Of inaugurations, trumpets, and larynges
We’re gradually assembling ourselves for our upcoming trip to the Inauguration in DC. It looks like we’ll be road-tripping with a few other people from the LGBA contingent, and will be staying out in Fairfax with much of the rest of the band. Fred’s working on bringing all the color guard members up to speed, and it looks like he’ll be writing one of the routines (probably for the Washington Post March, which always reminds me of rhubarb tart).
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Speaking of the band, though, I did take possession of my old cornet and my younger brother’s trumpet, along with a few mouthpieces, so that I can perform with our friendly local gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender band this spring and/or summer (still uncertain). It has been a long time since I played, so it’s going to take a little while to get my embouchure back; I also need to clean both horns rather thoroughly and re-lube the slides and valves.
I think that I’m going to try to recover my embouchure better with a few bugle calls. I don’t need valves for those, since they rely entirely on tonguing and embouchure changes, and they do work the transitions rather heavily (especially “To the Colors”).
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On a whim, I invited my parents to the Band Together holiday concert…. and neither one winced during the show. I’ve never experienced such a thing, so I’m not quite sure how to interpret it.
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And yes, I am adding a “band” tag.
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Neither Fred nor I sang in the last chorus show; the house stuff was too much on its own without adding a full program of (memorized!) choral music. We went to the performance on Saturday night, though, and the boys did a great job with a lot of interesting material. I will confess, however, that it was a little disconcerting to be questioned by other audience members at intermission: “Why aren’t you doing this show?” “When are you coming back?” etc.
I won’t be able to sing with the chorus for the spring show (and possibly the Pride show) because of classes. Fred has no such burden, but he’s still on the fence about this show, and will make up his mind after seeing some of the music.
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