BFlinch83

Thanks for your responses! The comments about chicks and trpters...yep.

Ed, I started playing the trumpet because of Maynard and Doc! Those guys were huge in my listening when I was younger. I started playing along with orchestral pieces in high school, so I could learn the piece and the trpt part at the same time. I bought a bunch of scores and would study them too.

Lately, through the whole audition process, I sometimes wonder what I'm doing. Auditioning really takes the fun out of the music that used to be there all the time.

This week I'm playing La Mer and getting the inspiration back again, but how do you keep up the "Burn" as Dave Taylor wrote? What would you do if you wanted to be hit along side the head and knocked back onto track?

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"I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener." ~AP

robertwhite

I think it's normal for a guy your age (I assume you're rather young) to get bummed out about auditions. They suck. However, not doing as well as you wanted in an audition doesn't really mean anything about your playing or who you are. It took me over 25 auditions to win a job. I didn't even advance at the majority of those. There's no shame in it. In the meantime, I learned to play in a recording studio, sub with lots of orchestras, do contracting (musical not construction), gave recitals, wrote a dissertation (that's almost finished!), and practiced a lot. One day, I was lucky enough to win an audition.

There's so much babble about who made the finals here or there and who won and how old they are, etc. - it's all bull$hit. Just keep at it for as long as you feel like. Be honest but gentle with yourself as you continue to practice and improve. Sounds to me like you're in a pretty good place for freelancing and so forth. Enjoy it!

BFlinch83

Hi Bob,
Yep, I'm 23...it's hard to look at the situation objectively when guys like Muckey are out there, but I know that's definitly an exception to the norm!
Thanks for the message. I am the guy that you talked to about the Ricco Kuhn rotary years ago. Did you ever get one?
Brent

__________________
"I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener." ~AP

camelbrass

Most professions have similar frustrations although music does seem to be more a labour of love than most.

Talent coupled with hard work, persistency and sheer bloody-mindedness rarely fails to succeed. You'll make it.

Enjoy the ride!!


Regards,


Trevor

mahaberio

Every artist goes through varying levels of frustration and for most of them it's because they have to pay their dues. In your case it seems as though you want to be an orchestral trumpet player. GREAT! Unfortunately you have to go through the crappy audition process to get there and, more than likely, you'll have to through it many, many times. Keep the La Mer performance as inspiration. Re-affirm that this is what you want to be doing, then do what it takes to get there.

Back to your original question, I play music for a lot of reasons. Sometimes I will play music for music's sake. I'll hear a piece or learn of a piece that sparks something in me and in turn I'll want to communicate that with others by performing it, as well as experience the piece from the performer's perspective. Sometimes music is a way for me to express how I'm feeling. Whenever I see or hear something beautiful or moving it inspires me to play music. This is the way I express myself. My personal frustration being in school is that I don't always get to play music that moves me and I probably never will be in a situation where I get to pick what I play 100% of the time.

FreshBrewed

I must have asked myself those two questions a million times over the last 12 years while in the military band system. We were always being torn in 10 directions at once and none of them was in the direction of music. For a while it seemed like the only time I picked up my horn was to play Taps. Not that I minded. Honoring fallen comrades is an honor in itself. IMHO, trumpet players in military bands do more gigs and make more sacrifices in their personal life than any other military musician.

After I was discharged, I contemplated leaving music altogether. After about a month, I picked the horn back up and knew immediately that I couldn't ever put it back down again. Call it "missing that certain something in my life, filling the void, hanging on to the past, whatever........" Someone else here said it was a passion. Maybe it's love. I don't have the first clue what it is and I don't care. All I know is that my life is better off when I am playing my horn. Whether it be in a band or using my trumpet to teach my 2 year old children's songs.

__________________
Mike
Eclipse MHY Bell
1949 Olds Ambassador

Listening has nothing to do with moving your mouth!

ecarroll

Brent,

I ask because I believe that our original motivation was probably our most sincere.

I'm a musician because art still moves me the same way it did when I first heard, with tears streaming down my face, the last movement of Mahler's Ninth when I was a teenager, thrilled me enough to jump up and down on my bed to Andre's recording of the Second Brandenburg as a kid at Interlochen, and riveted me once again last summer listening to Markus Stockhausen compose and perform in real time. I can close my eyes today and re-live hundred of scores and countless performances. Each has left a lasting mark on my soul and my goose bumps are very real.

I'm a teacher because nothing thrills me more today than to introduce the music of Strauss, Prokofiev, and Berio to young and unsuspecting ears and witnessing their first performances. This is magic to me.

Lastly, I'm a trumpeter because it feels so good to soar. We've all experienced this, each and every one of us at TM.

I haven't had the pleasure of hearing you play yet but, judging by your accomplishments, I know that you're a hell of a player. Set aside the mundane reasons that you're frustrated for an afternoon and try to remember/re-connect to the joy of original creation (and please stop playing those silly excerpts over and over. You've got them, man). Music is about art and art changes people. Keep making art and the jobs will come. Trust me.

Best,
EC (who also enjoys torturing violists and other simple pleasures)

BFlinch83

Hi Ed,

As always I enjoyed your post (sitting here with some coffee, delayed from rehearsal due to ice and snow). Last night I pulled out some Glenn Gould Bach recordings, and that really started to do the trick. I know what you're saying about the moments in music that move us and remind us why we love it.

I was playing with New World Symphony last week and heard an amazing young pianist play the Grieg Concerto three times; Orion Weiss (if anyone has the chance to hear him play the Ravel Piano Concerto in B'more in April, do it!) was unreal! His music making moved everyone in the audience. The professional musicians and people who have never heard of Grieg alike were on the edge of their seats. That second movement (and the first and third too) was amazing.

Thanks for your stories, Ed. I really do appreciate your interest and willingness to help!

Brent
P.S. Those excerpts...ugh! I just got the Bach Cello Suites, Goldberg Variations, and Well Tempered Clavier etude books...liberating compared to Mahler 5, Petrouchka, or Don Juan over and over and over and over and ....

__________________
"I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener." ~AP

ecarroll

Brent,

Precisely. Keep in touch with your inner student, discovering music for the first (or second) time, not rehashing for the hundreth. It's why I spend so much time with my students focusing on contemporary music. It's not necessarily that it's better than the Hindemith Sonate, it's that it ISN'T the Hindemith Sonate (again and again).

I'm 53 years old and music still thrills me. . . I promise you that (!)

Best,
EC

Khora

I hope there will always be times we all question why it is we are doing what we do - that is a sign of an active mind.

The secret is to not treat those thoughts as a distraction from what you are doing, but as a motivation for finding new levels and depths of meaning in what you are working on. Stepping back is often the best way to get the big picture in focus.

I think most of us play trumpet for different reasons at different times. Sometimes it is for the challenge, sometimes for the sheer joy in that ability to fill a space with music, or to be able to make someone else feel. As Ed suggested, there is nothing like being able to soar - and there is nothing like being able to grab attention with a whisper.

Best,

Sandy (enjoying a night off duue to icy weather!)

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Sandy

"Conventional Wisdom" should not be applied to unconventional thinking.