The Thing That Needs to Happen
There is one thing that really needs to happen for the horn today: more horn players. Especially more beginners started on the horn, and more people switched to the horn in junior high or high school. It is never too late to become a horn player.
I have thought about this general topic a lot the past few years in Arizona, and this issue is a big part of why I wrote a couple of the books that are coming out soon, especially Introducing the Horn. We have some good young players here in Arizona but I really have to believe that there could be more. The band programs at the large high schools around the state really could and should be larger, there should be full horn sections in every band, there should be more horn players taking lessons, and there should be more all-state slots for horn players.
I don’t claim to know the cause of the problem, but it is almost as though many band directors are content to not have much in the way of middle range brass. Is it because they have low expectations? Did they have a poor methods class experiences as college students? Are horns too expensive?
Maybe I am biased but I don’t see the horn being harder to teach than any other brass instrument and it is a critical part of the sound of any band or orchestra. It is up to all of us to think out of the box and do what we can to impact this issue, to see more horn players at every level.
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