The title of this notice in the January issue of The Buzz, PEI’s arts and culture magazine, caught my eye:

Meet and squeak? Yes, please!

I played the trumpet in concert and jazz bands throughout junior high and high school, as well as a marching band for a few summers, and the pinnacle of my six-year career was playing for a couple of seasons with the PEI Symphony. I completely stopped playing trumpet when I went to university, and though I continued to play the guitar and a bit of piano, my music making has waned in the past few years.

My silver Stradivarius Bach trumpet sat mostly untouched in our basement for four decades until this past summer, when I saw it on a shelf and wondered if I could still play it. I gave it a good cleaning and oiling, pulled out some music, and it turned out I could still play, and with some regular practice, my range, tone and endurance improved.

Practicing on my own is fine, but the real fun is playing with others; I wasn’t sure that would be possible where I live, so the idea of a new community band is exciting. My caregiving duties make committing to joining a band 45 kilometres from my house probably impractical, but I’m determined to at least make that inaugural meeting just to have the chance to squeak along with other former band nerds.