Geez, He Blows!.
I got my first big break playing the cornet with the Springfield Estates Elementary School Band. I spent two years with the ensemble, and the highlight was in the 1983 Spring Concert, when I played "Fiddler on the Roof" all by myself before a packed cafeteria...
From there it was on to bigger and better things - a two-year ride with the Mark Twain Intermediate Wind Ensemble. We played such hits as "Prime-Time Panorama", "Declaration Overture" and "The Ritual," to name a few. That second year I moved from cornet to trumpet, and also got braces. Trumpet-playing and braces are not a winning combination.
In 1985 I decided I had had enough of the Twain Ensemble, and joined up with the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology Symphonic Band (and the Jazz Band, and the Wind Ensemble, and the Pep Band, and even a year in the Marching Band). While I was never the best trumpet player at Jefferson, I became a spiritual leader of the trumpet section, and got to do a real cool solo in Marching Band my senior year. I know, I know, how cool can a marching band solo be? Well, it did get me overrun by 5 varsity cheerleaders at the last home game. And I have the pictures to prove it...
In 1989 it was on to William & Mary, where I spent a year and a half in the band and then quit because I didn't like the new director. I joined up with four other band dropouts and we formed "Polished Brass," the premeir Brass Ensemble on campus. This was really cool - we played lots of really fun stuff, got paid once in awhile, and the other four guys were really good and they didn't seem to mind that I wasn't so good... In 1992, the tuba player graduated, the lead trumpet went to France, and the french horn decided he never wanted to play again, so the ensemble pretty much fell apart.
And that's my trumpet career. I figured I'd never play again. But then one day somebody in Help Wanted suggested I break the horn out and come to a practice and give it a go. I figured it was worth a shot, and after a practice I guess we decided that a trumpet kind of fit, so here I am.
But don't worry - I haven't quit my day job...
Geez, He Blows!.