I love productivity.

It’s a full-fledged hobby, I admit. I’m always looking for ways to accomplish more, and books like Getting Things Done are beach reading for me.

One of the biggest differences between a professional chef and a good amateur cook is that an amateur tends to under-season his dishes.

The same is true of us musicians.

Man, this is hard to write about: I’m dealing with another round of lip difficulties. It’s my bottom lip this time, and the trouble began on November 4th, 2014, during a tough rehearsal of all piccolo trumpet stuff. The bottom lip collapsed on the right side without warning. I won’t get too much into the details, other than to say I can still play, at least. I’m at about 75%, with the top lip and the left side of the bottom lip functioning fine. The right half of my bottom lip just won’t contract all the way.

In 2012, at age 27, I got my first real job.

I should clarify: I’ve been working or going to school (usually both) since I was 16, and I’ve had many jobs over the past decade and half: waiting tables, landscaping, doing the freelance musician thing, teaching preschool music (which is as adorable as it sounds, mostly) and a half dozen others, music-related and not. I’ve had plenty of jobs. But my current gig in higher ed (I’m an academic advisor) is the first 40-hours-a-week-business-casual-401(k) job I’ve had.

After my first few eight-hour days at the office, I couldn’t believe how tired I was, physically and mentally. The pockets of time I was used to having during the day–30 minutes between trumpet students, a couple hours before the next teaching gig–were gone, and all the things I used to do throughout the day (like practicing the trumpet, for instance) needed to be done some other time.

Over the past two and a half years, by design, I’ve gotten busier and busier at work and at home while practicing more and more. It’s been a serious challenge, but I now play the trumpet between two and two and-a-half hours a day (and sometimes more), and I’m sounding better then I ever have. Like, better than when I was in grad school and had all day to practice. That is very interesting to me.

Here are three ideas that have helped me carve out a lot of practice time in a busy life. I hope they’re useful for you as well!

Getting the trumpet to consistently do what you want it to do is a lifelong process, and there are many legitimate ways to approach playing the horn. Like most trumpet players, I use concepts from several different schools of thought in my own playing, but one of the people from whom I’ve borrowed the most is James Stamp. I’ve recently developed a practice tool that has helped me do a better job of putting a couple of his ideas into practice, and I’d like to share it here (more on that in a minute).

James Stamp was one of the most influential brass teachers of the 20th century, and his approach to the trumpet has only become more popular since his passing in 1985. You can’t swing a cat without hitting a trumpet player who uses a Stamp exercise or idea in their playing, and what’s really interesting to me is that players of every stripe seem to like Stamp.

Dr. Simon McGrail, the surgeon who successfully operated on my torn orbicularis oris (or lip muscle, for you newcomers), has developed a set of exercises to strengthen damaged and weakened lip muscles. There has been considerable interest in these lip exercises, especially among trumpet players, so I gave Dr. McGrail a call a few months back and asked if I could share them with you. He said “Yes, they’re for anyone who can use them,” so here they are!

Over the past four years, I’ve consulted many chop experts and fellow brass players who’ve experienced a lip injury similar to mine, and the help I’ve received from them has been tremendous. I would not be playing today if I’d had to go this road alone.

A few months ago, I contacted many of these people and asked if they would be okay with my sharing their names on The Lip Rip Blues. Chop injuries are a very personal thing, but many were happy to share their stories.

Some of these players/chop experts have their own website or book relating to their own experience, and the players listed here whose stories are not public knowledge have given me permission to post their name here. While I haven’t provided contact info, I can put you in touch with any of these players - just click on the Contact link at the top of the page to email me. Many of these folks have web presences of their own, too, and can be contacted through their own sites.

Sorry.

I did, however, discover some interesting connections and correlations I would never have thought of otherwise.

Since it’s that time of year, let me tell you what I’m grateful for:

Bad chop days.

The kind of days when I sound like a beginner, when I’m embarrassed to be heard by the guy walking his dog past my house or the student in the next practice room. Those days when I think, “I can' t believe I have a Master’s degree in trumpet and I sound like this” - that’s what I’m grateful for.

“What gets measured get managed.” - Peter Drucker If you’re a musician, I’m sure you’ve had the experience of playing a few notes on your instrument and immediately saying one of these two things to yourself: “Wow, I sound great today! Score!” “Man, l sound awful. What’s going on?” We all have good days and bad days, and I recently got to have them back to back. It was kind of a doozie.