If you’ve read any articles at all on my site, you know that I’m a DJ. If you only look at the title of this website, you know that, assuming you’re not a complete idiot. I am DJ tomboy and I’ve been a DJ for a long time. I mentioned this before, but my mom was a DJ as well. I actually have several DJs in my family. But I also have a whole bunch of other musicians. In fact, I was supposed to be one of those other musicians.
When we were growing up in my family, my mom was a DJ, but my dad was a composer. Due to their musical background, both my sister and I had a huge interest in music ourselves. Our parents also pushed us to learn at least one instrument. They also wanted me to become a singer, but that never happened, though it might soon. And these days, I even consider myself a bit of a videographer, thanks to my new quadcopter! I’m also a bit of an amateur cannabis gardener….I grow a small amount of weed indoors at home with grow lights, but let’s keep that a secret, yeah? Shhhhh…
There was always heavy competition between my sister and I, so when she chose the violin as her instrument of choice, I knew I had to choose something else. The truth is, I kind of wanted to play the violin too, but I refused to do the same thing my sister was doing.
In the end I chose the trumpet. I don’t know why exactly, but I suppose it’s because see very few female trumpeters. The majority of trumpet players are male. And I’ve always had that tomboy side that just wanted to go against societal norms.
Given all that, it only makes sense that I chose to play the trumpet. I was even pretty good at it. I enjoyed it a lot, even though it is one of the most difficult instruments to play.
A lot of people might not think that. Most people think the violin is much harder, but the truth, is the trumpet is harder to play than the violin. First of all, with the violin all you need to do is move your hand back and forth a little bit. I know there is more to it than that, but that’s the basics.
When playing the trumpet, your lungs come into play. You need to blow into that thing like crazy and you need to keep doing it for one song after another. It is unbelievably taxing. It takes so much energy and that’s for people who have been playing the trumpet for a while. When you first start, you can only play for like 30 seconds before you get tired and you can’t go anymore. Of course, that experience made it easier for me to learn to breathe correctly for singing down the road.
I was in my school marching band and as a trumpet player, I used to get a huge workout that way. You exercise when you’re walking and you also exercise your lungs with the blowing. The same goes for most blow instruments though. And I guess the people carrying the really heavy instruments get even more of a workout. Tuba players, for example, are always going to be in great shape.
After my high school days in the marching band, I joined another band in college and I continued to play the trumpet. But, by this time, I was also pretty heavy into DJing. I used to use a lot of my own trumpet music in my tracks that I produced myself. But I kind of stopped that after a while. It just seem like I was overdoing it and reaching back into that same bag of tricks all the time.
For that reason, you don’t hear the trumpet much in my music anymore. And I haven’t actually played the trumpet in many years. In fact, if I tried to pick one up now, I would be one of those people getting tired very quickly.
As I am writing this, I’m kind of thinking it’s a shame that I lost touch with my trumpeting days. I’m also actually thinking that I might start playing the trumpet again. Not full-time or anything, but just occasionally to keep in practice.
I might also compose a few simple trumpet riffs that I can add into my electronic music tracks. I did like a lot of the ones I produced earlier with my trumpet sounds and I think I have more maturity now and I would do a much better job of incorporating the trumpet into my electronic music tracks.
I just have to make sure not to overdo it. I don’t want it to become like my signature anything. I was always worried about that before and I still am.
I’m also now thinking that my sister does still play the violin, although it’s a hobby and not a profession. I could use some of her violin music in my tracks as well. I actually think I’m going to have her write a little guest post on my site about the violin one of these days. What do you think about that? Let me know in the comments below.
