That's a very good point, which reminded me of the number of times I've seen videos on Youtube where anything from a solo performer to a full blown orchestra started playing in a street, a square or a shopping area, and people gathered round to listen - and I'd bet that many of them had never seen music performed live before, and never thought "I wonder if I could do that?"
My earliest contact with live music was when I was about 7, and the Sally Army band from the local Citadel came round our street on Sunday mornings. But, when they played 'Onward Christian Soldiers' or the like, to them it wasn't just 'a tune' - or even 'a tune to which they knew the words'; they were putting heart and soul into it, because to them it was a rallying cry, an anthem, and it was expressing their sincerely held beliefs. The sheer enthusiasm of their performance just blew me away, and I've never forgotten it. And who better to express that enthusiasm for music, in public, than young players?
With best regards,
Jack
I think that is an immensely important point Jack about the enthusiasm of the players.
As an old geezer I have seen many times gifted and premier players say that a player should form in their head a tonal concept of what he or she wants to sound like and then that sound has a chance of emerging from the bell.
I myself know that I can modulate and adapt the tone that I create with changing my tonal concept and can adapt my playing style to the instrument being played using various techniques. Different instruments play differently and may require a different approach to playing them to extract from them all they have to offer.
Chet Baker once said that he abandoned carrying a Flugel, saying that he can make his trumpet sound like a Flugel whenever he wants and I dont doubt that he could.
We brass players have at our disposal a huge range of tonal colours that we can exploit if we choose to.
Our own Bruce Chidester has explained much the same regarding how to approach playing a Flugel in his excellent post How to play a Flugel Horn.
The way we approach playing the instrument defines and modulates the tones we produce and in your example of the Sally Army Band when you say they put their heart and soul into it I believe they were doing the same thing as Chet perhaps without realising that this is what they were doing in that piece, he always put his soul into his instrument and the Sally Army band I am sure did the same and the performance was as captivating for you as Chets performances were for so many of his fans.
These are the things that inspire listeners to return and in some cases inspires them to learn an instrument and I feel privileged to be part of a community that can be so influential.
As for young players I agree they can inspire without doubt, but we oldies can do so too, this old man is guilty of having inspired youngsters many times to take up an instrument.
The instrument reaches into the listeners soul if we play from our soul and we transport the listener to a better place. In this activity I am just the driver and the instrument is the vehicle and the music is the road, it is where we transport the listener to and the fact that we can do it, that is important.