Every year I try to find 2 weeks or so that I can take off from playing the trumpet. I find it healthy both mentally and physically to put the horn in the case and take a full vacation from playing: no buzzing, no morning routines, no range extensions, lip flexibilities, long tones, etc. Right now I am in just such a period. In fact, today marks two weeks since I last played a note on the trumpet. It is hard to believe isn’t it? An entire two week period and I am still buzz free! Maybe there should be some kind of 12 step program (Hi, my name is Craig and I play the trumpet…)

When I think of the amount of time I have spent over the course of my life doing the aforementioned fundamentals it kind of makes me shudder. I hope that was the best use of all of those thousands of hours. I guess I shouldn’t worry. After all, I have wasted more hours doing many other things that I know for sure weren’t worth it! At least my time doing various inane exercises has allowed me to fashion a career out of smashing my lips together in one way or another. That in itself is pretty extraordinary.

In a few more days I will be back to my tried and true routine of lip contortions. Until then, though, I happily remain buzz free.