When we ask questions, do we get answers we need or want to hear?
“What is the highest note that you can play?”
“What is the worst gig that you have played?”
“What is the best gig that you have played?”
“What is the hardest thing you have ever played?”
“What is the worst thing you saw while you were a firefighter?”
“What is” questions are asked in every profession. Sometimes they are answered with a watered-down version of the truth, sometimes with a splash of humor to move away from the topic, and sometimes with unfiltered truth people may not want or expect to hear.
I mentioned the following encounters in previous blogs, but over time, different experiences or lessons learned take on different meanings. Something learned in a specific situation may apply to another encounter or issue to help me navigate my way toward positive results.
The first encounter I am going to revisit took place in a master class I attended with Allen Vizzutti. This will not be an exact, word-for-word recollection, but it will include pertinent information about the encounter.
A student asked him, “What is the hardest music that you have played?”
If you have never heard Allen Vizzutti play trumpet, do yourself a favor and look him up, listen to him, and buy as much of his music as you can afford. He is a trumpet master, an outstanding composer, and an amazingly nice guy.
Mr. Vizzutti’s answer, I am quite sure, was not what the kid wanted to hear.
“Imagine a trumpet player sitting in a recording session,” he began, “The strings and woodwinds are playing these elaborate and incredibly difficult passages that run up and down scales and arpeggios, and then I have to play a note at the end of their masterful passages. That note, let’s say, is the note “G” that sits on top of the staff. Let’s also say the note is to be played at the piano dynamic level. Let’s also say that if the trumpet player misses or cracks that note, the woodwinds and strings will have to play all of those difficult passages again because they cannot punch in the note. They want the residual string and woodwind sounds resonating as the trumpet player enters. That is what I would consider the hardest music I have ever played.”
Everyone in the masterclass waited with bated breath when the student asked the question.
When Mr. Vizzutti answered, some of the younger or newer trumpet players were a little disappointed. They wanted to hear about an incredibly high-note solo or super flashy concerto that involved fast fingers, fast tonguing, and octave jumps, which Mr. Vizzutti is famous for playing flawlessly.
We older and experienced trumpet players, I may be speaking for myself, felt a twinge in our guts after hearing his words. His description of the recording session is what nightmares are made of. Cracking a note that you have played thousands of times. Being able to play notes octaves above the written note, but, at that particular point in time, that simple note refuses to play as it should.
We are not perfect beings, and we will make mistakes. There are times that the mistakes feel as if the weight of the world has fallen upon you. Especially when you are recording and are reminded that “Time is money, and multiple takes take time, and that is a lot of money.”
The second encounter I will rehash is the question I still get asked: “What is the worst thing that you have seen as a firefighter?”
I know that I disappoint a lot of people when I retell the following story. However, I still enjoy sharing it and still think that it is one of the worst things I have seen.
Hopefully, I have not added details to the story that I may have “Thought” happened when the incident took place. If so, those details are insignificant to the event that took place.
Without adding any details, I will basically tell of the time when a prank one firefighter played on another.
The two firefighters always took verbal jabs at one another, with a few physical pranks added in. They did not dislike one another at all. The verbal jabs and pranks are ways that we show that we are close with and like the other person.
This prank took place in the shower room at the firehouse. One of the guys was taking a quick shower. On a side note, our showers had to be quick while on duty because you never knew when the tones would drop.
While the guy was in the shower, the other guy stood around the corner with a styrofoam cup in his hand. Once the shower guy turned off the water, the styrofoam cup guy suddenly rounded the corner and threw a slurry of red Kool-Aid over the shower door and onto the shower guy.
Fortunately, the shower guy turned the water back on and was able to get the majority of the red staining off of his skin. After yelling many words of profanity towards the styrofoam cup guy.
Both instances that I shared answered the questions asked; however, they may not have been the answers that the interviewers wanted.
Answering questions honestly is a must. When we are asked questions that we would rather not answer, it is perfectly acceptable to say, “I would rather not answer that question.”
But at times the questions can be answered in ways that are truthful and still protect the interviewer from possible traumatic images. Telling a funny story with the fire department, for example, or creating a bit of well-needed anxiety for those who know what it feels like in a recording session, as in the story told by Mr. Vazzutti.
We all have questions, and we must be prepared to receive answers. All types of answers. Answers we may not want to hear and answers that we may have never known that we needed to hear.
Right now, my “What is” question to myself: “What is the next step in my musical adventure?”