Thursday, June 02, 2011

Hello there, wonderful world of the internet!

This (currently rather unattractive) place is my domain, my own little corner of the interwebz in which I post my thoughts and experiences.  As you've no doubt gathered, I'm a trumpet player, and actually just got my Bachelor's degree in music, like, last week.  I'd been thinking of starting a blog for a while, and decided that I'd do it once I graduated, which means I'm late already.  Hopefully that doesn't become a trend.

Now, you're probably wondering to yourself, "Self, is this guy worth paying attention to at all, or should I go back to captioning pictures of cats with atrocious grammar?"  And with my recent graduation having happened, I figured I'd give my quick two cents worth on just that, whether I (or any musician) is worth listening to, and about a musician's self-worth in general.

You see, there's this nasty thing I've noticed in the music world, and in my instrument, it's especially apparent (no, it's not how everyone thinks you're an asshole, but that might be the topic of a later post).  As a musician, it seems that you have to be both the most awesome person in the world, and just an average Joe on the side of the road, at the same time.  As in, when confronted with a challenge, then you cannot back down.  When something comes up, you've just gotta be like "I got this" and get it.  If someone asks you "can you play this," the ONLY accepted answer is "hellz yeah."

At the same time, if you're like "Oh dude, I can play the Halsey Stevens Sonata from memory, check this out," then you're automatically branded the official label of "douchebag" (that's a technical term, which in layman's terms means the average trumpet player).  You have to be the most humble person in the room, but at the same time, you have to be the best player in the room.  It's a delicate balance, for sure.  And, as you, my seemingly-still-reading reader will soon find out, should you continue the currently implied trend of reading what it is I say, there's a lot of mannerisms like this that are both essential, and endlessly mocked, about trumpet players.

So, this didn't go QUITE the way I originally intended, but hey, that's the music business, so I guess it might as well be reflected here.  I'm not entirely sure where I want to go with this blog right now.  I'll be chronicling my stories in the world of music (anonymously, of course), my successes and failures, and my general opinion on the scene in both my local city and the national/international (read: North American) music scene.  I might also offer a few educational tips, comments on my opinions of big-name players, and general interest things about music.  A few posts will even be non-music, likely, but I'll keep those to a minimum.

I expect to post about once a week, but I might actually put a few more up for the next week or two, just because I'm involved in a music festival going on in the city, and there are some really interesting things I want to rant about.  So, anyways, those of you that actually care (i.e. anyone who has read this far), feel free to post a comment about what you'd like to see in the future.  This is your Friendly Neighbourhood Trumpet Player, signing off.

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