Random Monday: Bigger Better, Getting Rusty and Desert Dreams

• Bigger ain’t always better
  I suppose just about every brass player at some point goes through a “bigger is better” phase and ends up going a little too far. Isn’t a bigger mouthpiece like lifting weights – it will make me stronger, right?

  Dr. Mouthpiece has a few words...

• Rusty musicians get a chance
  The Baltimore Symphony recently allowed amateurs to play along with the pros. While is fairly common for a local symphony orchestra to team up with the local youth symphony for a concert, teaming up with amateurs is a relatively new idea.What a great way to involve the community!

• New iPhone app
  Horndog has not seen the new iPhone app for French horn, but it looks pretty cool. This may have to be an impulse buy in the near future.

• Post Super Bowl thoughts while deserted
  I had an unexpectantly long trip back from Tucson yesterday, due to the freeway between Phoenix and Tucson being shut down. I took the only other route available – a 2-lane back route.

  My grand, American Super Bowl Sunday was spend in the back desert with prickly pear and saguaro cacti whizzing by. It was kind of fun.
  
  If only the reviews for orchestra concerts were as detailed as sports commentary were my thoughts throughout Super Bowl Sunday radio coverage. Coaches, owners and players get broader coverage and credit for successes and failures.

  Since most, if not all, sports commentators were former players or coaches, the coverage is fairly balanced. This aside, fans want, crave and demand to know all that insider information. There is nothing like someone who has been there to tell that story.

  In contrast, how many times have we read classical music reviews where it seemed as if all the music came from the baton – and nowhere else?

  In an ideal, fantasy world, music critics then would also provide the same kind of insider coverage that sports TV currently does. Would classical music fans enjoy similar, more down-to-earth, blue-collar coverage?

  For myself, airy persiflage gets a bit old.