The first dance I ever learned? Polka. The second? Waltz. By fourth grade, my music instructor looked me over, listened to my singing, and made a life-altering suggestion: “Well Dave, let’s be honest. Let’s hook you up with an instrument that hides your face and keeps you from singing. How about the trombone?” And just like that, a lifelong love affair with brass and Bavarian tunes was born.

Sixty years later, I’m still happily hiding behind the bell, playing polkas, waltzes, and marches. In high school, I marched all four years in the varsity band. At one class reunion, a former football jock joked about me being in the marching band. My response? “Well, I play the trombone much better now than I did at 17. Can you say that about your football skills?”

College brought new musical adventures—learning piano, playing in a concert band, and in 1972, marrying a professional cellist. The wedding band? None other than The Polka Twins. You can’t make that stuff up.

My wife and I later formed a six-member gospel singing group (they didn’t need my trombone skills), performing concerts across Michigan and Ohio for a decade, even doing a two-week tour through New York and Boston. Good times. Somewhere in the mix, I also taught myself guitar and did a few ‘60s gigs.

These days, you’ll find me playing trombone in concert bands in Bay City and Saginaw, as well as in community and high school musicals throughout Bay City, Saginaw, and Flint. But where do I find the most musical joy? Playing trombone with FMB all over the great state of Michigan! Funny… they still haven’t asked me to sing.