhausted us). We didn’t start the actual trail until 10:30. And, unfortunately, we were still a mile away from the summit before we had to turn back–storm clouds were threatening our safety. I think we could have made it to the top if we had started sooner and had a 4-wheel drive that would get us to the trail head.

This scenario reminded me of big trumpet projects. Recitals, major performances, competitions, and auditions all need some amount of competency and preparation. Of course practicing a lot is important, but a trumpeter can only practice so many notes per day. Starting early enough helps tip the scale in your favor. Try to set aside a month or two to really prepare for an audition (even more time for a solo competition).

If you already have prepared in previous lessons the orchestral excerpts that will be asked on an audition, then you have a first layer of preparation. Then it is much easier to spend the month before your audition in polishing the excerpts and working on your mental focus. The same is with solo competitions. You have to already develop some core repertoire before the competitions is announced. Otherwise, you will spend too much time in the initial phases of preparation to be really competitive. Pieces like the Haydn, Hummel, Tomasi, Honegger, Hindemith and Enesco are often required in trumpet competitions.

And remember the advantage to having an SUV to take you to the trail head? Similarly, there are many advantages we can seek out as we prepare for our trumpet “summits.” Lessons with good teachers. Practice buddies can be a real boost. Recording yourself. Good equipment functioning well (do you need to take any trumpets in to be repaired?).

And don’t overlook advantages that are seemingly irrelevant, like your choice of valve oil. Your posture. Clearing up things from your schedule that detract. Or even “clocking” you mouthpiece (yesterday’s post). If we can combine many tiny advantages, then the cumulative impact will be great.