A quote that just caught my eye:

“Diversity is the most basic principle of creation. No two snowflakes, blades of grass, or people are alike.”
– Lynn Maria Laitala

If diversity is the mother of balance then perhaps it’s the cultivation of our individuality as performers that should be foremost in our quest to become better trumpeters and musicians. We often harbor the illusion that balance and sameness are identical. Sameness, after all, feeds our illusion of being in control. Diversity, on the other hand, offers us the musical creativity of balancing-unbalancing-rebalancing – a lifetime process. Balance is an ongoing process and isn’t static.

As trumpeters many of us push and push for sameness, blind to the idea that sameness feels imbalanced eventually. Many want to hang around with other trumpeters who are similar to us. Many want our overly familiar methodology to cover the globe (fat chance, that). Many choose to copy performances from CDs rather than create our own interpretation.

Yikes and yikes again.