My Cheeks Hurt

An odd statement, but trying to play trumpet after many, many years means building up long unused muscles. And these are small cheek muscles. Think of how you feel after smiling too long and multiply by ten.

So with my new horn I’m practicing a lot because it’s fun, but man I’m feeling it. I’m literally massaging my cheeks.

It reminds me of my circus days. A million years ago (ok, 1989) I played trumpet for Ringling Brothers circus. Most days you do 2 shows. Some days you do 3. Some weekends you do a “6 pack”, two 3 show days in a row. For trumpet players in the circus, that’s really hard.

I did a tour of Japan in ’89 and we had three trumpet players who had not worked for the circus before. The first time we had to do a six pack, after the last show, the clowns had a cooler of cold beer waiting for us. I can tell some crazy clown stories, but that was really nice.

None of the trumpet players actually drank the beer right away, we all grabbed an ice cold can and pressed it up against our lips. It felt so good.

Anyway, it’s fun getting back in trumpet shape again. No six packs in my future…