Recital.(trumpet)

I played the trumpet for a few years in grade school and then left it behind--for 40 years.

Last year, I visited a friend, a man who had always played. He had trumpets lying around, and I casually picked one up and played simply.

My friend did the same, harmonizing.

I had an epiphany. From a simple duet played with a close friend arose that feeling of concert, of creational well-being that musicians know that lifts up bodies and minds. He loaned me a beat up horn. I took it home and found a teacher.

The first lesson had not ended, but the teacher had already informed me that I would play in the annual spring recital. Not because I was good enough, but because a student is obligated to perform. He gave me a piece to play by Marcello, a contemporary of Bach.

Daily, I played the necessary warm-ups and then practiced the recital piece. But I fatigued easily, could not reach the high notes and did not have the breath to play through the piece.

Lips are muscles and require blood flow to function, to buzzzzzz. A trumpet mouthpiece pressing lips into front teeth reduces blood flow and oxygen supply. So, just as athletes do conditioning exercises, one trains lips into strength and stamina. Sometimes, after 30 minutes of playing, I massaged my top lip, as an opera singer would shake her larynx, and I wondered if I was really resupplying circulation or just acquiring a tic. To regain adequate breath I got onto the exercise bike. I began cutting short the trumpet warm-ups to be able to hit the high notes later; my teacher forgave me for this.