Trumpet is a hard instrument. Learning it an any age can be a real challenge. I have been playing the trumpet for 35 years and I still have a love hate relationship with the trumpet. I love the trumpet; I love trumpet music. I love the feel, the look, and the sound of the trumpet—most of the time. But some days the trumpet just may not do what we want it to do. Sometimes it can be incredibly frustrating. Sometimes it just won’t sound the way we want it to. But when it does work the way we want it to, it is so beautiful that it makes all the frustration worth it.

I have a few students with unique embouchure challenges and it is always difficult to see them struggle, both because I care deeply and hate to see anyone really struggle, and because I get it, I’ve been there! Struggling with an embouchure week after week or even month after month can be a real downer. Of course I do everything I can to encourage students that struggle like that to keep going, that it will get better, that it is going to be worth it!

This last week I had the luxury of seeing one adult student just break through the barrier on some embouchure stuff in a pretty major way and that is worth celebrating, which I told them too—and I hope they are celebrating this week. What are your goals? What are you pushing through? What are you doing with this pandemic? Have you considered a musical journey? I can’t promise it will be easy, or that you won’t face similar struggles, but it will be worth it! And we would love to work with you.