Sharing Your Talents with More-talented Kids
Admission: I’m not your typical trumpeter.
After playing through college, I hung up my trumpets for a career with more perceived stability and potential: information technology. I enjoy what I do, and I’ve never regretted my decision. Between building a career and raising a family, I didn’t play for a couple of decades. And for most of that time, I didn’t realize how much I missed it.
Once our daughters began playing violin, I took up the trumpet once again. To make a long story short, I got some good instruction, invested a lot of time and study (and self-study), and have actually surpassed my ability when I was a “playa”. 
Not bad for a part-time musician, I suppose. But maturity (or old age, if you must!) brings a certain introspection that makes one acutely aware of every fault, great or small. There is no room for a “trumpeter’s ego” when you have a lifetime of polishing ahead of you.
During that same time, our daughters also had excellent instruction, and any “headstart” I enjoyed vanished embarrassingly quickly. Today, our oldest is a college sophomore majoring in Music Performance…and one of her courses happens to be a brass class. Which brings me, finally, to the topic of the post. How does one share knowledge with their more-talented kids??!?
I’m not really teaching my daughter how to play, of course. Her instructor for this class is an outstanding trumpeter and excellent trumpet teacher. But between classes, daughter #1 asks questions of me to “fill-in” the inevitable gaps. Topics run the gamut, from mouthpiece buzzing to building range, breathing to fingerings. I am careful to preface everything I pass along with “this is what I’ve learned/what works for me” and end it with “check with your instructor”…and say a quiet prayer of thanks that my daughter – already a better musician than I will ever become and just getting started, really – is so eager to learn and grow as a musician that she is willing to collect knowledge from even the unlikeliest of places.
Regardless of your past, your present, or your future abilities, I’d encourage you to recognize your abilities and your shortcomings…and proceed anyway. Groom and grow your talents, but be willing to share them, too. Give of what you have, whatever it may be. You’ll be glad you did.
Keep playing,
Mark
