¶ Choosing a New Title
I looked down the audience and it's you . It's normal to see like little kids in there , like totally in awe of what they're looking at on stage , you know . But yesterday I saw like a middle-aged man and he was sitting there and he looked . He had the same facial expression as Will Ferrell does in the movie Elf . He was just like Santa .
He was like the fur like a long time , it wasn't just like a little moment . So that's awesome . You know , you have to remind yourself that , like for a lot of people that come to any performance , but holiday performance is something like the Nutcracker especially .
It could be like a huge deal in their family , like a tradition , it could be like a once in a lifetime experience . So it was a reminder , reminder to be like , hey , it's pretty lucky to be able to do this and bring this to people . I love that .
That's awesome .
Good morning . Good morning bright and early .
Yeah , last last episode we recorded we had all these curveballs happen and we had to record pretty late . It's funny how I notice a difference when we record at different times , Like our energy levels will be different .
Yeah , I think they all . They probably all have their pluses and minuses .
You know , we got to find that . We got to find that that sweet juicy spot that's just like Goldilocks .
We need that , we need that . Uh , that baby bear energy .
Where we , where we both achieve flow , state at the exact same time , mm-hmm , except you're . You're a night person , I'm very much a morning person , so I don't know if that place exists .
No , you can't have to meet somewhere in the middle .
And so today it's 8am in Texas and it's 9am for you , which it's funny , because you're like oh no , I think the only time we're going to be able to do this is 9am , and you said it in a way where we're both oh man , that's , that's impossible .
But that's literally the time 95% of the world starts working , it's true , and we're like no , can't , can't do it . As we know from musicians , that's 9am is basically the middle of the night . 9am is like our 5am .
So , nick , this is our third episode of this new short form series , and I am pleased to tell you that we have a new official title for this series , is this our fourth episode . Is it ? Yeah , it is the fourth one . Nailed it Right again . Nailed it , see 8am . Not a good time for me , so cancel that one . What so ? Coming in third place ?
First of all , thank you to everyone who voted . We had a very strong turnout for the vote , a lot of passionate thoughts , but coming in third place was the slide in with 26% of votes . You know that was a good title , had a little sexual innuendo , but you know it was casual . What do you mean ? I don't know . Coming in with 33% of the vote ?
In second place Jones and Furibonzin .
I mean that was my favorite , but you know the people I've spoken in that was not the crowd's favorite .
So I mean , yeah , it's a good title . It's a good title , but it's clearly not for everyone I like it . Maybe we could use it in another way , but thank you , alexis , for the suggestion . I forgot to mention that . So the main poll was on Instagram , but you can also create a poll on Spotify .
So for our Spotify listeners , please check those , because every now and then we can post questions and polls , and we had one vote for all things rusty on Spotify and we also had a write-in for the alternate position , which I was like , oh , that's pretty good , should have told us earlier .
But the winner 41% of the vote 41 , dirk Nowitzki in our new title , the fifth position .
¶ Musicians' Career Paths and Holiday Stories
Beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep , beep beep beep Feel vindicated .
I know you do .
You will not let you down .
It's a good clean to the point title . It's very poignant on topic .
I like it , I'll get used to it you know , yet it still has some mystery , since none of us know where fifth position is .
It's like the train platform to Hogwarts .
Did you see that video recently where the kid just ran full speed into the wall Trying ? To go into the Hogwarts at the train station .
There you go . Darwin would have something to say about that .
I don't know if it was staged or not , but it was very funny . What a world , so how ?
was Thanksgiving . It was great , had a couple of friends over cooked , like I normally do . And what was your ?
Friends' Amariment , friends' Amariment . What was your favorite thing to cook ?
I did a new recipe for my turkey that I really enjoyed making . I made a really good Brussels sprouts dish that I really enjoyed making . So yeah , kind of all of it . I love it , but just it's fun . I like the process . Did you let anyone help my wife ? That's it . What about you ? How was your Thanksgiving ?
Oh , it was good , it was good Big family thing down here in Texas . It's always so nice to say everybody yeah , I didn't overeat , I didn't go crazy Like I normally do , which I feel like is a victory . Coming down to Texas , I just accept that I'm going to gain 15 pounds every time I come into the state , so I think maybe I only gained like 14 pounds .
No , so Progress .
Me and my mom have been going on walks . So I'm just like mom , we're going to walk for 30 minutes every single day and it's been actually really nice . I'm just like I could do this all the time , besides just doing like Peloton or whatever . It's just nice to get outside , especially down here , where it's still like .
I mean , it's cold now , but it's been like 60 degrees , so that's kind of nice .
Very pleasant yeah .
Would you like to hear the Google alert ?
I wait with baited breath .
