With The Band

 I used to play trombone. That's part of the reason I was staring so intently at the Marine Band on the night of Joe Biden's Inauguration. I am used to watching movies and TV shows that show people pretending to play instruments, and I am always relieved to see when they get things right. Fundamentally, it's pretty easy to tell when someone is faking the trombone. Low notes are created by making the tube longer, and this is accomplished by extending the slide further down the slide. Random movements of this slide are a pretty clear indicator that you've got an actor on the other end of that instrument. 

That's not what was happening with this fellow. He was focused, intent on his job. Which happened to be making music. It occurred to me then that he had it just a tad easier because he was standing still. He was not marching. I am sure that there have been plenty of opportunities for this man to sync up his left and right feet with the beat of a drum, while continuing to perform job number one: blowing in carefully controlled ways into a tube of various lengths. Coordination in these matters is key. 

I never marched when I played trombone. When I was marching, I carried a Sousaphone. While some may have experienced this as a more daunting proposition, given the additional weight of even the mostly fiberglass version of that instrument, compared with the relatively compact trombone. With the bell sticking above your head, it's important for Sousaphone players to remember your overhead clearance, but this isn't much of a concern when you're outside in a parade or halftime show. But that trombone slide and its variable length poses a constant threat to those walking or marching nearby. What a relief to be playing in place.

Then I went just a little further down this path: If you're a member of the Marine Band, you're a Marine. Which means you've been trained as a Marine. Which means you are a trained killer. In the most positive freedom-enhancing way for sure, but while you're trying to remember all those slide positions and notes, you've got to keep all that other Marine training in mind: like all the ways you can kill a person with your bare hands. This does not tend to come up as often as you might think, but it's still a variable comfort for those moments in time when violence breaks out in the middle of a band concert. 

And last week, that may have been on that trombone player's mind. 

So I thought I would share it.