I started playing the trumpet at the beginning of the year.

The initial motivation was just my growing love of brass instruments in my music. Brass is by no means a staple in my music library, and maybe that makes their rare occurrence all the more impactful. I think it probably started with mewithoutYou. “The Fox, the Crow, and the Cookie” has been one of my favorite songs for years and I grew to really love the tuba solo(?). And as I grew attached to that specific brass section, I think I started paying more attention to the rest of the wind and brass sections in their discography. Again, it’s not like a core part of their sound, but they use it really effectively to counter balance all of the somberness and aggression that is core to their sound.

This of course developed further into looking for brass in other bands I listened to and seeking out new bands specifically because they make use of brass. I definitely don’t have a wide-reaching trumpet or brass music selection still, but it’s been cool to find new music and appreciate old music in a new way.

Here’s a quick list of some tunes with trumpet/brass that I’m into right now:

• “Strasbourg / St. Denis” - Roy Hargrove
• “The Fool” - Neutral Milk Hotel
• “Rhodonite and Grief” - La Dispute
• “Came out of a Lady” - Rubblebucket
• “First” - The Chariot
• “Everything Went Numb” - Streetlight Manifesto

Six months in and I’m pretty proud of my progress learning the instrument so far. I’m definitely not good, but that’s ok. Trumpet definitely isn’t an easy instrument to learn.

My embouchure still isn’t very strong; it’s a bit hit or miss whether I actually play any note that I intend to and most notes I play start out at least a little wrong and I have to adjust/bend to the actual note I’m trying to hit. And that’s to say nothing of all the times when I blow and nothing at all happens. That happens less these days but it still happens.

My breath control could also use a ton of work. Beyond just needing “more air”, I’m still struggling to find the right times to breathe during lines and am constantly getting tripped up by not letting go of old breath or taking in new breath “right”. For example, I try to get a lung full of air before I start playing, but it’s more of a yip than an inhale and I only fill the top of my tank but don’t do whatever’s necessary to get a real lungful (I think there’s something diaphragm-y I need to do there.)

But despite having all of these fundamentals to work on, I can:

• Play a chromatic scale from G3 to D5 pretty consistently (the E5 is coming along pretty well and occasionally I can even hit the F5).
• I can play “Rhodonite and Grief” by La Dispute (though the flutter section needs some work).
• I can play like 75% of “The Fool” by Neutral Milk Hotel.

I think the thing I most want to improve with my practice is developing an intuition for what the notes are supposed to sound like. Guitar spoiled me in that as long as you held the fret correctly, notes would play without you knowing what it was supposed to sound like. Trumpet feels different in that I really struggle to play a note without knowing what that note should sound like in advance. I’m getting better, but still tons of room for improvement. Often my trumpet teacher will just plop me in front of a piece of music to practice without any reference, and I can see the first note is a Bb and I know generally the amount of air I need and what valves to press but I’m still not sure if I’m actually playing the Bb when I start to play. Very often I’m not playing the note correctly, and my teacher is quick to tell me that I’m “making up notes” (caught red-handed!)

Anyway, I’m incredibly happy I took the plunge and decided to start playing trumpet. It’s never too late to start even if I’m sometimes embarrassed that there are middle schools full of 7th graders with better chops than me. It’s been keeping me sane these past few months when work has been particularly rough. It’s nice to feel like I have a “hobby” that is in no way related to programming.