So the segment is Trumbo and Google Alerts what's going on in the world . We need one of those like those news typewriter thing , yeah , there's actually another article that is related to Trumbo and Player . There is a business insider article about Swedish CEO of EasyJet , johan Lundgren , on how his first Wait , let me get a shot at that name , uh-huh .
Johan Lundgren .
Yeah , that's actually . That's probably way more accurate . I apologize , johan , I'm sure he listens . Yeah , he actually . His first dream was to be a Trumbonist and , you know , didn't reach that dream so had to settle for being a CEO of one of the major airlines of the world . But it is . It is kind of cool that it was his dream .
He didn't get into , I think , the Royal Danish Conservatory . And the article is nice . I mean , it's not about being a Trumbon player , but it traces his career and his path . And it just made me think and we've briefly talked about this before about if you're nervous about pursuing music or you're considering another career path after studying music .
I think we're very scared of this notion a lot , but there's so many musicians that use the skills that they have learned becoming a musician to translate it to other careers and translate it very successfully , and there's a lot of employers that understand all the unique skills that a musician can bring .
Yeah , I mean I tell my students this all the time too . It's like you know , because I've seen it firsthand with you know people I grew up with that wanted to be musicians and , for whatever reason , pivoted out of it .
Yeah , the skill sets that you learn in music turns out that they do help you in other careers Is especially work ethic I think that's the biggest one and you know teamwork , collaboration , that sort of stuff .
There's a lot of things you know , so it's like hey , maybe maybe take it easy on yourself and realize that you too can be the CEO of a Swedish budget airline .
Same thing with being just talking to kids about joining band . It's like you don't have to be a professional , but they all do better in math and science . They have higher levels of empathy . It's the only thing stimulating all the areas of the brain . I want just all good stuff , Beautiful beautiful things .
All right , I got a story for you in the spirit of the holidays . Yes . So Dan pack , the great tuba player of New York City Ballet , we love Dan , dan's incredible and he was playing a family concert last week or two weeks ago with the New York Philharmonic and never heard of him .
He allowed the kids , they allowed the kids to come up on stage and kind of what sometimes the orchestra is called like a instrument petting zoo . It's like you can get up and close , close and personal to the different instruments and ooh , what's that ? What does that do ? You know that sort of stuff .
So you know , dan , you know , of course , you know , blast the pedal note at them and they all start laughing . And then he's like you want to look inside the bell and they're like ooh , and they like stick their heads in there . You know the typical stuff you might do with a tuba .
And there's this little girl and she's , you know , dressed up for her day at the New York Philharmonic in her nice little , nice little dress , and she comes out , he puts her head in the tuba and pulls her head out and looks right at Dan and goes you can fit at least one baby in there . At least one .
Yeah , I just thought that was about the most darling thing . Kids are amazing .
Kids are awesome . You always have to like wake up early for these children's shows and you're just like , ugh , it's a children's show and then , once you get there , they always end up being the most fun , because you're never going to play for a better audience .
When they dim the lights for like a concert and there's kids , they just start screaming . I mean like it's unbelievable . Yeah , they're so excited .
Give kids a reason to be able to clap and scream and not get in trouble , and it's their favorite thing in the world .
I know . I mean I was lucky enough . When I was a kid growing up in Dallas or Plano I went and saw Hansel and Gretel , I think Hansel Hansel and the Dallas Opera . So hot right now .
And that was my first time seeing an orchestra seeing opera and it was through school and yeah , I , you know , maybe I remember more because I am a musician , but I've always remembered that and the whole time being like whoa , this is crazy , you know .
I love that opera so much , it's so good .
It's . It's like there's not a bit of fat in it . It's like everything needs to be there . It's not too long . It's beautiful music , nice arias , it's great .
And in Germany they play that during Christmas time every year , kind of like the Nutcracker , which would be so cool if we did that here I would love to play that every year .
The Met does it , sometimes during Christmas , but they always do an English version of Magic Flu . It's shorter in English and that's pretty popular too .
I saw , I saw Hansel and Gretel with the Met once and they , yeah , the the witch was like . It was like a man dressed as the witch , but like really tall and just like it was . It was kind of awesome .
That's how they play it . A lot of times it depends on , depends on the company , how they do it , because it can be a Metsus Pran or can be a like baritone . It's kind of flexible role . The Met one is like a fever dream . Right the production .
It was really cool . It was really cool and I think when we did it we had because often the the Hansel voice is so high that a woman will sing- it , it's always a woman , the Hansel . Yeah , so hot right now . So , hot now . Thank you to . We had a few new recent patrons on our Patreon this month . Thank you very much .
You can subscribe at patreoncom slash trombone retreat . Just a reminder all of our , everything we've ever posted on the Patreon , all of our exclusive interviews , videos of podcast interviews , trombone advice videos forever they're on there . They're archived on the website so you can access everything we've ever posted . So check it out . We have an audience question .
