Q&A w/ James Newcomb

Q: We're here with James Newcomb, longtime host of the Trumpet Dynamics podcast, which you can find on the web at trumpetdynamics.com. James, how are you today?

JN: I am well, thank you for asking. It's great to be with you.

Q: Well, let's talk about your podcast. It seems like there have been a lot of starts and stops over the years. It's like you just can't make up your mind as to whether or not you should actually do the podcast. Tell us what's been up with a recent rebrand, and then you've apparently gone back to the Trumpet Dynamics name for your show. 

JN: I started Trumpet Dynamics in the early part of 2016. I actually first had the idea for it in the latter stages of 2015, and then I launched the show in 2016. And you're right. It has had its share of, stopping and restarting it, stopping, restarting.

It seems like this is the fourth or fifth time that I've actually restarted the Trumpet Dynamics podcast.

And there's a number of reasons why I've done that. I tried to focus on things along the line of entrepreneurship for musicians. I did away with the Trumpet Dynamics show and had one called MusicPreneur, making money, making music.

And I can't say that I lost interest in Trumpet per se. It's just that I kind of lost interest in doing a podcast about it. It wasn't as important to me as it had been in the past.

I began to take on clients producing podcasts for other people who are really well known, they were successful, and I began to think that was perhaps my calling as a podcast professional was to produce shows for others.

Well, it didn't take long before I got the itch again. There's a certain magic, a certain satisfaction that comes with just being behind the mic and just talking story with someone, with whom I share a common interest, which is trumpet. So I restarted it, I think around 2018, and again, in 2021 or maybe 2019.

And honestly, it was just a hobby. I really had no intention of making it my main source of income or my career. It was really one thing that kept me interested in trumpet was just talking with other trumpet players.

And that speaks to the power of community, which I have discovered is the secret sauce of having something like a podcast.

You have to have something that brings people together. And the magic of Trumpet Dynamics is we all come from different walks of life. We all have different backgrounds. We all have different interests. And if it wasn't for the trumpet, we probably wouldn't have any reason to have anything to do with each other as, as people, just because we're so different.

But it's that one thing that brings us together our interest in the trumpet. And there's there's a lot to be said about the the power of Community. You hear people who teach things like podcasting or blogging or any type of content creation talking about needing to find a niche. You have to specialize, and master that niche, because the niche is where you find the community, and the community is where you find the continuity.

And if you are fortunate and you stick with it long enough, then you're able to make a little bit of money with your community. If you do it right, and you do it ethically and Morally and honestly, and people don't feel like you're just in it for the money.

And that is what has kept me interested in this whole concept of a podcast dedicated to trumpet.

Now you did mention a recent rebrand. About a year ago, I had the idea of going beyond  trumpet and touching on all brass instruments, trying to find that same continuity, that same community of mastering a brass instrument.

It was called Brass Mastery. People who are listening to this, they may have heard of it or they may have listened to an episode or two. And ultimately I guess I just feel called to the trumpet specifically.

I enjoy playing the trumpet and it's something that I suppose I'll always do. I think that my days as a professional player where that's all I did, and all I thought about may be behind me, but we'll see. But, I just feel like this is where I'm supposed to be, at least one of the avenues that I need to be present as a podcaster is in the trumpet community specifically.

So I can honestly say that this podcast was founded in 2016 and, and you're right. There have been some starts and stops. And that hasn't helped the show or the brand, but it hasn't really hurt it either. I just went through different phases of life and you know, life happens.

The important thing is we're here, we're back and we're having a lot of fun with it.

Q: So it has now been nine years since you published the first episode of the podcast. Is that right? 

JN: That is correct. This is January of 2025 that I'm recording this with you and  I believe it was around the 1st of January, 2016 that the first episode featuring the trumpet section of the Seoul Philharmonic, another friend of mine that I knew in Seoul, Korea. 

And then, I can't even remember who it was now. Another person that I interviewed, for that very first episode in January, 2016. It has been quite a journey.

Q: Tell us about when you initially had the idea for the podcast and a little bit about the process of bringing it to fruition. 

JN: Something that was preached to me constantly by my, my first podcasting mentor, John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneurs on Fire, was to find a niche. "Niche until it hurts," is his famous phrase.

That means find that one tiny little segment of the market and just focus on that. Master that niche. Become a "rock star" within in that niche. And maybe when the time is right, then you can branch out. If you want to.

But really the important thing was to master that one specific niche.

My very first show was called outside the music box. And it was a general interest, like just kind of a music appreciation type of show. And there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity for it to grow. There wasn't really any specific mission or a real problem to be solved with it.

It was just me just running my mouth with other people who were running their mouths. And it was okay, it was good training for me. But it didn't really have any potential to amount to anything. And I thought, if I'm going to continue with this podcasting thing, then I have to find a niche.

And of course, the first thing that came to my mind was the most important thing to me at that time, which was trumpet.

The name of the podcast came to me very quickly. I didn't put a whole lot of thought into it. I just thought Trumpet Dynamics. And I've been fortunate to have some ideas like that, that are good ideas and they just come to me.

The word Trumpet Dynamics, of course, has this double meaning. The dynamics, which is the volume piano to fortissimo. We're always talking about how we like to play fortissimo, and it's just kind of beating our chest with things like that.

But there's also the dynamics of the trumpet. Family dynamics, of how things are going with a family.

And honestly, nine years later, like you said, it's still a good name. The whole concept of just talking about trumpet with people is a really good idea. And to think about what has happened in the last nine years, it's made me realize I had it right the first time!

We like to think that we have to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes our ego tells us that what we're doing is far too simple, it needs to be more complicated.

When in fact, sometimes what you have from the very beginning is what you should be doing all along.

