Why I do a trumpet podcast
When I began my Trumpet Dynamics podcast in January 2016, I knew two things for sure:
- I am a fan of the trumpet
- I’m a fan of podcasting
- I do both fairly well
- I’m the last person I would ever ask to count anything
Well, this is going on 7 years ago, and I’m still doing the podcast. It’s gone through many changes, not to mention outright halts on production. But the more I do it, the more I realize I really got a lot of things right the first time – and through typical overthinking and complicating things, I stalled the progress of the show in a lot of ways.
I could pontificate for hours, days even, on how things would be different going into 2023 if only I had done this or that, and how the show would be better off for it, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is the present, and all things being equal, the fact I’m doing it at all is a victory in and of itself.
As I said a moment ago, there have been times I quit the show, with no intent of ever doing it again. I even let the domain trumpetdynamics.com expire. A year later I typed it in the browser and saw that a home furnishings outfit in Indonesia had purchased the domain and was using it to sell their products.
Very strange. But it could have been a lot worse, and thank God, or whatever Bill Nye calls God, that I was able to repurchase the domain awhile later and it is in use today.
There was even a time in the not distant past that I considered giving up trumpet entirely and focusing on building a digital media business exclusively. I told my wife Sana “I would need a really good reason to keep doing it.”
“I think you should keep doing it,” she replied.
“That’s a really good reason,” I said, and so I decided to keep at it.
So I continue to play trumpet, and produce a podcast on the instrument because I feel compelled to do so. It’s not a stretch to say if I had it my way, I would be doing neither today, and truth be told the world would keep on spinning.
So you could say that I play and podcast Trumpet because I have to do it. I’ve had opportunities to quit – have indeed quit entirely – only to pick them back up.
This is why I was able to relate so well to what my most recent podcast guest, Ken Larson, said in the episode that just dropped yesterday.
Ken asked his teacher in high school if he should pursue trumpet as a profession.
“Don’t do it unless you have to do it,” the teacher replied.
Ken relates he didn’t know what to make of that reply. And then he took some time off the instrument to focus on other things – but the desire to play never left. Eventually it hit home: You do it because you can’t not do it.
And the rest is history.
We dove really deep into many things, including how the energy of one particular player “transfers” into their instrument, and it will sound like that player even if someone else plays it.
Deep stuff, and I can’t explain it in an email. I’m not sure I 100% grasped it recording and editing the interview, but it’s fascinating to think about either way.
If you want to listen to Ken share the story about his teacher’s wise advice, it begins at the 48:40 mark.
And if you want to listen to the entire thing, I promise it will be worth the wait to get to that point 🙂
Here’s the link to take it all in: