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These emails can be pretty difficult to write. Not necessarily the actual action of writing. I mean, we’re talking 300 words max. That’s how long my discussion board posts were in college, and I could pound them out like it was no one’s business. But sharing things on your mind, personal things, with the intent…

A common objection to getting into podcasting is “there’s just so many of them, so why bother getting into it myself?” I’ve heard that before I got involved with the craft in 2015, and many times since and it has always struck me as a bit of a cop out for not putting in the…

Good morning. I just released a new episode of the Trumpet Dynamics podcast yesterday. Actually, it’s a very old interview that was repurposed into a brand new episode. It featured Denver Dill, who is a very fine trumpeter with the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point. In addition to playing, he also teaches a…

A post from June 2016 showed up on my Facebook account today when I did a search for something seemingly unrelated. But it struck me as something worth resharing all these years later, and just as relevant IMO. What follows is what I posted in June 2016: “In the event you’re inclined to think the TSA…

When I was a child and young adult, I heard many variations of my last name, Newcomb. You can see that the name contains the word “nuke”; not in the spelling but in the pronunciation.  People used to poke fun of my name for that very reason. If something got “nuked” in the microwave, all…

Today’s email is me shamelessly gushing over my wife, Sana.  If you’ve followed this email newsletter for any length of time, you know that Sana recently arrived in the US after a very long time processing her visa.  3 months after her arrival, she got the hankering to get out of the house and find…

When Tony Prisk, second trumpet with the Philadelphia Orchestra, told me about some of his colleague’s attitude about their day job (in the most recent installment of the Trumpet Dynamics podcast, which you can access here ) I thought he was joking.  How could a person devote their entire life from childhood to excelling at a craft,…

Interesting story for you. In May 2021, my wife Sana and I were riding in a taxi from our apartment to a mall in Hanoi, Vietnam for a relaxing Saturday lunch and stroll through the mall.  I had been active playing trumpet for pretty much my entire life, yet the trajectory of my professional career…

Good evening, Short email for you, kind of a “proof of life” if you will. We ended up having an extremely busy week, as we apartment-shopped, packed up out of one house and moved into another one in the space of less than 72 hours. More than 24 hours of recovery time was needed for both mind and body,…

It’s no secret that performance anxiety is a problem for a lot of people.  I’m not necessarily referring to musical performances; far more than that. I’m talking about everyday encounters where we’re forced to choose between saying what’s on our minds or conforming with the norms established by the Gatekeepers of Polite Society. That adrenaline…