Raise your hand if you're returning from a long layoff

[tbdana]

I took 30 years off playing music, and returned to the trombone about a year and half ago. And I must say, I'm having the best time of my musical life! I've made great friends, I get to play with musicians of all levels, and I'm doing some very fun (and some not as fun) work. In the last hour I got called for four gigs. But it's not about the gigs, it's about having a blast, doing something I love with people I enjoy, and being incredibly grateful for the opportunity.

So, how about you? If you had a long layoff and came back from it, please tell your story. What caused you to stop? What caused you to start again? What are you doing now, and how has that affected your life, if it has? What are your favorite and least favorite things about having started up again?

I want to hear. I'll bet others do, too. Let 'er rip.

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[SimmonsTrombone]

I laid off for 27-years. I had a friend who formed a band to do Buble, Sinatra, Martin, etc, and talked me into getting out my horns. I quickly realized I needed to read more, so I joined the local community band. That led to joining their orchestra and jazz band and then being invited to join a pops orchestra. I was playing six nights a week plus still needing to practice fundamentals. I got back into shape pretty quickly. I live in a different town now, so my playing schedule is more reasonable, but still loads of fun.

[chouston3]

I laid off for fifteen years. I was a performance major but developed TMJ syndrome through incorrect playing mechanics. I was upset when I decided I had to stop.

I then had a career in church music as a vocalist. I am better at vocal music but trombone is still more fun.

I have had intermittent TMJ issues but if I rest (which I can now) they go away. They have gradually decreased in severity.

My hope is that things will just keep getting better.

I had a false start on trombone a few years ago but last October I started again and have kept going.

I have enjoyed playing in community bands and doing church solos

[Philonius]

I played for a few years in grade school, which was a long time ago. I'm not quite sure why I stopped; maybe my ADD tendencies, maybe because I wasn't really getting anything more than "dot there equals note here" out of the school bandmaster. Instruction was missing any conceptual framework which didn't leave me with much sense of satisfaction.

Of course, had I stuck with it I might have developed chops, learned some theory, and gotten my jollies from that instead of becoming a jock. Later in life I took up bass guitar and am in a band that gigs semi-regularly. The thought of getting back to Trombone kept popping up, and this year I jumped back in.

So far its fun, but more challenging than expected. Maybe it was a lot easier when I was young, maybe I just don't remember the challenges or didn't notice my bad intonation. It's relatively simple to at least make musical sounds on the bass guitar; the equipment pretty much does that for you. With the horn, it's all on you. Back to practice....

[Wilktone]

Not a “long” layoff, but I just practiced and played my trombone for the first time in 9 days, since Hurricane Helene came through. Asheville, NC got hit hard and we’re still without power or running water in our neighborhood, but our home came through with only minor damage to carpet and some furniture. We’re luckier than many. I’ve been splitting time between keeping an eye on things at home and staying with family outside the area.

At any rate, it’s rare for me to go so long without playing. I don’t play my horn as much as I used to, usually gigs and rehearsals keep the metal on my mouth often enough that I can get by with minimal practice time. But more than a couple of days without doing at least some chop maintenance is rare for me now.

High range (above high Bb) is airy and not as secure as I’m used to. Pedal tones don’t speak very well. Flexibility and accuracy is down as well. I noticed old, bad habits creeping into my playing, so I’ll need to spend some time reinforcing proper technique.

I took it slow and easy, with lots of breaks so that I wouldn’t get so fatigued that I couldn’t stop and correct my playing mechanics. I think for anyone coming back from a significant enough layoff that this is a good approach. It’s tempting to want to jump in and try to play like I could before the layoff, but that risks letting incorrect form creep in and become more permanent. Any time my tone would air out, for example, I stopped, rested a moment to recover and assess what I was doing (or not doing), and tried again.

I also stopped practicing before I started to feel tired. I’m going to try to recover chops by playing more frequent, but shorter practice sessions.

Dave

[oldschooltromboneplayer]

I'm back from a layoff too. Getting back into it and having fun. Some things have come back relatively fast, some not.

[mikeklaas]

I just started playing again after laying off for 25 years. I've played piano in the meantime, but scratching the itch of playing music with other people is just sublime.

What's less sublime is realizing I have very little of my fundamentals remaining from high school—or, perhaps I never had any. Horrible tone, chipping notes, slow tonguing, you name it. It's a bit sobering realizing that I'm a rank beginner again. I'm motivated to improve though, and have already found lots of helpful posts on this forum describing what to focus on.