Emotional Exercises for the Trumpet

2017
Digitally Printed Booklet

After a 13-year break, I decided to relearn the trumpet. By bringing the instrument of my childhood to Elsewhere—located in my home state of North Carolina—my residency became a revisiting of old motifs and memories. I practiced rigorously using old trumpet exercise booklets and music textbooks from the Elsewhere collection and found some odd inspiration in the way the exercise instructions speaks to the musician about both how to play and how to feel as they play. I saw parallels in this form of instruction and the emotional lessons that I had learned in the last year. As a result, I created my own book of trumpet exercises that are an exploration of my musical and interpersonal dissonance. Emotional Exercises is a collection of musical vignettes that celebrate the vulnerability of being a beginner, growing up, and moving on.

I invite you to perform my pain (so you don’t have to perform your own!) by downloading the book in its entirety here.

I performed these exercises using an overhead projector at the sidewalk facing stage at Elsewhere for the December First Friday. Here's me looking soooo cute.

This project was created in residence at Elsewhere. Booklets were printed at Copy King in Greensboro, NC. Special thanks to Monique van Hinte, Rimona Law, Alex Lacey, and Emily Ensminger, and Nora Bauman for feedback on this project.