Laramie

Hi, My name is Larry (born Laramie) Arslanian and I'm happy to have discovered this site especially at this particular point in time. You see I used to be a trumpet player and for a period of my life there it was the greatest thing in the world to me. I picked up the horn in 2nd grade (ok, you all are giving ages so that was 1962 - yeah I just turned 50) and before the school year was over I was first chair. My teacher called my parents and told them I had to have a private teacher and he knew just the man but he wasn't taking students, however he would personally call him to see if he would make an exception. Well, he got him to agree to come out and hear me one time and then he'd make up his mind. No charge. That's how I met Otto Kurt Schmeisser who taught me for the next five years until his death.

He was the oldest man I'd ever seen during my short life and he came to my house every week for five years. Ok, he missed one week in the third year because he crashed his car and they took away his license. After that he didnt miss a week and took two busses to get there. He brought me my first Arban's and the paper felt like cloth! It was older than my parents and the tape holding it together was older than me. After three months he told my parents to buy me a trumpet-and not just any trumpet. No, he wanted it to be to his written specifications and only Josef Monke did he trust to do it. Little did I know that I was getting in on the tail end of an era because when my parents bought my brother a trumpet from Monke a couple years later it was no longer made by Josef and it had a serial number on it to boot. I was too young then to realize what he had done for me all because he saw something and wanted( needed?) to develop it." You will play the blue from the sky."

When I was in 5th grade after the band finished, I performed Valse Brilliante for a packed (you know,160 parents) house with a piano accompanying and when I finished the Coda (cadenza? coda? One's at the beginning and one's at the end right? I'm so embarrassed.) I must have "played the blue from the sky" because I was stunned by the applause. They had "never heard a little boy play like that". I'm guessing that here in this forum many of you can relate to similar experiences but at the time I thought I was quite unique. Anyway, I think I went on at length there to honor Mr. Schmeisser, a man who had played in and conducted symphonies on both sides of the Atlantic and had soloed for Royalty, made me something and someone I could never have been without him.

So this has been long enough the rest in short form is that I went on to never see a 2nd trumpet part until University jazz band, had already toured Europe, turned down Interlochen ( one of many mistakes to come) because they wanted me to repeat a year as I was the last? of the January graduating classes in Detroit. Made the college baseball team( the only other thing I loved as much) but couldn't play because it conflicted with jazz band play dates and shortly thereafter quit school in my second year. I played with a few bands after and took short notice gigs but I was no longer on the way up. I was already acquainted with alcohol and became acquainted with quite a bit more.

My life flatlined. I took a decade and a half off so to speak and have been playing catch up ever since. But you never do or can and dreams to float away forever out of reach. I don't mean to be melodramatic or a :downer" here but if you've got something that you can take off with don't throw it aside. the illusion of "I got lots of time" is a lie that's easy to believe when you are young. I last played in front of people seven years ago when my brother called me the night before, needing a trumpet for his Easter service. I told him I hadn't picked up the horn in years but he said he was confident (more like desparate) that i could do it. It never occurred to me that the horn might not be up to it after sitting for years but it never has let me down and a few drops of valve oil later she was ready to take everything i had and I had just enough to make it through. After, my brother said, " You're like The Natural." Was that the thing i needed to get going again? No. Talent is a wonderful thing but it's not he only thing hell, it's not even the most important thing.

If you're young, but old enought to have read through all that and want to be a trumpet player or anything else for that matter, see the lesson in my life. Wisdom is not learning from your mistakes.Any fool can do that. Learning from someone else's mistakes is the high road to success. Lastly, I must admit that I found your site because i was thinking of selling my horn and this came up as part of a Google search. I am unemployed despite returning and completing college and I'm in a financial jam. But I'm not sure I can do that now after writing this. I wasn't going to write an Intro just a want ad. Even during 15 years of drug addiction I didn't sell my horn- everything else but not that. Tomorrow, June 1st, I will be "celebrating" being clean and sober 17 years and it don't seem right that I do that- sell my horn that is- no, not right at all. It took me doing this to see it this way and for those of you that slogged through all this, well, God bless you, that kinda fortitude will take you far. Hey, I just smiled, must be time to go. Take care.

PhatmonB6

Well Written Laramie!!! Also, congratulations on 17 years of good clean sober living....Oh yhea welcome to the TM Lots of good people here!!


Lara, time to preheat that oven. Laramie just to let you know Lara (Silverstar) bakes a pan of her special Brownies for all new TM'ers. So grab a glass of Ice cold milk sit back put your feet up and enjoy.

tpter1

Larry- Welcome and thank you for sharing that important lesson. Congratulations on your 17th year!

Solar Bell

Larry,

Welcome to the TrumpetMaster!

Great quote! "Wisdom is not learning from your mistakes. Any fool can do that. Learning from someone else's mistakes is the high road to success."

Enjoy your stay here, from a fellow Detroiter....

-cw-

Eclipsehornplayer

Likewise Larry,

Welcome your among friends...

Hopefully the important lesson you've chose to share will not elude those who need it most..

Manny Laureano

Laramie,

Welcome and thanks for the time it took to share your story. You will always have our best wishes and whatever advice, tips, ideas, and support that a site like this can offer.

What's your favorite kind of stuff to play?

ML

imported_administrator

Glad you made it here Larry. We hope you will stick around

Tootsall

Welcome to TM, Larry (did the other kids ever call you "Wyoming"?). It is great to hear that you are turning things around; "it's never too late", eh?.

I hope you're starting to work on rebuilding the chops; a horn that was built "for you" was meant to be played. "Just do it" as the slogan goes.

gzent

Larry,

That's was a great story. I wish you success in you financial situation and welcome to TM!

Greg

Alex Yates

Thank you for sharing your story with us Larry. Welcome! I am glad you didn't sell your horn.