Work and Trombone Things
Monday, six hours of Nursing Home Job, during which I received corrections on most of the work I've submitted up to this point. I thanked my supervisor but ignored it for now; a bunch of us are doing a mass data correction and they've just added at least 100 more accounts to that, so I won't get to look at my work on individual profiles all week.
Otherwise, did some casual trombone window shopping and air-tromboned my My Fair Lady book.
I have some good trombone-buying options lined up, but Florida doesn't have many professional instrument shops so if I want to try anything I'll have to buy it, then return it with shipping and restocking fees if I don't like it. That makes it a lot harder to commit.
Therapy was very good. This guy is great and I'm glad I switched to him.
I knew for sure, today, that he is the right one to help me when he didn't open with, "So how's the weather where you are?" or "Did you do anything fun this week?" but instead said, "Hi. Give me a spectrum of what your week was like, high points and low points and neutral. Then I want to hear more about how your dad died."
YES, THANK GOD, let's have an actual therapy session!
He did not waste any time, dove right in and asked very pointed questions about my past and how I experience things and a whole spectrum of personal information that he says will help make a plan for addressing my anxiety, hypervigilance, phobic thoughts, and physical symptoms of stress. I could not be more thrilled that we're not dicking around with "five things you can smell" or whatever. He's asking lots of questions to get the biggest picture he can, then we'll have to pick an angle from which to try some things out. And of course this will take significant time, I do NOT expect a quick fix. A lot of my habits and thought patterns were established during formative years...hypervigilance in particular has been my entire life because my parents divorced when I was five. But that's a story you didn't sign up for.
Ultimately I very much feel like I lucked into the right therapist for me.
Even if it doesn't work out, I absolutely feel like someone is in my corner, for the first time in an extremely long time.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday I woke up extra-early to try and squeeze in work before driving to Warburton, but just my luck there was an internet outage in our neighborhood. Still I logged 20 minutes using my phone as a hotspot before it was time to go.
It took an hour to get there. I've been here before and the shop is just as I remember it.
Warburton Music is primarily a trumpet mouthpiece supplier, so the largest part of their building is reserved for lathes and metal milling machines and engravers and such. The "front" is not fancy at all: a reception desk, a wall lined with boxes of shiny mouthpieces, some wire racks and tables displaying their other merch (practice materials and their house-made pinewood mutes, mostly), and some tables and chairs in the center of the room where you can drag your instruments and your pile of mouthpieces and go to town.
Pretty sure the disco ball has always been there...I don't know, and I don't ask!
It was a little messy because they're getting some newer, bigger, better machines, so everything is in disarray as they make room and shuffle things around. The receptionist, Kim, apologized for the mess. I told her I've worked in music retail f-o-r-e-v-e-r and that if it's not messy it's probably not a very good instrument shop :)
Kim is a trumpet player herself, and assisted me with narrowing down mouthpieces (trumpet and trombone mouthpieces follow a similar sizing scheme even though they are on different sizing scales, if that makes sense.) We started with a one-piece mouthpiece, which I found too deep, so we tried something more shallow and that was better.
Then I moved on to different shanks, and quickly found one that was a GREAT combo with the cup I'd chosen.
I know you're not brass musicians, you reading this, so here's a short article that explains the parts of a brass mouthpiece, what they do and why they're important. Every musician is different and needs different things.
My situation is:
- I've been playing a small-bore trombone since 2012 (that's ten years straight, or eight if you don't count the pandemic.)
- I'm going to have to play a large-bore trombone for My Fair Lady, for the first time in about a decade.
- Because I've played a smaller trombone for so long, I am no longer comfortable on the larger trombone.
There are many ways to remedy this situation, the main one is just to practice the larger trombone until it feels comfortable again. But I have also changed as a player in the decade that I was playing the smaller horn. So my goal is to accommodate the player I am now and work toward what I want to be, which is a player who is comfortable on both of these trombones. To do that, in addition to plain old practice, I need to bridge the gap between my equipment sizes to make it easier to switch back and forth with less adjustment.
The mouthpiece cup that I chose was midway between the size I use on the small trombone and the large one.
The shank has a taper that gives me the backpressure and air support you'd expect when playing a small trombone, while giving me the open sound and fullness that I need to fill up a large trombone. It is a huge improvement over the mouthpiece I had been using on my large trombone, which was a damaged off-brand thing that I dug out of a bargain bin in Kansas City in 2017. Definitely the first thing that needed to change, before I go around blowing money on all-new trombones!
I was very satisfied with my finds, and am excited to work with them and get a better playing experience!
Before I hit the road again Kim wanted to give me a tour of the shop. I've been to Warburton before, but the machinery is always deeply interesting and the smell of oil and metal shavings and brass polish are nostalgic to me.
I said hello to Bob, the big CNC lathe that custom-shapes mouthpieces for Warburton.
(Bob is named after Bob Giardinelli.)
