From second part to first

After a few weeks off following my first concert back, I had my first rehearsal for the summer season with the community band this past Sunday. This time around I got moved up from second part to first part, which is a welcome challenge.

When I first picked the horn back up, everything felt like progress. Going from barely being able to play in the upper part of the staff to sustaining 20-30 minutes of playing happened in a matter of weeks.

Now it’s different. Playing higher parts, tackling more challenging music, starting to pay attention to things like partials for tuning and cleaning up technique. It’s not just about playing anymore. It’s about playing as a more mature musician.

It’s funny because this experience has kind of mirrored what I’ve felt building in the agentic space over the past 12 months. Getting that first project running with an agent is magical. But then refining the experience, collecting feedback, tracking down bugs, and discovering a roadmap that will actually delight customers requires that same kind of focused, deliberate effort. The exciting start gets you in the door. The real work is what keeps you there.

Oh and by the way, how you do things in the agentic space changes every 3 weeks. At least Sousa isn’t changing his style of writing marches at that cadence.