On a whim

One day during horn quartet rehearsal, I decided to try playing the other mouthpiece I kept in my case, a Laskey 70G. Usually when I switch mouthpieces, I don’t notice much difference, but this time I did. Even my quartet members noticed a positive difference in my tone. I was worried that a smaller mouthpiece would negatively affect my low range, but this was definitely not the case. I’ve been playing on it since.

What’s funny is that I picked out that Laskey on a whim. I wanted to try one, so I pulled up a mouthpiece comparison chart and picked out something that seemed comparable to mouthpieces I’ve liked in the past.

I didn’t have the same experience with this model when I tried it right after getting it. It’s neat to go back to something that maybe didn’t work as you’d hoped and then have a completely different experience with it.

Extreme Makeover: Horn Edition

I’ve been playing on my overhauled horn for over a year, but this post is better late than never, I say. Some of the work done: valves rebuilt, bell work, lots of new and rebuilt bits and pieces. Dan at Oberloh also added a brushed finish to the body to help hide some of the imperfections in the metal. That was an unexpected plus, and I think it’s lovely and unique.

I noticed a significant improvement in how the horn played. The valves no longer clack loudly (almost embarrassingly so!). My slurs are more buttery smooth, and my notes lock in better. My loud playing is more controlled and resonant. Overall, it just sounds great! A lot of that may be the horn, but a good portion of that may be because I play my “new” horn with more confidence and enthusiasm.

Conn inscription (Before)

Conn inscription (After)

 

Valves (Before)

Valves (After)

Horn (Before)

Horn (After)

If only we all could look this fabulous at 60.

Busy, busy, busy (part 2)

Apologies for the uncreative post title. It’s Friday, and my brain is slowly transforming into mush.

I’m keeping busy with my regular orchestra and subbing with other orchestras as needed. My brass quintet is taking a little hiatus this summer. We need to find another tuba player (anyone interested? ).

I attended the Southeast Horn Workshop in Hattiesburg, MS, where I visited with friends and colleagues, heard some fine horn playing, and picked up some new music. Oh, and I took this photo of my horn:

Unfortunately, this is the only one I’ve posted since I had major work done on it (I hope to move the task of writing up a more comprehensive before and after post up farther in my ever-growing to-do list very soon). If you are interested in seeing (sort of) what my horn looked like before, check out this post.

While at the workshop, I picked up John Clark’s Exercises For Jazz French Horn and Joseph Singer’s Embouchure Builder for Horn. I’ll be using the latter this summer to get in shape for all of the summer playing I plan to be doing. I hope my new neighbors like horn.

Busy, busy, busy

Since the concert season began this year, I haven’t had much time to practice. My day job is sucking up a great deal of my time and energy (I reckon it gets priority since it pays the bills ).  As a result, I haven’t been as happy with my playing over the past month.

I’m not really a New Year’s resolution type of gal, but I’m thinking that making a regular practice part of my day would be a good one. It’s like any other kind of exercise. If you do it, you feel great! If you don’t, you feel bleh.

Here’s a rundown of what has happened since my last posting:

International Horn Symposium 2009

I attended this year’s symposium at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. I performed with the University of Louisiana – Lafayette horn studio, bought a ton of music, and enjoyed visiting with horn-playing friends.

Northwest Mahler Festival 2009

I participated in all of this year’s NWMF reading sessions, including a stint as a soprano in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky. We also read a bunch of movie scores, Copland’s Dance Symphony and Suite from The Red Pony, Janáček’s Sinfonietta, and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9. I also performed with the Festival Orchestra, playing one of the Wagner Tuba parts on Siegfried’s Funeral March from Götterdämmerung and Fourth Horn on Mahler’s Symphony No. 6.

Seattle Symphony Orchestra

I have attended a couple of concerts, including:

• July 11, 2009 – Distant Worlds: Music from FINAL FANTASY
• October 4, 2009 – Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto & Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

I’ve renewed my subscription for this season, so I’m looking forward to some great performances in 2010.

Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival

I heard Brahms’ Trio for horn, violin and piano in E-Flat major performed by Jeffrey Fair, horn; Stefan Jackiw, violin; and Jeremy Denk, piano.

Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program Recording Session

I helped record film music composed by student composers in the Pacific NW Film Scoring Program. It was a neat experience and my first time playing along with a click track.

Sammamish Brass Quintet

My quintet performed the national anthem at two Seattle Mariners baseball games. I enjoy attending Mariners games anyway, so this was especially cool!

Julius Watkins Jazz Horn Festival

The festival celebrated jazz horn and the life of Julius Watkins (1921-1977), who pioneered the art of jazz improvisation on the French horn. The day included talks and workshops about Watkins and jazz improvisation and an evening concert that featured renowned jazz hornists from all over the world.

Seattle Opera

I attended the final performance of Seattle Opera’s production of La Traviata. I also purchased a subscription to the opera this year. I’ll also see Il Trovatore and Falstaff.

Okay… I guess you can see that work isn’t the only thing keeping me busy.

Just in time

I picked up my horn the Friday before I left for IHS 41, and it looks fabulous! Well, it plays wonderfully too. I’m working on a post that shows before and after photos and hope to get that done soon.

The folks at Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works did what they deemed a “minor” overhaul. It makes me wonder what a major one would entail! In a nutshell, they rebuilt the valves, straightened out and removed dents from the bell, removed dents from the rest of the horn, replaced worn out parts, and applied a nice brushed finish to the body of the horn for aesthetic purposes (to hide some of the imperfections in the metal). I’ve only had it back for almost a couple of weeks, but I’ve noticed that my pitches are much more centered and my slurs are buttery smooth.

It’s funny how you don’t really notice minor problems with your equipment. You get used to how it works. Previously, I struggled with pitch centering and thought it was me. This led me to become more conscious (and self-conscious) of it, so I bet that makes the improvement after the overhaul even more noticable to me.

It’s like how after cleaning the chain on your bicycle, pedaling becomes so much easier, because you no longer have stuff gunking it up. The buildup is so gradual that you become accustomed to it without really knowing it.

Now that I’ve eliminated the gunk, I can focus on making other improvements to my horn playing.