It’s been a while

My last post was so long ago I can barely remember my log in details. My site still gets a fair number of hits but it’s mainly for the videos that I’ve made and for the controversial Taylor trumpet post I made a couple of years ago it seems 🙂

So what have I been up to?

Well I’ve been keeping busy. My career status as a freelance professional trumpeter continues. Last year I was hired by the countries top tribute act for a certain band. It was fun working for them to start with. I transcribed all the horn parts that they needed, got a horn section together, rehearsed them and started playing shows with them. It was going really well before they realised that we cost too much. They took my deps at a reduced fee (just saxophones and trombone) and gave the rest of us the boot. So that was fun.

Thankfully I had our agreement down in writing and so I got some compensation but for those out there who are going through a similar period of employment make sure that you call up the Musicians Union and ask them to send you out some contract templates. These are bullet proof and leave little wiggle room. My compensation took months of physical and emotional pounding before we got a compromise. Thankfully my brother and sister-in-law work for one of the big London law firms and helped me out a lot through this as did the musicians union. Even so it was a long drawn out affair that left me very frustrated.

So since then I’ve been, how to put it? Less than proactive on the gig front. They still come in but from the networks I set up previously.

I thought it was important to try and take some of the pressure off playing for a while. Those who know me know I can be very tough on myself and I wanted to make sure that playing the trumpet was still something that I was enjoying. Have you ever got to that point in something where you just keep on working at it, and working at it and eventually years of training and hard work pass and you think: “Am I actually having any fun doing this?”

It turns out that I’m having more fun playing now than I have in the past few years. So I guess I just have to find the right balance between playing for work and fun for myself.

My teaching continues to be brilliant. More trophies, awards, scholarships, a total of 4 successful students getting into the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain. Three 11 year olds and one 10 year old looking at grade 5. Another 11 year old looking at grade 6. And my first ever student (now in 6th form) is looking at music colleges and conservatoires. Needless to say they make me very proud.

And whilst I was taking some time away from pushing for gigs I put my drive behind photography. I’ve done a couple of pro gigs, been on a number of courses and now taking bookings for my new small business that I’m running with my friend and colleague from the conservatoire, David Livesey. More on that to follow. Most recently I was approached to shoot some canvases for a new Performing Arts Centre recently opened by The Royal Family. I’m sure I will post these soon.

I also find very the parallels between the trumpet and photography interesting. One of the many that I’ve found is that on a basic level the trumpet is all about manipulating air and photography is all about manipulating light. If you can work on mastering that very basic premis it shows in your work very quickly.

My old tutor, Ashley Morgan, always told me that being a freelance musician was all about having several irons in the fire. You never know which will bring you the work at what time. So I figure that having an extra fire can’t hurt. It’s something different enough yet still creative that keeps me in check and will make sure I don’t flame out on the playing side of my career.

So that’s what’s been going on.

I’ll make sure to update my site when I have something to say. I’ve given up on the daily post thing. I found it very hard work and I often bored myself with some of the lame posts I came up with. I’ll post when I think the information might be useful to those of you starting out in your music career, those who like trumpet stuff and jst general points of interest. Such as:

Have you seen the App iREAL.

It’s like a real book accompaniment (bass,keys and kit) in your pocket. You have a choice of pre-made patterns but can also write your own changes, put them in what ever key you like, for what ever transposing instrument you have, set the time, the style and loads more. I find it a really useful tool for personal playing and for teaching. It’s got a reasonable price tag of around £5.49 (add ons are also available). It really is worth checking out!

I hope everyone in my small, but loyal audience is doing well and having fun!

Because if you’re not having fun playing, then you have to ask; why are you doing it?