You may have guessed by the title of this blog that music will be the main topic of discussion. Yes, it is critique time for the concert we attended yesterday evening.

I’m not a Bach or Mozart enthusiast. Gaither, country and folk music are really my go to music if I want to kick back and relax. So you can see my trepidation when last evening’s Chautauqua Concert featured five women playing a variety of stringed instruments along with a trumpet.

That musical entertainment had Bach, Mozart and possibly even Beethoven written all over it.

But it has been a long, cold and snowy winter and cabin fever has kicked in so Kathie and I decided to chance taking in a concert that might be musically off our radar.

I’m glad we did! 🙂

Who would have guessed that one lone trumpet playing among four stringed instruments would produce an appealing musical sound? But the resulting music was amazing. 🙂

When I was in high school I played a trumpet in our band. At least I thought I did until last evening’s trumpet player straightened me out.

She produced the most beautiful sound from a variety of trumpets and in the process she schooled us on the special names and musical sounds of each instrument.

That’s when I discovered all these years I have been spreading false information about my band playing experiences throughout my high school years. I wasn’t playing a trumpet at all! Instead I was playing a small version of a trumpet called a cornet.

I was in fifth grade when I began taking lessons. Since my parents weren’t sure I would stick with it they were able to borrow a trumpet (alias – cornet) for me to begin the learning process.

Now don’t go envisioning a shiny, gold instrument. It was a dull gray color full of dents from the previous owners. I never did an ancestral search but had I done one I wouldn’t have been surprised if the old cornet had been used to perform a few musical numbers during the Civil War!

So as we enjoyed the concert of stringed instruments blending with the mellow sounds of a lone trumpet I found myself reminiscing about my cornet performing years.

The first thing I must stress is that I was not a very talented cornet player. That became obvious when I confess I played 3rd/4th chair music for six years. The last month of my senior year our band director right in the middle of band practice stopped and announced that I would be moving up to play with the 1st chair trumpets.

I think I heard gasps of shock from almost all my fellow band members. At least they did it quietly but I heard it none the less. Actually I was gasping too. 🙂

I proudly walked over to the 1st chair sat down and attempted to play the next song. Things didn’t go too well and after a couple of Sousa march numbers I picked up my cornet and returned to my 3rd/4th chair where I realized I truly belonged!

My battle- scarred gray cornet suffered an almost career ending injury one afternoon as I was practicing. A portion of the cornet where the mouth piece is inserted broke off and fell in my lap!

My first reaction was joy as I assumed I wouldn’t be able to practice for a couple weeks until the cornet got repaired. Maybe even longer if shipping it to a musical instrument repair shop would be required.

My Dad being the experienced farmer he was took matters into his own hands. He jumped into the family car and drove into town to visit with Joe the  local blacksmith.

Now Joe was skillful when working with all types of metals and I was shocked to see my Dad return in an hour with the horn fully repaired!

We never shared that experience with the owners when we returned it to them. I doubt they were able to tell where the repair had taken place.

My dream of owning a shiny gold trumpet almost became a reality when my Mom located a used shiny, gold cornet. Since I didn’t know the difference I proudly took my seat in the 3rd/4th trumpet(cornet) section and made music there for the next six years. 🙂

Once a cornet player always a cornet player. I still have my shiny, gold cornet which I take out from time to time to embarrass myself usually.

One time at a Wheaton pep fest I dusted off the old cornet and as a part of a teacher’s skit attempted to play taps in front of the whole student body. Things were going along well until I hit those final high notes and my lip began to falter. Luckily the band was sitting right next to me and an alert trumpet player played my faltering notes for me.

It was like a lip-synch and to this day I’m hoping the student body never noticed a thing. 🙂

Then there was the time fellow teacher Woody Nelson got a trumpet trio together which included me playing of course 3rd chair. We performed at the teacher’s Christmas party. I got lost shortly after the first measure and faked my way through the rest of the song.

Hopefully enough alcohol had been consumed by the partiers and nobody noticed a thing!

I was fortunate to have four grandchildren play trumpets so we had brief Christmas song playing stints. Brief because Grandpa’s lip gave out quite early in the concerts.

The most recent cornet playing event was a very moving experience.

Our band director was 94 years old and he returned to Clinton as he was receiving a fifty year pin recognizing his American Legion membership.

Past band members got together and with one quick practice we surprised him at the downtown square where in years past he had directed many summer band concerts for the Saturday night shoppers.

He was invited to come forward for one final time and direct a hodgepodge of his past students in a Saturday night concert in downtown Clinton.

I proudly sat in my 3rd/4th chair and played our school song, The Star- Spangled Banner and America and my lip held up through it all. 🙂

Our band director passed away several months later. May he rest in peace.

So last evenings four string instruments and a trumpet concert turned out to be wonderful musical experience as well as a cornet(alias-trumpet)  walk down memory lane. 🙂

Until next time.