Glancing around the forums I get the distinct feeling I'm not alone in this. I figured I should introduce myself and this looked like the right place. Apologies if it isn't.
Hi everybody, I'm Evan. I'm a forty-something dad of a girl who just marched her first season at the local High School at the age of 13 (8th grade). When she made the commitment to march and start really working hard to play at a higher level, I thought it was probably time for me to pick it all back up again. I played low brass all through high school, marched trombone with the Atlanta Olympic Band in '96, even got tagged as a musician when I entered the USAF in 2000 and ended up playing baritone in basic training and then tuba in tech school at Keesler AFB. That was the last time I touched a brass instrument until this last year when I met my daughter's new band director and found out we'd had the same high school director (though at different schools, he moved the year I graduated). He invited me along to help teach and I even got to play with the kids in the stands on a King 1129SP marching euphonium I picked up. (It's a small band in a rural area of GA.)
I should mention - I wear full upper dentures and a partial lower. Lots of reasons that led to that, but suffice to say Air Force dentistry isn't all that great and I didn't take very good care of their poor workmanship. So when I picked up that instrument and put it to my lips I was TERRIFIED that I was making a big mistake and that I'd never be able to play like I used to. Well, long story short it did take some getting used to, but I've now got most of my range back (though pedal tones are still challenging due to how much I have to drop my jaw to make them happen, still experimenting with ways to make those easier). I've heard of some tuba players who play -without- the dentures they'd normally wear, and play just fine. I imagine it must take a strong embouchure to do that, because I tried on my trombone and couldn't hold a tone in a bucket with a lid.
So over the last -what is it now?- 8 months? 9? I've spent a ton of time helping with their marching practices, coached the brass, arranged and orchestrated a bunch of stands tunes for them and then got to play in the stands with them. I've got a nice intermediate trumpet sitting here that I'm learning to play better (never was good at trumpet), a decent trombone, a Wessex flugabone (that may be going back to Wessex shortly - intonation issues galore) and that King marching euphonium that I love, but likes to break my arms it's so heavy. I'm planning on arranging and recording myself playing some brass arrangements and just having fun with it. I'm not looking to be utterly professional or earning a living at it, I have a day job. This is just fun, and maybe along the way I'll have the opportunity to play with amateur groups around the north GA area.
So does anyone else here know of someone who's picked up or returned to an instrument over this last crazy year?