Tuning Slide: 4.2- Why I Play Music (2)

Weekly Reflections on Life and Music

When you play music you discover a part of yourself that you never knew existed.
- Bill Evans

Last week I began the fourth year of The Tuning Slide with seven items I called My Experience of Playing Music. These were the first part of two posts which give some of the answers to the question: Why do I play music? Well one week wasn’t enough. As I worked on that I ended up with more answers than I realized I would. So I pick up where I left off.

My Experience of Playing Music (part 2)

✓ Being surrounded by the sounds of a wondrous symphony from within the band

This happens usually at least once in many rehearsals and in concerts. One time it happened I have to admit that I got so lost in the wonder of the music around me that I almost missed my entrance. Back in the latter half of the last century they had something called “Surround Sound Stereo” where you placed speakers in all areas of the room as you sat in the middle and let the sound surround you. Let me tell you that was nothing compared to what a musician experiences sitting in the midst of an orchestra or concert band. (Like when I was part of the Baldwin County (AL) Band and we played this Barber march.)

✓ Playing “The Army March” for the 4th of July

Many of these items I am listing involve memories that playing music brings to life again. In the concert band for the 4th of July we always play a medley (Armed Forces Salute) that honors those who have served in the military. My dad was a veteran of the Army in World War II and I grew up hearing and knowing the song by John Phillip Sousa- the US Field Artillery March- also known as The Caisson Song. It is the lead number in the medley. There is a trumpet part as it starts that I am honored to play. It is a memory and in honor of my dad. It is a way of keeping connections over the decades.

✓ Whenever I play “Spanish Flea” in our big band.

Like many musicians we can spend time playing in church. I was part of a trumpet group that did just that. But the adult leader of the group was a trumpet and guitar teacher locally and he decided to use several of us as the core for another group that played the music of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. It was truly the first “band” I played in outside of school and it was fun! We weren’t big time, but we did play a number of local gigs and enjoyed the opportunity. I still pull out a book of Herb Alpert songs and transport myself back to that time. Spanish Flea is one we even play in the one big band.

✓ Gabrieli’s “Canzon per sonare #2”

It was 1968 or 1969 when one of the greatest brass recordings of all time was released. The Chicago Brass Ensemble, Cleveland Brass Ensemble, and The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble combined in a record called the Antiphonal Works of Gabrieli. I was blown away by it. It won a Grammy and fifty years later it has lost none of its power. When I found an arrangement for our brass quintet of its rightly stunning closing piece I bought it immediately. I play music so that I can share the music that has moved me and hopefully give that experience to others. And, just as exciting is when we have played that as the massed trumpets at the Shell Lake Trumpet Workshop. Unbeatable! Indescribable!

✓ “Stars and Stripes Forever”

What is there to say? To stand at the end and play that famous melody says more than words ever can.

✓ Watching people in wheelchairs (and children) respond to the music

Our big band often plays at senior living centers. It never fails when we start playing this Glenn Miller classic. Many are not able to stand up and move, but they swing with the music and clap in time. It is always a kick. Just as kids love to dance when we play in the park. Isn’t that what music is all about?

✓ Nailing the High C in the final piece of a long concert.

I’m no Maynard- and never will be. (I don’t think I want to be, either!) More like Chet Baker and Miles Davis range for me. That means only getting up to that high “C”. But when you have one on the closing piece of a concert, it is nothing short of ecstasy to nail it! It would be nice to do it with the ease and grace of one of the greatest living trumpet players.

(I know it’s a double high “E” at the end. But I can’t play the high “C” that smoothly.)

That’s why I play music.
What’s your reason?