A question recently came in from a reader from the United States that was playing in a foreign orchestra. Their horn of choice in the USA was a Conn 8D, but now they were playing in a section otherwise full of Alexander horns. They were thinking about a smaller horn but not sure the best thing to do as they loved the 8D. As this is a topic that falls generally into the category of mentoring I believe the reply, edited slightly, will be of interest to a number of our readers.
… The thing is you need to fit in.
Backing up, if you have poked around Horn Matters on the topic you will see that in terms of horns I have played it all and for a good while played a 500,000 series 8D, primarily late undergrad into Doctoral and then later as a young professional.
Reality is, right or wrong, that there are plenty of jobs you can’t win playing an 8D. Realizing this and wanting a job, at the end of my Doctoral studies I was switching back and forth between an 8D and a Yamaha 667, depending on the audition that was coming up. I won my job in Nashville playing the 667 and did not dare get the 8D out again in Nashville until after I had tenure in the orchestra. I played it again later in my time in Nashville into the beginning of teaching full time, up to the point that the first branch started caving in. It was getting pretty tired, and after that I moved on to two Paxmans and now my current horn.
My advice is you need to seriously think about a smaller horn in your present performing situation. Geyer style would be a good idea to have for the USA and would fit in better at least where you are. But ultimately you have to decide what you can afford and what fits you as a player.
If you have not read them, the articles below are ones you should read and consider carefully, and actually read every linked article too from those if you want to get the big picture on this all.
- Buying a Horn I: The Question of New or Used, Factory or Custom or Upgraded
- Buying a Horn II: What I Bought
A final note being I am going to guess you have tried an Alex and did not like it, but if you tried it with your mouthpiece that works well on your 8D the Alex really won’t play right. In this respect it is similar to the Willson that I am playing at present, described in the part II above.
Equipment is a professional minefield to negotiate carefully over a career. Good luck!
Buying or selling something?
Check out Horn Matters Classified Ads!
Please visit our advertising sponsors:
Related articles:
- Horn Playing Can be Fun As you are reading a horn-related blog, my guess is you might be a horn player. Why did you start...
- Is Horn Playing a Hobby? About a year ago I wrote a post on hobbies. When I have the time in a month or so...
- Playing it on the Right Horn, or, How Many Horns do you Really Need? There are really two approaches to the question of how many horns you need, at least as an advanced horn...
- Take Charge of Your Horn Playing One exercise we did in the ASU horn studio as this semester began involved self-examination. Students were given a pair...
- Yet Another “Deadly Sin” of Horn Playing Another post from the archive, originally posted to the Horn Notes Blog on 1/9/06. A year ago I wrote of...
- Horn Playing Could be Fun In the October, 2008 issue of Teaching Music (a MENC publication) an article on nerves caught my attention. The article...
- More on the Rules of Horn Playing I recently noted an interesting online article from Frøydis Ree Wekre on the rules of horn playing. Basically she says...