Thank you audience . We have a few . I had to sift through , but today's pretty simple one coming from Thomas Super set . Thomas underscore Super set . Do you even lift bra on the Instagrams ? Our friend Thomas lie . Trombone retreat alum . What are Sebastian and Nick's favorite activities outside of music ? I feel like I should answer for you .
I mean , what am I gonna say Cookin' the food ? Acts of service are my love language to other people . It's one way I show , oh really .
I have a few acts of service that you could do with the Trombone treat .
I was saying ones that I like . I'm just kidding .
Mmm .
Well , okay , so back to the question . Back to the question yes , cooking In the summer . I like playing golf . I like listening to music I guess that's related to it , but it's a different thing and I love listening to podcasts . I mean , it feels like it's on the nose .
but what's your favorite podcast right now you're listening to ?
I love Stavies World Stavros Haukes , amazing comedian they go for like two , two , three hours sometimes . They record two podcasts a week and they're , like , always super long .
Just hanging out smoking weed and like talking .
Yep , they're just ridiculous . What about you , Seb ?
I guess , for brevity , if I had to pick one thing . I mean I have plenty of interest and I do feel lucky that our main source of enjoyment is also our work . So you know , I feel like normal nine to fiveers are always trying to think of their other thing that they're enjoying . But I get to enjoy .
I get to play music with my friends all the time , so I feel like that is my hobby , that just happens to pay me money . But I love basketball , I love my Dallas team .
So I'm sure everyone hates Dallas Cowboy fans I'm a Dallas Mavericks fan but for me one of my favorite pastimes is just traveling and I really have nerded out about travel status and travel points and just understanding the whole process , because I think traveling used to give me a little anxiety and also I grew up being like how do people get to ride in first
class ? Like I never understood and I always wanted to , and I finally figured out the system to be able to have the privilege of getting to do it more often and , of course , whenever , as you know , you ride in first class once and you , like I , need this all the time . Yeah , it's definitely addicting . This is my identity now .
I deserve this and I love wearing sweatpants in first class around all these business travelers where they're confused . So really nerding out with that and getting to travel all over the world , finding reasons to travel , getting upgraded . I really enjoy the numbers game and figuring all that stuff out .
Yeah , I think that answers . Yeah , yeah , Thank you Thomas .
All right , Nick , I have a bone to pick .
Pick that bone .
Can we normalize not asking people how their audition went ? So hear me out . How many times have you taken an audition ?
Taking an audition doesn't go great which is majority of auditions for most people , even successful people and about 10 people ask you how it went right afterwards , when the last thing in the world you want to do is rehash this thing , at least in front of someone else .
I encourage people to ask yourselves why you're asking , because you know we're often curious , especially if you didn't go to the audition . You want to know how it went , and then you'll ask like who won ? another thing people don't want to talk about Is it really making the other person feel better ?
So I encourage you instead to consider , if it comes up , naturally , ask someone would you like to talk about how the audition went ? And give them an opportunity . I actually did this the other day because I realized that I rarely want to talk about it if it doesn't go well .
You know , maybe I'm still processing , and I asked someone the other day like hey , do you want to talk about how it went ? And he's like no , but thank you . He was pleasantly surprised . It's like . Does that make sense ?
Yeah , you know , I think you know
¶ Audition Etiquette and Handling Bandmate
.
I think there needs to be a little bit of a caveat to that , because I feel like when you're in school or younger , there's more of a community aspect where you do want to talk about how your audition went , because it's like the you know the goals are to win an audition , of course , but like when you're first starting out , it's like totally normal to go for
, like it was a good experience . Because now I know that I get really nervous in auditions . You know if it's like your first audition , but you know , after a while , after you're like seasoned with auditions , it's like it might not be the best question . It's like probably lean on the air on the side of they'll tell you if they want to talk about it .
That's what it's like . It's just basic psychology . Just invite them , give them the opportunity to feel safe to share how they feel if they'd like , but if not , it's not really your business , it's a personal thing . So like , hey , you want to talk about how it went ? No , okay , cool , yeah . But otherwise you're just kind of like forcing conversation .
I mean , you would know if that person won the audition because you would have heard . And if you didn't hear that they won , they probably didn't , and so you should err on the side of just not saying anything or like your idea . You want to talk about it .
And it's one thing . If you know well , if you know they won , that's a little more safe to bring up that conversation . This is probably positive . Or if you know they made finals , that can go their way , because sometimes people can be more upset about getting close and not winning . But if you know , nothing happens or you're just curious .
Just be a little more sensitive is all I'm offering . Appreciate that I have . I have pillaged the depths of the internet . Nicholas and I have found our Quora question of the week Fantastic . So Trumbone Quora , which is one of the best parts of the internet .
