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 playing horn? There are many reasons but one element of why you kept doing it was because it was enjoyable. On some level it is fun to sound a horn, to make and control a musical sound. You liked music and something about the horn just resonated for you and made you stick with it.

There is a point where horn playing can begin to become work. Some horn playing certainly is work, but a lot of it is actually fun and this is what keeps us going. In relation to that, sometimes we all have to step back and recapture the fun of horn playing. There are a number of things you can do to insert a bit more fun in your day to day horn playing which include,

• Try a new horn, or an old horn, or a different /new mouthpiece
• Play etudes, fun ones, nothing real hard, ones that have some musical interest
• Play solo works you like, old or new to you
• Play excerpts of orchestral works you like, perhaps along with a recording
• Find other players for duets or quartets
• Buy some new CDs or music or books on the horn

Some music is more fun to play than others. For me personally for example, anything by Berg is work (saxophone parts!) and anything by Brahms or Strauss or Mahler is much more fun. In my playing I enjoy everything from my daily warm-up to playing big orchestral works to solos with piano to playing in church. I enjoy playing along with my students as often as makes sense, partially as a pedagogical tool but also just because I like playing the horn, especially if my chops feel good, which they have been lately.  This is as it should be.

What is not as it should be is there are some teachers and performing groups out there that can suck any love of music you once had out of you. If you ever see this happening to you try to get away from it if you can. At the least don’t be a part of the problem, do your best to not be drug down by others, find things that are more interesting to you to do.

In short, you may feel like horn playing is work at times and sometimes it really is work that you have to do even if you don’t particularly enjoy it, but horn playing can be fun. If it is not for you now, try to relax and recapture some of what got you going with the horn in the first place.