Now I'm not going to go on record in saying that this is what I should have been doing all along because what happened happened.

And I don't believe in having regrets.

I do believe in learning from your mistakes, looking at some of the decisions that you've made and thinking, what caused me to make that decision? Why did I leave Trumpet Dynamics and do other things?

And then asking why did I come back to it?

Q: So now that you're back to the Trumpet Dynamics name, is it safe to assume you're going to stick with it this time? 

JN: Well, I've been around long enough to know that nothing is guaranteed, however, I will say that the fact that this seems to be a recurring theme in my podcasting career should mean something. So I think at this stage, I'm more inclined to say that it's more likely than it ever has been that this show will stick around and I'll stick around with it for the long haul.

Q: Tell us about how your vision for the podcast has changed over the years since beginning in 2016. 

JN: So let me talk a little bit about the mission for the show.

Like I said, all I knew that I wanted to do was One, do a podcast and Two, to have it be about trumpet. Beyond that, I really had no clue as to how I should go about doing that.

Nine years later, I like to think that I've learned a thing or two about what makes a successful podcast.

And I've talked about this a little bit earlier, and that is the power of community in building an audience of any kind.

When I did the MusicPreneur show, I would interview musicians of all stripes. Trumpet players, non trumpet players, guitar players, you name it. And I learned a lot.

These are people who have found some success outside of the so called major labels. They found a way to touch people on a very deep level to the point that they wanted to support them financially. Either by Patreon or buying a CD or a hat or a t-shirt, whatever the case may be. A ticket to a concert.

And, and what I found with interviewing musician, after musician, after musician, founders of bands, is they realized that they need to foster a sense of belonging among people who follow them.

We are wired to seek community. We seek the tribe; it's part of our self preservation. We crave that sense of belonging to a community. So the people who have found a way to succeed as musicians either with the major labels or going outside of the major labels, is not about the music. It's about finding a reason for people to gather together, either in person or online.

Now the community may be centered around the music, and perhaps the band's personality, but that's not what makes it successful. The secret to success is community.

To talk a little bit about what I envision making this show successful here in this fourth or fifth iteration of the show is finding that common ground.

What do we all want? We all want to play our instruments. Some of us want to get paid to play our instrument. We all have that in common.

Well, how can we do that?

Is this show about how to get gigs? No, that's not what the show is about.

Are we going to talk about how to get gigs? I certainly hope so, but that's not what the show is about.

Is the show about pedagogy, technique, ways to play the double C or the double G or whatever the case may be?

We're certainly going to talk about it, but that's not what the show is about.

The show is about the trumpet. The trumpet is the hero of the show.

It's not any particular guest. It's certainly not myself.

The trumpet takes center stage. And when we all find that one point of agreement, that one thing that holds us together, and it builds that community, that's what's going to make the show successful.

It's about understanding our own instrument, the history behind it, what makes it special, even compared to other instruments and other art forms. And when we have that, then we have a mission of carrying on this tradition that has been handed down to us by many, many great men and women, going back centuries, millennia, even. 

Q: I have to say, I got a little bit of a chuckle when I listened to the new introduction to the podcast. You say something like, "The importance of the trumpet in the development of mankind cannot be overstated," or something like that. What made me laugh is that you're literally overstating the importance of the trumpet just by saying that. Or am I missing something here?

JN: No, that's absolutely a valid point that you bring up. And I will say that when I first wrote out the script for the new introduction to the podcast, I was a little bit shocked at what I had just written. And I decided to run with it. And my reason for doing so is this.

If we're going to have a podcast, it has to be fun to listen to. Of course, we're going to talk about serious things. It is a serious topic when you get right down to it. But it has to be fun to listen to it.

So, yeah, it's braggadocious, it's a little bit pompous.

But it's a show about trumpet.

And we do have a bit of a reputation of being a little bit arrogant and cocky to begin with.

So, it's not really a misfit when you think about it.

And I also will say that the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it might be an exaggeration of the truth, but it's still founded on the truth.

You think about how long has trumpet been in existence? I'm not talking about trumpets with rotary valves or piston valves that we know today and that we all play here in 2025.

But the word trumpet has been around for millennia. The book of Exodus in the Bible refers to the voice of God, the Creator of the universe having a voice like a trumpet. It's not like God spoke and the people heard a screaming double C. That's not what it means. It means that the word trumpet is the word that was used in the English translation to describe that awesome experience of hearing the voice of God.

Again, into the Bible, the walls of Jericho were brought down using trumpets. Not brass instruments with valves that we know today, but with shofars. Instruments made of the horns of rams and antelopes. But they were called trumpets.

Royalty, their presence has been announced using trumpets that are made out of brass or silver or whatever metal is available using the technology that they have available at the time.

So the word trumpet has such a deep, deep history in the fabric of mankind.

So yeah, it's an exaggeration, but it's not completely fallacious. It's not an unfounded claim to say that the trumpet has played a vital role in the development of mankind, because it really has.

And going back to this idea of having a mission for the show, I don't want it to just be about how to get gigs, or how to get people to go to your concerts, or how to play higher and faster and louder. I'm all in favor of that, and I'm definitely not opposed to discussing things like that on the show.

But I also want people to come away with this sense of we're part of something that's really special. Something that has really been an important part of the story of mankind.

So call it braggadocious if you want to call it pompous call it arrogant call it cocky.

I call it Trumpet.

I call it being entertaining.

I personally like to listen to the introduction to the podcast it it honestly makes me kind of puff my chest out a little bit in pride and say I'm part of something really special.

So if the show does that to just a few people who tune into it from time to time, then the show has done its job.

Q: Thank you, James for your time.

JN: Sure thing, glad to be here.