Hi folks. I’ve been writing this regular column for a few years now, a pursuit that I’ve very much enjoyed. However, recently I received a complaint from a subscriber about an aspect of my writing that I feel I should publicly address—because I believe this person has a fair point. And I’m big enough to admit it.
As someone who likes to make a joke, I often go for the cheap laughs, and it’s high time I matured as a writer. You see, in these columns I’ve often relied on using cliched stereotypes of musicians for comedic effect. You know what I mean: the sort of jokes that stereotype musicians’ personalities according to the instrument they play. This newspaper holds a high journalistic standard of writing, and I think it’s about time I rose to that standard.
It goes without saying that musicians (and even drummers) are complex and nuanced human beings, and it’s small minded and prejudiced for me to lump them all into some cliched personality type purely based on their chosen instrument just because I assume that you might think it’s funny. Enough is enough. Times have changed, and making fun of broad stereotypes is just simply outdated.
Take trombone players, for example.
No more will I be comically characterizing them as musicians constantly complaining about not having enough work. That joke’s not clever, and it’s getting old. In truth, many trombone playe
