Essential skills.

Today I discovered that, while not an essential requirement for Ministry, the knowledge of how to repair a trumpet valve is exceptionally useful.



This is why school assemblies and children's music recitals are so stressful.  A girl got up on stage to perform her trumpet recital.  We were willing her on to each note, but when her instrument failed her about four notes in, we just didn't want her to lose confidence, after all, it's a brave person that will stand up in front of the entire school plus parents and perform.  It wasn't the children that were stressed, but the adults on their behalf.

So, the music teacher (violinist), girl and myself (didgeridoo-ist)  retreated to the music room, to pool our shared trumpet knowledge to work out exactly what was going wrong. 

I don't play trumpet, nor have I ever played trumpet.  But I have done plumbing, and, at the end of the day, it's all just pipes.

So when the girl's trumpet had a valve that appeared to have rotated round in its body, it was a simple matter of applying plumbing principles to realign the airflow.  

To the relief of everyone present, the girl got back up on stage, and gave us a note perfect performance. 

And of course, it was worth going to hear the nursery sing "Away in a Manger."