One week down. Seven days in. I am feeling good. I started my second round of #nerdlution last Saturday: 50 days of playing trumpet. Here’s how the week went and where I’m at today…
I already feel and hear a difference and it is good. Not a surprise, but it’s great getting my tone back, working on my range, and getting fluidity back in my fingers. On and off I struggled with how much is too much or too little. I had to sort out old ways of thinking that have hindered me in the past, with the old ways that are just tried and true methods for building chops and musicality. One thing I focused on this week was just having fun with it and playing/practicing what I wanted to verses what I thought I should. An unexpected (but really cool) outcome of this was collaborating on some horn parts for a song that my friend Kevin in MA wrote. It not only got me playing the horn, but tapped into some rusty music writing and got me messing around with Garageband and recording a little. I’m not set up at all for recording, but I didn’t let that stop me and I didn’t use it as an excuse.
In just seven days I’ve made a lot of progress towards getting back to where I know I can be on the trumpet, but more importantly, I’ve started forming a new relationship with making music. In my new relationship there are fewer expectations, more acceptance, and a lot more fun. I think I like where this is headed and I’ll be checking back in on and off throughout this 50-day journey.