This machine (I don't know if it had a name!) was making a rotor.
Here is a photo of it while not in operation, and a video while it's running.
There are lots of machines back there, and I didn't want to be a tourist taking pics of all their stuff for their competitors to take a gander at, but enjoyed seeing the engraving station and the trumpet construction zone and the chemical dip curtained off with big rubber flaps, because caustic acid and cyanide.
Then Kim introduced me to her squirrel!
This is her pet squirrel Moe, who was one of several she rescued after a hurricane.
Some of the squirrels died, and some returned to the wild, but one refused to leave and just kept coming back.
So she kept him! He seemed very healthy and energetic. I watched as she fed him sweet potato slices and frozen peas (she usually gives him fresh snap peas but had forgotten them at home, and keeps frozen peas at the shop for such "emergencies".) What a great mascot to have! He was super cute, though I felt bad because as a raptor-and-reptile person, I view squirrels less as lovable beings and more as food items for other animals.
It was a great visit, and although I blew a lot of money (mouthpieces are NOT cheap especially good ones like Warburton's) it was completely worth it. Now I can make better progress adapting to the larger trombone. AND I got to hang out with a squirrel!
Back home, a photo of my new mouthpiece (I got two shanks because I couldn't decide between them and I think the larger one will serve me better a few months from now when I've readjusted):
I scarfed lunch, caught Jameson up on my doings, and got to work at Nursing Home Job (the internet was back.) I had known visiting Warburton would set back my hours, that's why I worked on Sunday. I managed to log about three hours before my brain needed to do something else.
Also, I DID actually purchase a new trombone today...but as I mentioned earlier, this is the only way I'll be able to try trombones, by buying them and then returning them (which will cost shipping and a restocking fee.) I am probably only going to try this one horn, I can't afford to try many this way. Still, it's exciting!
Later in the day I made HelloFresh for us, then while Jameson went to Target for some things I went for a walk.
Today was the first day in over a week where we didn't have a heat advisory.
It was still hot out, but "normal" hot. What a relief. I hope it stays that way, or just keeps getting cooler from here.
The rest of my night kind of sucked because I felt incredibly anxious for no specific reason.
Probably from staring at my computer all day, and from worrying about money because of buying a trombone.
Several times I was on the verge of a panic attack, and my guts felt bad.
But I can't do anything when this happens except try to ignore it and try to stay calm.
I can understand why so many people are on anxiety meds. I could have used some tonight.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Not much ahead for the weekend I think, just more work and hopefully the new trombone showing up before the weekend or by early next week. Jameson and I are going out somewhere on Saturday, I forget where, but it should be a nice break from the routine.
Otherwise, did some casual trombone window shopping and air-tromboned my My Fair Lady book.
I have some good trombone-buying options lined up, but Florida doesn't have many professional instrument shops so if I want to try anything I'll have to buy it, then return it with shipping and restocking fees if I don't like it. That makes it a lot harder to commit.
Therapy was very good. This guy is great and I'm glad I switched to him.
I knew for sure, today, that he is the right one to help me when he didn't open with, "So how's the weather where you are?" or "Did you do anything fun this week?" but instead said, "Hi. Give me a spectrum of what your week was like, high points and low points and neutral. Then I want to hear more about how your dad died."
YES, THANK GOD, let's have an actual therapy session!
He did not waste any time, dove right in and asked very pointed questions about my past and how I experience things and a whole spectrum of personal information that he says will help make a plan for addressing my anxiety, hypervigilance, phobic thoughts, and physical symptoms of stress. I could not be more thrilled that we're not dicking around with "five things you can smell" or whatever. He's asking lots of questions to get the biggest picture he can, then we'll have to pick an angle from which to try some things out. And of course this will take significant time, I do NOT expect a quick fix. A lot of my habits and thought patterns were established during formative years...hypervigilance in particular has been my entire life because my parents divorced when I was five. But that's a story you didn't sign up for.
Ultimately I very much feel like I lucked into the right therapist for me.
Even if it doesn't work out, I absolutely feel like someone is in my corner, for the first time in an extremely long time.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday I woke up extra-early to try and squeeze in work before driving to Warburton, but just my luck there was an internet outage in our neighborhood. Still I logged 20 minutes using my phone as a hotspot before it was time to go.
It took an hour to get there. I've been here before and the shop is just as I remember it.
Warburton Music is primarily a trumpet mouthpiece supplier, so the largest part of their building is reserved for lathes and metal milling machines and engravers and such. The "front" is not fancy at all: a reception desk, a wall lined with boxes of shiny mouthpieces, some wire racks and tables displaying their other merch (practice materials and their house-made pinewood mutes, mostly), and some tables and chairs in the center of the room where you can drag your instruments and your pile of mouthpieces and go to town.
Pretty sure the disco ball has always been there...I don't know, and I don't ask!
