Brass report

There’s that old joke, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice, practice, practice.” It really does seem that practicing helps. I’ve still been playing trumpet for five or ten minutes each morning, and I do keep getting a little better and better. The section of Carnival of Venice that sounded blat, blat, blat a month ago is sounding somewhat smooth these days, and the double-tongueing chromatic run is better. Tonight at Klezmer meeting I was playing the baritone at the end of rehearsal on a Chasidic medley. It was feeling as though the horn was the part of my voice outside my body, an extension of me rather than an entirely separate piece of equipment. When I was a kid taking music lessons, nobody ever told me that was what I was striving for. But if any beginning brass players spot this post, guys, that’s the idea. It feels great, sounds great, and it turns into music instead of just the right notes.