Trombonist By Choice

I love playing the trombone. For just over sixteen years, I've counted myself among the fine subspecies of humans known as trombonists, and that's one choice I'm more than happy to have made.

Currently, I play with a group called the Mesabi Community Band. The music is quite challenging at times, but it's always fun. Thursday nights have become very special to me as I get to enjoy this great group of people and spend some time behind the mouthpiece of my favorite instrument.

Perhaps I could go on about how the glissando is the best thing to happen to band music or how the more "f"s in a dynamic marking, the better, but I'll spare you that. Maybe I'll just encourage you to pick up a trombone and take some lessons. Maybe you'll learn to love it like I have. Maybe you already have something fun you like to do or play. Maybe we should all focus more on these beneficial, enjoyable things than on all the things that tear us apart.

So what's your instrument of choice? It takes all kinds to make an ensemble. Let's drop our weapons, pick up our instruments, and make a beautiful song in the world again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice Column

There has always been a part of me that wanted to be the author of a newspaper advice column. I heard about them as a kid, and as kids often do, I thought, yeah, I could do that. I didn't realize at the time that someone actually had to want my advice before I could give it, let alone publish it! Even now, I have a desire to give whatever advice I can to those who want it. However, I've often taken the route of offering advice and solutions when they weren't even requested. I can't help but to try to fix things sometimes, especially when, to me, the solution seems so glaringly obvious! But counseling classes, seven years of marriage, and personal experiences otherwise have all taught me that sometimes (OK, most of the time), people just want someone to listen. In today's society, everybody has an opinion on just about everything, and it's not uncommon for someone to give you their opinion, solution, or "expertise," whether or not what they're t
Read more

Text the Lemons

It's interesting how much of a difference there can be between what we hear and what is actually said. My kids, like several million others, thoroughly enjoy the movie "Frozen." When they were already trying to sing the songs after just seeing it once at the theater, it seemed like a good idea for me to buy the soundtrack. They both rarely ever want to listen to anything else, and they have essentially memorized all the lyrics to the singing songs. Right before everyone's favorite Elsa song, my daughter asks me, "Daddy, do you want to hear me sing the next song?" "Of course I do!" I reply. She doesn't need any more encouragement and begins to belt out "Let It Go" as if she were Adele Dazeem herself. I listen in fascination as my four-year-old matches pitches and words perfectly, but then, in the second verse, she changes the words. One line in the song says, "To test the limits and break through!" My daughter, without lackin
Read more

Five For Five

I don't want to write today. It's not that I can't - there are certainly plenty of things that transpired over this past weekend that are blog-worthy, but honestly, my heart can't handle writing a full post about some of them. That being said, I'll continue day five of my challenge with five short thoughts that reflect this past weekend for me. Enjoy. 1. Life and loved ones need to be cherished while we have the capacity to do so. We really never know when the end will come, and sadly, death is no respecter of youth or circumstances. Stop taking life, friends, and family for granted. Love them while you have them. 2. Sometimes a long weekend is all you need for a proper getaway, especially if you have good friends who will bring you into their home and stay up past midnight just to talk for hours and let you unload everything. I am truly blessed to have spent this past weekend with a beautiful family including a couple friends who have really been pillars for my
Read more