The Summerglen Files

When I was in high school, my trombone teacher had an endless supply of laments about the weak state of my lungs (and tone). Unfortunately for both of us, his instructions to “breathe deeper” and “fill up my lungs” lesson after lesson weren’t exactly getting results. But what DID get results was the day he [...]

[Read more →]

There’s been some kind of nasty tropical weather system passing over Summerglen for the past couple of days, and it’s made my sinuses and head quite, er, hostile toward trombone playing. During cold and flu season each year, many trombonists are in this same boat, facing the not-so-fun possibility of having to play sick. So, [...]

[Read more →]

Earlier this week, I stopped by Andrew‘s blog and was intrigued by one of his posts about balancing creative input and output. Andrew compares his creative expression to a conversation–just as a totally one-sided conversation gets boring, creating turns into drudgery if it’s always going one way. Reading his post made me think about which [...]

[Read more →]

As many of you know, I just finished writing my very first book, Women Embracing Creativity: Unleashing Your Inner Artist. Writing the book was a lot of work, but it was fun work. I’m really good at showing up and doing what needs to be done day after day without worrying what the future may [...]

[Read more →]

For anyone engaged in any activity that puts their work in front of others, criticism is an unfortunate reality. While criticism can be highly beneficial, some forms of criticism can be quite frustrating and painful–especially critiques that are condescending, unsolicited, and off-the-mark. This morning after a church gig, I was on the receiving end of [...]

[Read more →]

Today I performed at the Brass at Bond festival, a free afternoon of brass music at a local park. I didn’t play my best by any stretch of the imagination. It was 90-some degrees out, and reeeally humid–so humid that it was tough to get a seal between the mouthpiece and my face! And when [...]

[Read more →]

Ugh, this week has been somewhat frustrating, because it’s been a “get back into it” week trombone-wise. Two Tuesdays ago, I was hit with an awful case of food poisoning, and I didn’t have the energy to practice until this past Monday. Looking on the bright side, I did get a week off from “work”…but [...]

[Read more →]

Often, people comment on how fun my line of work must be. After all, I get to “play” for a living! While it’s true that being a musician is a super-cool job, it’s definitely not all fun and games. Like my grandmother said, “The work must be done in order to play.” As an independent [...]

[Read more →]

I’ll type this post quickly, because I need to take my own advice and chill out for the night. I have always been blessed with good health, except for my rotten sinuses. They’ve been hurting all day, so it’s time to have a Benadryl and say good night. So with that, here’s the final post [...]

[Read more →]

This week has been pretty hectic, one of those weeks where you have an endless list of things to get done, and the more you do, the more you still need to finish. Each day I played music all day, and arranged, and went to networking meetings, and researched for workshops, and came home absolutely [...]

[Read more →]