Against all odds
In September 2015, I had an idea for a podcast focused exclusively on my longtime friend and nemesis, the trumpet. I had no idea what was going to come of it. I just knew that 1) I was a diehard fan of trumpet and 2) podcasting was something I wanted to do for the long haul, maybe even make it my primary source of income someday.
I was still in the U.S. Army at the time, and my days there were short, so I knew I needed to do something.
The thought of working in some job, and maybe gigging and teaching on the side just didn’t appeal to me. I wanted something more to show for the massive amount of time I had invested into the instrument, not to mention myself honing my skills to play at a somewhat decent level.
So I committed to it. I even thought of a great podcast name for it: Trumpet Dynamics. What makes that great is there are multiple meanings or connotations contained within it. A true double, even triple entendre!
I remember recording my very first interviews while in Seoul, Korea where I was stationed. The very first one was with the trumpet section of the Seoul Philharmonic, and it went fine. The second was with a really sweet Korean girl I played a concert with and remained friends.
Those two were recorded in late November 2015, and I began publishing them in January 2016. I published a new episode once per week for the first year, and then quit the show a few weeks into 2017.
In the intervening time, due to a number of factors, not least of which is a general lack of clarity among the founder which can only be attributed to the “curse of the creative” in which every shiny object imaginable is worth pursuing, the podcast has gone through fits and starts.
But it has somehow survived these starts and stops over the years. To the point that I can release a few episodes here and there, and with absolutely no promotion whatsoever will get a decent number of downloads for each one.
Now I’m no marketing genius, but that means something. Most notably that this is still a niche that can be reached; that there are people out there who are hungry for what the show can offer them.
For my part, I tell just about everyone I meet with whom I’m discussing the show that without it, I would have walked away from trumpet years ago. I just had too much going on, none of which had to do with buzzing my lips into a dang piece of overpriced plumbing. So the show has reached at least one person, that being myself, and for that it has served its purpose.
Anything above that is purely bonus.
So against all odds, the show goes on. I’ve been busy scheduling new interviews, and it’s pretty clear that God, or whatever Bill Nye the Science Guy calls God, wants me to keep doing it – and with far more regularity than I’ve had the last few years 😉
There are some great interviews already recorded on the horizon, and many more I’m sure will follow.
In fact, I just published one this morning with my friend Del Lyren. Del is kind of an unknown quantity in our niche, but sometimes the unknown ones have the most to share. Honestly, the people who get interviewed all the time aren’t as fun to interview as those who never get interviewed. And this one is case in point.
To listen to my conversation with Del, and to get caught up on the latest episodes, go to this link: https://trumpetdynamics.com/lyren