We find random questions that people of the world have submitted to the internet and today's question is I play the Trumbone in a small band and there's one other Trumbone player . He sucks and he makes me sound bad . What do ?
I do . I like the honesty . I mean definitely appreciate that . What do ? You do . Well , I think that you turn to them , look them square in the eye and say insert name . You suck at the Trumbone and don't make me sound very good . Wow , I think you go just right into it Straight on .
And what do you think is going to come from that ?
Thank you for bringing that to my attention . I shall do something about that . Post-haste Problem solved . Yep , that's it . I mean , what else do you need ? I'm sure if you're listening out there , I assume you are .
Try that , I'm sure it'll go really well , you know it sounds like this is an amateur type of ensemble . It says it's a small band . You know it's probably not his first thing . You know it's like with anything . It's like the same equivalent of you have a roommate .
Everyone has a different version of what clean is , so there's always going to be one person that's going to be more annoyed at the other person based on , like , how clean something is . This person maybe doesn't have as high a standards as you , maybe not as talented as you , maybe just doesn't work hard as you .
It's a tough situation If you're both being professional and being paid money . That's another thing . But this is the story of our lives , right ? You have to figure out how to work with people . So , to answer it seriously , maybe invite them over for duets , maybe see if you can get better together .
But you can't really force someone to sound better unless you're like , maybe in a leadership position . You can talk about it .
I mean I'm going to disagree wholeheartedly because obviously our God lives in a house of excellence , so can't bring that trash into that house .
Yeah , I guess this guy is perfect . I don't know if I need to say his name . Oh , the other interesting part of this question is he . It says he makes me sound bad . Well , that sounds like a little projection , like you're not taking responsibility for yourself .
I think it's more like he's perfectly manufactured tiny nano chip . Even the smallest bit of dust renders it useless .
That's I live for your metaphors , nicholas . That's good , yeah , thanks , hey , hey .
I'm going to tell you something I'm grateful for . It's important , I would love that . Okay , I'm on six nutcrackers in Four left . Yep , wow , 44 left . It's , it's , it's , it's a . It's tiring , you know , and some days you don't want to be there just because you're tired and you're worn out .
And last night I was playing or , yes , your afternoon technically and I looked down the audience and it's you , it's normal to see like little kids in there , like totally in awe of what they're looking at on stage , you know . But yesterday I saw like a middle aged man and he was sitting there and he looked at .
He had the same facial expression as Will Ferrell does in the movie Elf . You just like . Santa he was like the fur like a long time , it wasn't just like a little moment . So that's awesome .
You know , you have to remind yourself that , like for a lot of people that come to any performance but holiday performances some like the nutcracker especially it could be like a huge deal in their family , like a tradition , it could be like a light once in a lifetime experience .
So it was a reminder , reminder to be like , hey , it's pretty lucky to be able to do this and bring this to people I love that .
That's awesome . Sometimes , yeah , we're lucky that you know we experience workplace fatigue just like anyone can , but I feel like we have more avenues to get out of it than most people . So sometimes you just get a look in the audience or appreciate the music you're playing .
Yeah , exactly , and I like to make eye contact with We'll go into this more because you have a whole thing you like to do but I like to make eye contact with my colleagues from across the pit and just look at them , just stare at them . We'll look wide-eyed .
You don't mouth-marry Christmas .
Well , when we get closer to Christmas , you'll have to tell your technique , okay .
I mean it's well documented on that one episode , but I can copy and paste it back just for people that appreciate it so much . It's hilarious how many people try to do that to me now after talking about that .
It's so good , yeah . Well , what do you think , seb ? I ? Think we've covered the Weeks Trombones most pressing topics . Weeks Trombones most pressing topics the Weeks Trombones , most Trombone . Oh , you get it . I haven't had copy , I'm just going to let you .
Oh wow , you did this without coffee . I'm impressed . Are you going to go do a dress ? Rehearsal of the Tan Hauser . Tan Hauser . And then you got another Nutcracker tonight . No day off , but you're going to listen to Nutcracker , just so you don't get out of it .
Oh yeah , I'm going to look at the Baron Rider score you don't want to lose it .
Fix some errata . Yeah , you can't lose it , because you might just show up in it .
It's like the off day in the Tour de France the biker still ride , you know .
Metaphor . I need some sort of like ding or like a cash register sound . Every time you hit me with a good metaphor , a gong . The metaphor gong . I'm going to go play some duets with Brian Hecht because we both live down here . Well , he lives down here and I'm , my family lives down here and we both have the holiday chops . So hops .
I realized it should be called do Hecks Going to go play some du Hecks ?
¶ Holiday Plans and Podcast Promotion
Yep , that'll be fun Then heading back . And then the holiday gauntlet begins . No nights off , let's do it .
Well , enjoy the rest of your time down with your family . I'm going to run out the door and go play Tan Hauser .
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Thank you Bye .