It was a little messy because they're getting some newer, bigger, better machines, so everything is in disarray as they make room and shuffle things around. The receptionist, Kim, apologized for the mess. I told her I've worked in music retail f-o-r-e-v-e-r and that if it's not messy it's probably not a very good instrument shop :)
Kim is a trumpet player herself, and assisted me with narrowing down mouthpieces (trumpet and trombone mouthpieces follow a similar sizing scheme even though they are on different sizing scales, if that makes sense.) We started with a one-piece mouthpiece, which I found too deep, so we tried something more shallow and that was better.
Then I moved on to different shanks, and quickly found one that was a GREAT combo with the cup I'd chosen.
I know you're not brass musicians, you reading this, so here's a short article that explains the parts of a brass mouthpiece, what they do and why they're important. Every musician is different and needs different things.
My situation is:
- I've been playing a small-bore trombone since 2012 (that's ten years straight, or eight if you don't count the pandemic.)
- I'm going to have to play a large-bore trombone for My Fair Lady, for the first time in about a decade.
- Because I've played a smaller trombone for so long, I am no longer comfortable on the larger trombone.
There are many ways to remedy this situation, the main one is just to practice the larger trombone until it feels comfortable again. But I have also changed as a player in the decade that I was playing the smaller horn. So my goal is to accommodate the player I am now and work toward what I want to be, which is a player who is comfortable on both of these trombones. To do that, in addition to plain old practice, I need to bridge the gap between my equipment sizes to make it easier to switch back and forth with less adjustment.
The mouthpiece cup that I chose was midway between the size I use on the small trombone and the large one.
The shank has a taper that gives me the backpressure and air support you'd expect when playing a small trombone, while giving me the open sound and fullness that I need to fill up a large trombone. It is a huge improvement over the mouthpiece I had been using on my large trombone, which was a damaged off-brand thing that I dug out of a bargain bin in Kansas City in 2017. Definitely the first thing that needed to change, before I go around blowing money on all-new trombones!
I was very satisfied with my finds, and am excited to work with them and get a better playing experience!
Before I hit the road again Kim wanted to give me a tour of the shop. I've been to Warburton before, but the machinery is always deeply interesting and the smell of oil and metal shavings and brass polish are nostalgic to me.
I said hello to Bob, the big CNC lathe that custom-shapes mouthpieces for Warburton.
(Bob is named after Bob Giardinelli.)
This machine (I don't know if it had a name!) was making a rotor.
Here is a photo of it while not in operation, and a video while it's running.
There are lots of machines back there, and I didn't want to be a tourist taking pics of all their stuff for their competitors to take a gander at, but enjoyed seeing the engraving station and the trumpet construction zone and the chemical dip curtained off with big rubber flaps, because caustic acid and cyanide.
Then Kim introduced me to her squirrel!
Click to view
This is her pet squirrel Moe, who was one of several she rescued after a hurricane.
Some of the squirrels died, and some returned to the wild, but one refused to leave and just kept coming back.
So she kept him! He seemed very healthy and energetic. I watched as she fed him sweet potato slices and frozen peas (she usually gives him fresh snap peas but had forgotten them at home, and keeps frozen peas at the shop for such "emergencies".) What a great mascot to have! He was super cute, though I felt bad because as a raptor-and-reptile person, I view squirrels less as lovable beings and more as food items for other animals.
It was a great visit, and although I blew a lot of money (mouthpieces are NOT cheap especially good ones like Warburton's) it was completely worth it. Now I can make better progress adapting to the larger trombone. AND I got to hang out with a squirrel!
Back home, a photo of my new mouthpiece (I got two shanks because I couldn't decide between them and I think the larger one will serve me better a few months from now when I've readjusted):
I scarfed lunch, caught Jameson up on my doings, and got to work at Nursing Home Job (the internet was back.) I had known visiting Warburton would set back my hours, that's why I worked on Sunday. I managed to log about three hours before my brain needed to do something else.
Also, I DID actually purchase a new trombone today...but as I mentioned earlier, this is the only way I'll be able to try trombones, by buying them and then returning them (which will cost shipping and a restocking fee.) I am probably only going to try this one horn, I can't afford to try many this way. Still, it's exciting!
Later in the day I made HelloFresh for us, then while Jameson went to Target for some things I went for a walk.
Today was the first day in over a week where we didn't have a heat advisory.
It was still hot out, but "normal" hot. What a relief. I hope it stays that way, or just keeps getting cooler from here.
The rest of my night kind of sucked because I felt incredibly anxious for no specific reason.
Probably from staring at my computer all day, and from worrying about money because of buying a trombone.
Several times I was on the verge of a panic attack, and my guts felt bad.
But I can't do anything when this happens except try to ignore it and try to stay calm.
I can understand why so many people are on anxiety meds. I could have used some tonight.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Not much ahead for the weekend I think, just more work and hopefully the new trombone showing up before the weekend or by early next week. Jameson and I are going out somewhere on Saturday, I forget where, but it should be a nice break from the routine.