A few months ago, I picked up my trumpet to practice and could not produce a single note. Air leaks on sides of mouthpiece, no buzz at all in center. Ability to see a note/play the note automatically — all gone. I managed to work my way back to near normal using everything I’ve learned in the past, but the problems I thought I had beaten are returning, along with some new issues. I had spent 4 years studying with Jimmie (James) Stamp and learned his methods inside and out. For me, his methods made my playing completely automatic and consistently reliable. Everyday was a good day on the trumpet. Bad days did not exist. I could see a note and play it. Not anymore. So what happened?
A little history first: I aggressively pursued trumpet studies through high school and performance majored in college. Graduated in mid-year and found it’s a really bad time to try to gain entrance to a conservatory. (My instructor wanted me to go to his alma mater, New England Conservatory but that didn’t pan out.) Mid year, everything is pretty much set with the players they admitted for Fall term. I didn’t feel like chilling for a semester and a summer before trying again, so my instructor (Edward Hoffman at that time) recommended I move to Los Angeles to study with Jimmie. (I also studied with Tom Stevens and Mario Guarneri). I played two auditions (San Diego and North Carolina) which I didn’t win and got tired of waiting for the next person to die or retire for auditions to be held to fill their seat. Then, I quit trumpet for 24 years in favor of a graphic design career. I got back on the trumpet in 2002 and played with a couple really fine quintets while living in the Denver metro area.
So what happened?
I’m now in a small town in Western Colorado and moved here knowing playing opportunities would amount to only an occasional solo (but being in the mountains is awesome). There are very few really good musicians this side of the Colorado Rockies and I got invited to play a pops concert with a local community symphony. It’s fun. Easy. No stress. Got to make new friends. Get to play all the high charts the other players can’t touch. BUT, while working on prepping for their pops concert, I noticed my range was dropping. Huh? Inconsistent D? Then, I started missing attacks. Why wasn’t I seeing the note and playing the note automatically anymore — and why splitting so many entrance notes? Maybe I wasn’t practicing enough? Practicing a lot more just made things worse.
Ultimately, through online research and talking to a friend suffering from Long Covid, I attribute all my disturbing playing issues to what Covid did. (Covid because it is known to cause neurological aftereffects and because of the timing of problems showing up after I was sick with it.) I got myself back to close to normal after the pops concert (Sept. 2021), but now I’ve picked up a throat vibration/hum (never had that before) and my range is dropping again. (Normal had been a consistent Eb above the staff FYI).
While searching online to find a different way out of these returning and new issues (I will not do the same thing over and over and expect a different result), I found that every symptom I’ve been dealing with matches something called “embouchure focal dystonia” (thankfully a milder case with no horrible facial spasms). My online search is how I found Greg Spence and Mystery to Mastery and saw that his methods have pulled a few players out of dystonia. I know I’ll have to throw out just about every technique I learned in the past and start over, but I want the throat thing gone and my range back or better. I do hope to come out of this playing better than before with a higher range than ever before as well.
This is my official day 1. Bye, bye Jimmie, you’re being replaced.
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