[TPIN] Advise Appreciated - Come back Questions

[Tim Swensen]

  Greg,
   
  Congratulations on coming back to the trumpet!
   
  My advice comes from the perspective of a serious amateur player
  who has no intent to ever make a significant portion of my income
  from playing the trumpet.  I do make some money on gigs,
  but basically it just pays off my horns.  But I do play a lot and
  enjoy the music I make.
   
  I'll make a number of practical tips, but you'll eventually need
  to find what works for you.
   
  1.  Mouthpiece:  This is a personal choice, but I'd at least experiment a
  bit with a smaller mouthpiece if you don't already have _very_ strong chops
  and need to produce a very large sound (like an orchestral player would).
  I'm in decent shape, but I've never had good success handling such a large
  mouthpiece.
   
  2.  Range:  Your range already exceeds mine.  I've tried to expand mine,
  but I've decided that I want to build all aspects of my playing in parallel,
  so I don't focus on any one aspect of technique.  And no matter what I
  play I try to have a great sound.  I wish I had greater range, but sound
  is still king.  And I know the two aren't mutually exclusive, but make sure
  that whatever you do in the pursuit of range still gives you a _great_ sound.
   
  3.  Musical development:  Join a good community band or orchestra,
  as this will give you other players to blend with and really highten your
  sense of good intonation.  It can also be quite fun.
   
  4.  Musical friends:  You'll want to have people in the area that know
  your playing well and can honestly critique it and tell you what is going
  well and what isn't.  There are a number of guys in this area that I can
  talk trumpet with and whose playing I learn from.  Don't underestimate the
  power of good musical relationships, even if there is a little bit of friendly
  competition involved.  [I wonder if I can play this piece better than he does it.....]
   
  5.  Play solos:  The growth that comes from playing in front of audiences,
  whether it be at a community concert or in a church worship service, is hard to
  over estimate.  After you've played the 50th solo at church, nerves don't seem
  to be a problem anymore.
   
  Regards,
  Tim
   
  

Greg Fuess <greg.fuess at gmail.com> wrote:
  I put the horn down about 10 years ago to focus more on work, and only
picked it up again in May of this year. My goal is to be a very good
semi-professional player by January 2009. I guess that means that I want to
be as good as I can be by then, since I won't be quitting my day job in the
foreseeable future. If I could get regular work as a musician, though...
Any guidance and recommendation appreciated.