Since I am taking time off from playing the French horn, the practice space in my home office has morphed quite a bit since I posted pictures last September in “Anatomy of a Practice Space.”
This post from last September spawned two more posts – “Anatomy of a Mouthpiece Pouch” and “Anatomy of a Music Stand (Spring 2011)” – and today’s article will update all three photo-essays.
The desk
The office desk has changed a bit since last year, most noticeable is the addition of a gigantic HD screen.
It’s so I can see all those tiny pixels better. At least that is what I tell my wife. Click on any image to see a larger view.
The horn
As it turns out I did not lock away my horn into a hall closet. It’s skeletal remains haunt the usual space on my desk. It serves as a reminder that in a few weeks I need to get back into it again.
I was sure to follow Dave Weiner’s advice on long-term storage and gave it a good cleaning and oiling before leaving it in this state.
Like a scene from a bad horror movie, the horn’s guts shine lifelessly in a metallic bowl on the opposite side of the desk, near the new monitor.
Because the climate in Phoenix is so dusty, I will probably run water through the horn and slides before re-assembling the patient in a few weeks.
Stuff
In the corner between the two monitors are the contents of my mouthpiece pouch and some odds and ends – including lubricants, thumb drives and a mute.
The large bottle of Marvel oil was something I bought many years ago and as a heavy oil it works great at one-third the price of specialty instrument oils. I like Fat Cat oil simply because there is a kitty on the bottle and it mixes well enough with the Marvel oil to produce a good medium-grade oil.
The music stand
In the far corner is the music stand. I have it packed with materials that I want to start working on in a few weeks.
Those include:
- John’s new books
- The Breathing Gym
- the 2 Haydn concertos
- the Leopold Mozart concerto
- Kopprasch
- Rochut