Jigsaw Puzzle

[valvepimp]

A bit over three months into my comeback now, and what comes to mind most in describing what it's been like is the concept of a jigsaw puzzle.

When you are a beginner, trying to improve is also somewhat akin to a jigsaw puzzle, in that you very slowly build a foundation (putting together the frame, if you will) and then add pieces one at a time until after several years, or eight, ten or twenty years, all the pieces are in place and you can really play.

As a comeback player, I feel that my jigsaw puzzle fell apart due to the twenty year layoff. When a jigsaw puzzle falls apart, it does not fall into the original five hundred or one or two thousand pieces. Rather, it fragments into small sections that have still held together.

And so, here we have a guy (me) who is still cracking and missing notes, whose intonation leaves a lot to be desired, and whose endurance ranges from fair to poor. And yet - I can play the quintuplet solo from L'Histoire du Soldat that I posted about a couple weeks back. Why? Because that part of the puzzle was still held together, and these past three months of fundamentals have helped me unlock that part of my brain which remembered it. It's like being able to run before you can walk. I can also play The Carnival of Venice. My double and triple tongue seem to have returned to 80% of where they once were.

Over in Comments and Suggestions where I originally asked for this new Comeback Forum (thanks TD, it is appreciated) drunkiq posted that part of coming back is tweaks as opposed to fundamentals. Amen, brother! And these tweaks, which produce the occasional sounds of my erstwhile self, can be both exhilarating and frustrating. In my own case, it awakened my regret window, which I thought was long ago nailed shut, but which managed to pry itself open in recent months. What if I stuck with it all these years instead of giving up? Where might I be? These are the kinds of thoughts that returning to the trumpet has sparked in me on almost a daily basis.

It is still much more fun than regret, and may be the best move I've made for myself in recent memory. Don't know if I will ever play professionally, but I am planning on having a grand old time of it getting to the point where I could if I choose to.

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[ This Message was edited by: valvepimp on 2003-10-21 22:40 ]

[_swthiel]

Nice analogy! Yes, some of the pieces of the puzzle of trumpet playing are still together when you come back. Here's another factor that I think is closely related. I suspect that most of us didn't give up music when we stopped playing trumpet. We found some other mode for musical expression (I learned to sing, I played electric bass, I learned MIDI), or we at least kept our love of listening to music going. I think that's part of what holds those puzzle pieces together -- the music parts of the brain still get used, even if the embouchure is neglected.

And as I think back on the time I was away from the horn ... or should I say the times? ... I still thought of myself as a trumpet player, just one who wasn't in playing form at the time!

Thanks for your post, it really got me thinking about this!

Steve
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Steve Thiel

Matthew 25:31-46