Come, blow your horn

I'm in Melbourne at the moment, for a conference, and the hotel in which I'm staying is located above one of those trendy Lane way cafés they always talk about. 

And a construction site. 

And just a few steps away from a police station. 

And near a tram stop. 

You could call it "central". 

I call it "not particularly quiet". 

Anyway, as I write this, there is jazz and trumpets (actually, I think it's just one trumpet) which would be kind of cool if it was live, but I think it's just a recording. I didn't see any space in the lane where one could fit a piano. 

I've been thinking about trumpets lately. Well, not trumpets, specifically, but brass. 

Regular readers will know I briefly joined a brass band for the cheap lessons and free instrument hire a few years ago, but it didn't stick. I found the timing of both the lessons and the band practice awkward, and I never stick with awkward things for long. 

A decade or so ago, I wanted to learn the French Horn. I have no idea why. It's not like I was a huge fan of horn music. I still can't tell you the name of any great horn pieces. Or composers. Or players. I enjoyed listening to it when I heard it, and I liked the look of it. 

Hardly a consuming passion, in other words. 

Over the years I acquired a third-hand cornet and a cheap pocket trumpet, because that's just what I do, but I'm no more up to date with the cornet than I am with the French Horn. At least I do know some famous trumpet players. I don't really play either of those instruments anyway. 

I still want to learn how to play the French Horn, and for some years now I've wanted to play the euphonium (because it's beautiful, that's why), but I've never mustered up the wherewithal to do something about it. It's not like I have a great love of concert or brass bands (although I do love a good old fashioned dance band), I just want to play with those toys. 

I've been listening to Emma Eyres read her autobiography, Cadence, and she talks about how much she loved playing the viola, and how much she always wanted to play the cello. How she used to listen to cello music, and how she had cello playing heroes, and how she used to get cello sheet music and play it on the viola, but wish she could pluck up the courage to play the cello for real (without worrying about losing her skill with the viola). 

I have a lot of musical instruments - mostly because I'm a musical bower bird, not because I passionately love any of them. I can honestly say I hardly touch most of them. I can't think of any instrument that I've bought because I loved it so much I had to make it a deep and abiding part of my life. 

I really wanted the concertina, but I hardly ever play it. Same with the banjo. I used to play the recorders quite a bit back in the day, but I haven't played those for a while, either. 

The instrument I play most often is the ukulele, and I didn't even buy that on purpose. I wondered into a music shop one day, being someone who had no interest in the uke (and, to be honest, little respect for it) and walked out with a ukulele and a chord book. I never intended to become a ukulele player. It just sort of happened. 

I still wouldn't really regard myself as a ukulele player, anyway. Just a dabbler. In spite of all the instruments and all of the years I've been playing around with music, I don't really regard myself as a musician. Just a dabbler. 

Take the euphonium, for example. I'd like to own and play a euphonium, but I don't have a vision of myself as someone who is going to practice for a few hours every day, and play in a band, orchestra or quintet. I don't see myself as a euphoniumist, in other words. Heck, I don't even know if that* is* the right word. 

I don't rightly know if this bothers me or not. When I was studying piano back in the last century I think I always expected to become a "real" musician at some point, even if I never thought the piano was going to be my eventual instrument of choice. Since then I've enjoyed dabbling, and acquiring random instruments. 

I wouldn't want to be so hung up on playing well that I'd stop mucking about for fun. But, still, it would be kind of nice to have an instrument that I had that kind of passion for. To think of myself as a real musician, like a violinist or a flautist. 

I wonder if I will ever be that passionate about anything.