I should have stayed in bed..

The day started off good enough, went to early church service and came home prepared to enjoy my usual Sunday ritual of football, trumpet practice and laundry. Practice started out great. I realized that I was forming my embouchure slightly different everytime I set to play. To help make the setting automatic, I formed my embouchure, played a soft long tone and removed the horn from my mouth. I repeated that process several times. When I formed the it correctly my sound was good and I could tell immediately when I formed it incorrectly. The Good!!

The bad began with my Shetland Sheepdog. I was playing my horn with the bell pointed down towards the ground (mistake number one). I played a high note and she lunged nose first right into the bell of the trumpet – smashing my lip! HORROR! No blood but it started swelling right away. Ice kept it from getting really bad but so much for practice the rest of the day. The Bad!!

I didn't want to waste all my usual practice time so I decided to wash my horn. Ala Bleek Gilliam from Mo' Better Blues washing my horn is almost a ritual. I almost feel like I'm bonding with it (stop laughing). I had Coltrane's Blue Trane playing in the background (Lee Morgan!!) and the project was moving along nicely. As I was drying my 3rd valve slide it slipped from my hands and CLANK – dropped on the bathroom floor. The normally round ends were slight bent – not much – but just enough to make it hard to insert and remove from the instrument. I will have it fixed but not now – I'm not sure how long a repair of this nature will take. The Ugly!!

I keep telling myself that things could have been much worse. My lip is fine now and the horn is still playable but I learned some valuable lessons today.