Friday, September 2, 2011

Symphony with a mouthpiece

On the way home tonight from taking my Little Brother home after a bike ride, an interview with a trumpet player had me laughing out loud. Manny, the lead trumpet for the Minneapolis symphony was explaining how his teacher taught him the importance of being prepared. He told Manny that if you were invited to play for a group and you forgot the trumpet but had a mouth piece--you should be ready to entertain the crowd. Manny subsequently played a nice melody on the mouthpiece which cracked me up.

Can you picture the fancy pants symphony guy tooting out a song on just a mouthpiece? It got me to thinking about how often in business and in life we are just playing the best tune we can with the tools we have available. With the national economy and weather in Oklahoma lately I often feel like we are playing a symphony with only a mouthpiece.

Do what Manny's teacher said and keep blowing, work on your breathing, and the shape of your lips--we're looking for the trumpet and all the other instruments we seem to be missing in our country and it's up to us to keep the music playing in the meantime!!

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