The life of a trumpet player who hates the trumpet

I often tell people that I hate my instrument. It's true! Even though I consider myself good at it, I do hate the trumpet. It's not uncommon for me to look back and think, "I wish I never picked this stupid instrument back in fifth grade." Most non-instrument players believe that "it just has three valves and only 27 combinations, how hard could it be?" Well, you're wrong. Out of those 27 combinations, only 7 are used. “Shouldn’t that make it even easier?” It’s quite the opposite, to get access to the full range of the instrument (over 40 distinct pitches), the trumpet utilizes a system called partials which allows for many notes to be hit with a single combination. In addition, most notes can be hit with different combinations of keys (an A in the staff can be played with the combinations 12 or 3). This problem gets even worse the higher you go with notes being only a half step apart (the smallest possible distance between notes) and able to be played with the same fingering. This means notes that are already hard to hit due to the range of the instrument being stretched to its limits are even harder to hit precisely and hear correctly. Once you reach a certain range in the instrument, the fingers don’t even matter anymore because all notes can be played with any key therefore they are extremely out of tune. When playing in the extremely high range, I often get lost and can’t even tell if I’m hitting the right note anymore. On instruments such as saxophone, they have their own problems such as having to deal with reeds but I’d take that any day over not playing the right note even though your fingers are right. Trumpet players also have a hard time with consistency, due to the nature of the instrument, even a one-day break from practicing can set you back a week. A common saying is that “every missed day of practice is two recovering.” This also has an effect even when you do practice. If a slight change occurs in the embouchure (the muscles required to play the trumpet), mouthpiece, or just random chance, trumpet players can have a “bad chop day” in which they play unnaturally poorly. And that’s just some of the problems with the instrument itself. In addition, trumpet players have infamously big egos. I was once told by my teacher that “ego is what drives trumpet players to play their best” which is why I’m not saying a little bit of ego isn’t bad. However, when it gets to the point where those who think they’re better than you because of an achievement or two don’t listen to your genuine advice, it’s crossing a line. The point of ego for trumpet players is to strive for self-improvement and not to look down on others because you have something they don’t. While there are plenty of trumpet players who truly are kind and listen to advice even if it’s from someone they consider worse than them, there are plenty who give trumpet a bad rep just because of their refusal to acknowledge anyone else. To sum it up, the trumpet's just a bad instrument that nobody should play.