“Things Remembered” is the name of one of my favorite one-hour trumpet shows. But that show is not the remembrance that still bothers me. Instead, it’s the memory of those five days, 16 to 20 December just before Christmas. On the 16th, I performed two bugle calls at the Wreaths Across America ceremony in Seattle, which I wrote about in my previous post here. And on the 20th, I performed my trumpet show, “Things Remembered,” at The Bellettini,” in downtown Bellevue. I struggled to play my horns on both days, and afterwards, I did not touch them again for the first four and a half months this year. What happened? Let me tell you.

Suddenly, a few days before the 16th, my buzz into the mouthpiece went bad. My lips would not respond to the air flow unless I blew quite hard. But you can’t play every note of every bugle call or song at “FF” volume. I’d blow, and at first, only air would hiss through the horn before a note would suddenly burst out. It was sort of like stammering or stuttering, when the words just won’t come out of a person’s throat for a few seconds, followed by a shout. I’d lost the ability to fade out down to “pp” and softer. I’d lost some control of dynamics and the ability to express certain emotions through the horn.

At first, I thought it was simply stiff lips that had lost their flexibility from not enough practicing. I thought I could overcome it if I warmed up for at least 20 minutes. But no amount of warming up would eliminate it. On the 16th, my “Assembly” didn’t sound normal. I struggled a bit with “Echo Taps,” too. It didn’t help that I had to stand and play without my cane, hunched over from lower back pain.

So, should I cancel my show at The Bellettini? I love The Bellettini, the staff, and the residents. They had invited me back for the fifth time to present a new show which they had not yet heard.

I couldn’t bear the thought of canceling, even if I wouldn’t sound normal. I had three more practice days to improve. If I didn’t sound better, would they forgive me? Or would they walk out and never invite me back again?

No amount of practicing changed things. I reached a certain level, and nothing improved beyond that. Then I hit on another idea: what about changing mouthpieces? Up to now, I’d been using only my favorite, the Allen Vizzutti mouthpiece by Yamaha. So, I broke out my entire (but small) collection of six trumpet mouthpieces and tried each one. I got the best results with my Bach 1.5C. Eureka!

I arrived quite early, set up, and went into a side room to warm up for a half hour. Then I came out and did the show—not normal. But no one walked out. They were very tolerant and forgiving, and besides, they were enjoying themselves. After all, we’re all in the same age group–we could be classmates!

Afterwards, numerous residents came up to thank me and say how much they enjoyed the two dozen songs from our era–such great songs with which they could sing along!

And then, a tall man came up, thanked me, and said in a kind voice, “It’s hard to play when the buzz won’t work right, isn’t it?” He said he used to play saxophone and luckily, with a reed mouthpiece, that problem can’t happen.

“Yes,” I said. “But they liked the music and had a good time.”

He agreed sympathetically and complimented me for doing my best on an off day. Was that really all it was—just an off day? I worried that my playing days might be over entirely. I might never play again in public. I simply knew that I would never let myself play like that again.

But the experience of those five days begged the question: what caused this problem? It had never happened to me since I began playing in fifth grade.

I thought, “It must be my two front teeth”—my central incisors in the upper jaw. You see, for those readers who are young, your teeth can start to migrate in old age. Mine had been slowing creeping toward the middle of my mouth for several years, so much so that the left front tooth had actually slid outside and over the right one. It was overlapping and pushing itself outward against my upper lip, and it was probably also pushing the right tooth backwards toward my tongue.

Is this TMI–“Too Much Information?” Well, how else will you know what to do when this happens to you? Keep reading…

I developed a new theory. The crooked front teeth were diverting the air flow, ruining my buzz. So, last January, I went to see my orthodontist, Dr. Zachton Lowe in Shoreline. He advised plastic aligners by Invisalign instead of metal braces. He said it would take about sixteen months to straighten all my teeth.

“Can I play ‘Taps’ on Memorial Day?” I asked.

“Yes, I think so.”

And so, I did! The Bellettini taught me a huge lesson. Please read all about my Memorial Day performances in two blog posts which are soon to be posted in a few days–but first, I’ll post next about the music on our spring trip to Italy and Paris.