Sometimes, even those of us with a gift of gab are clueless about what we want to say.
I have seen the picture I chose for this month’s blog several times throughout the years. Each time I see it I nod my head and say, “Yup.” I have been in that position many times during my prayer time. I have been in that position many times a lot in my life. Speechless, clueless about what to say, with a million questions and requests continually buzzing through my mind.
Once again, I am not using my blog to preach to you. But you have to admit, the picture and meaning do hit pretty deep. It hits deep, not just on a spiritual level, but on a life level.
If you are an educator, I can almost guarantee that you have been in that picture’s situation so many times.
Let me give you a personal example from this past year.
When I accepted the position as the band director at Desoto Middle School, I had an outline of what I wanted to teach the students as well as a timeline of when I would introduce new topics to the students.
On the first day of school, I learned that 6 students out of 96, in all three grades, signed up for band class and about 4 of those students had prior musical experiences.
My outline and timeline became a jumbled mess instantly.
Fortunately, about 97% of the students were excited about being in the band and were excited about learning to play an instrument. The jumbled mess began to take shape, the outline revised, and the timeline reworked.
Sometimes I feel like the jumbled mess is inside of my head while I am thinking about what I would write for the next month’s blog. Every month, the letters eventually align and turn into a monthly musing muttered by a musician.
This month’s blog will not be as long as past blogs.
I am aware that, at times, I will use too many words during conversations or even writing. However, I am aware of my jumbled letters of communication and attempt to lessen my gift of gab.
As proof, this blog will most likely be the shortest blog I have written!
The musical connection between the jumbled prayer picture and music is a struggle I have with my musical journey.
There are so many musical things I want to do, play, and experience that it is literally a jumble in my head.
I want to play musicals. I absolutely love playing musicals. Understanding how to play my trumpet in a way to blow the walls down during the dance numbers and instantly play so quietly that my sound is felt but not heard while the vocalists are singing is a blast for me.
I want to play big band music. I am subbing for and playing in a few groups that give me that opportunity. But, I want to be the type of player that keeps getting called back because I am an asset to the group.
I want to legitimately improvise. What I mean by that is, I want to improvise more than playing the root, fifth, and flat seven of a chord.
I want to, I want to, I want to. It sounds pretty selfish huh?
It is a small snippet of the jumbled mess in my mind of musical desires. I enjoy practicing but creating a hybrid practice routine that incorporates, scales, tone, maintaining range, technical studies, lyrical studies, contemporary literature, classical literature, improvisation, ornamentation, and the thousand other trumpet tootings, will never happen.
So, my preaching and pedestal pontificating is aimed at me on this blog.
Prioritize both strengths and weaknesses during practice sessions. Use my playing strengths to make my weaknesses less of a priority.
Enjoy playing my trumpet. This is never an issue. I love playing my horn, however, not all of Charlier etudes are a joy to play. This may be a weakness, therefore it is to be married to a strength, and voila, another line of the jumbled mess begins to form a sentence.
Listen, if you are a student, educator, or someone who decides to take a few minutes and read the rants of a rabid trumpet geek, please take this piece of advice:
Enjoy what you are doing. Find something in your studies, teachings, job, or life that is a strength, marry it to a weakness, and enjoy the results of bettering yourself.
In the much-altered words of Forrest Gump, “I may not be a great trumpet player, but I know how to have fun playing trumpet.”