The Tuning Slide: 3.9- 2017 Shell Lake Recap

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

Our job is to inspire you.
-Bob Baca

One of the neat things about the Shell Lake Trumpet Workshop is that it is not just a week of playing trumpet, although there’s plenty of that. At its heart it is a time to get inspired, motivated, and energized. Bob Baca and his high-quality faculty do more than give us playing tips or lessons. It is a week of motivational stories, challenges, learning, and fun.

We were reminded early on that most learning at an experience like this will begin to disappear, and not slowly, by about three days. Throughout the week, Baca reminded us to write things down in our notebooks. “Remember this- write it down!” was a refrain that we paid attention to. Then at the end of the week, sitting down on Friday, the morning after our concert, we gathered one last time and filled the blackboard with comments and ideas. This year there were 55 comments or ideas expanding on what we learned and experienced. I promised that I would post them here for all to see and be reminded. They are just quick phrases, half sentences, parable-type statements of something that will hopefully jog memories.

From this list and the other nine typed pages on my computer, will come a lot of the posts for the next year of The Tuning Slide. Many of these ideas are not new to 2017. These are basics- essentials- of going from good to better to even great in trumpet playing. They have been covered in many posts already. This year there will be new perspectives on some and just plain important highlighting of others.

As you look over the list, if something jumps off the screen as important to you and you want to hear more, make a comment on the page or send me an email by clicking on the Contact Me link above. I will be happy to work on a post and more information.

Closing wrap-up and sharing of ideas at the 2017 Shell Lake Trumpet Workshop:
• Mind of a child
• Big toe! awareness
• Power of ask
• If you panic you will die
• Hear it, study it, make it become natural
• Taking the theoretical and making it real.
• Shoot high- don’t sell yourself short
• Great minds talk about ideas, etc.
• Can’t do it alone
• Be yourself at your full potential- Example of the rose, Inner Game of Tennis, p. 37
• Be on time
• Music- not math. Creative self
• Only see our path of dots going backward
• Therefore make good dots
• First impressions mean a lot
• Always have a relaxed breath. Warm, moist air
• Be comfortable being uncomfortable [[Expect unexpected]]
• Sleep when you’re dead.
• Listen to your body.
• It’s about the journey
• Exercise
• Sharpen the saw
• Listen to recordings for inspiration
• Sound and rhythm
• Think interdependently
• Just figure it out
• Piddle- just play it and play with it
• Inspiration lasts three days
• Setting goals (short, intermediate, long term) for practicing etc.
• Be solution oriented
• When given opportunity to share- do it.
• Always play with your best sound
• Never put out someone else’s light to make your light shine brighter
• Record yourself
• Just a little bit more
• When we fail- fail forward- as long as don’t get too uptight about it
• Schedule it
• Worst sin is feeling sorry for yourself- because it’s all about me
• Never give up
• Negativity is exhausting. You will be negative about others if you are negative about your self. Animals can’t change emotion- we can.
• Keep a journal/log
• Remember the little moments
• Best way to go 1000 miles is to take first step
• Trumpet’s a skill, but it impacts everything.
• The way we do anything is the way we do everything
• Improvisation is not something you do- it’s a lifestyle
• There’s always time to practice
• Have to schedule the not urgent/important or it gets lost
• Circle of influence is important
• Your best trumpet playing is only a thought away
• Your best trumpet playing hasn’t happened yet
• Just have fun! It will happen faster.
• Obstacles appear if we take our minds away from the goal.
• Always be shooting for a trajectory
• Be efficient

For my own part, let me sum up this year’s workshop with two insights. First is what we talked about on the last morning before coming up with our list. I put it in a box on my notes as it sums up a great deal about all that we do in life:

Life is about 2 things:

Learning
and
Sharing!

The wise person knows which to do when!

There will be more about that.

The second is the hope and joy in two of the comments toward the end. They go together and describe what I have personally experienced in the two years since my first Big Band and Trumpet Workshops at Shell Lake Arts Center.

• Your best trumpet playing is only a thought away, (and that means)
• Your best trumpet playing hasn’t happened yet.

I look forward to each time I pick up the horn because that is what is happening!