Today, I unlocked a true life achievement: I played the national anthem at a sporting event.
Is it a pitch-perfect-performance? No. Is it the best performance I can do right now? Yes.
This is the first time I’ve every played for easily over a hundred people. I picked up the trumpet less than two years ago. Before that it had been 30 years since I played an instrument. If I only had the time and freedom I did when I was 16! Now, as many of you can relate, I have to fit in my practice between cooking dinners, driving children around, work, and all sorts of other tasks. I know improvement will take time.
Confidence should always lead talent — this is where improvement happens.
Many people don’t hear the mistakes I made, which are probably more obvious in the recording. And if you compare it to the greatest recordings, it’s not impressive. But it was impressive to a pool full of swimmers and parents to watch someone stand in front of a crowd and play a trumpet.
Normally what happens at these events, is that the volunteer announcer attempts to play a recording of the national anthem. However, because they struggle with the audio mixing console, they abandon the anthem and instead lead a recitation of the pledge of allegiance. After hearing this a few times, I decided I would play the national anthem — all of four days ago.
Which, is not a lot of prep time for a person of my level. But the swim meet was today, so I could wait until I was ready, or go for it.
In our instagram-era, we are living with too much polish. Here is a pitch corrected version of my playing above. It took about a minute to run through the software and sounds “better.” I could go in and edit the misplaced notes even. I can even go to that last note I missed and literally drag it to the correct note.
All of this, can be done without using AI.
Single-note changes were done in the age of analog tape. Film photography has famously manipulated before. Analog does not necessarily mean authentic. I could doctor this audio up, but that’s not the point. The point is that I want to eventually play this, in front of larger audiences, even better. The point, is to improve.
Swimming is the ultimate sport for those with a “type-A” personality. This sport has metrics upon metrics. The numbers don’t lie and by the numbers you are ranked. One of the main lessons these children learn is that they are racing themselves — they are always striving for improvement every time they get in the water.
Many people came up to me afterwards, but the best moment of today happened when a ten year old boy, who I drive several times in a car pool each week, said to me “I like your trumpet, Mr. Datko.” He is a first year French Horn player, as I was once. He has not said a single unprompted sentence to me in the years I’ve been driving him and he crushed his times today.
His entire life for the last decade has been constant improvement. This is why more adults should try new activities. I think we forget what it feels like to get better at something. It brings a child-like joy back into one’s life.
Besides, what fun is there in instant perfection? Machines are perfectionists, and I don’t want to be a machine.
For example, this is a military machine. It is an official US military device that goes into the bell of bugle. The way it works is you press a button, and after a delay, it plays taps perfectly. The operator of the bugle needs only to play the part, so-to-speak. These operators get told, don’t point the bell of the bugle towards the family.
What happens when the bugler gets approached by the family of the deceased? What do they say when this family tells them their performance moved them to tears?
Why is the military so afraid of a few wrong notes at a funeral? This device is the epitome of military efficiency and all the cold, heartless, calculations that go along with that.
As for me, despite my critiques of the military in which I served, I still can honor this country by learning her anthem and performing it, to the best of abilities, to other Americans.
And I know I will look back at this post one day, maybe even in a week, and I’ll see how much I have improved. I won’t consider it “cringe.” It will be as cringe as a child’s first words, barely pronounced. And I’ll think, in another week, how much more will I improve!
