1. Music
Why? Because I would like to get called back to play in the future.

2. Lightweight Music Stand
Why? Because sometimes you never know whether there will be enough stands.

3. Peterson StroboClip Clip-On Strobe Tuner
Why? So that I can check my tuning while everyone is warming up before rehearsal.

4. Ion Balu Practice Mute
Why? So that I can warm-up at "full volume" if the stage is fairly quiet, or in some other place in the building if the stage is unavailable.

5. Tom Crown Stop Mute
Why? So that I can not panic when a piece calls for a stopped pedal E.

6. Reading Material
Why? So that I can have something to do when I don't play.

7. USB Charger (for metronome or phone)
Why? Because sometimes I forget to charge things up the night before.

8. Mio Liquid Water Enhancer
Why? Because plain water just isn't good enough!

9. Swiss Army Knife
Why? Because you never know when you're going to have to cut something or make a quick repair.

10. Stainless Steel Water Bottle
Why? I need something to put the Mio in!

11. Peterson BodyBeat Sync Wireless Pulsating Metronome
Why? This metronome has an attachment that allows one to feel the beat through a vibrating pulse instead of sound. It's convenient during gigs where I have to sightread the first rehearsal and I need to check the tempo markings and look at some of the more difficult passages before it starts.

12. Etymotic Ety-Plugs High Fidelity ER20 Universal Fit Earplugs
Why? Because some orchestras really like to place the horn directly in front of the percussion.

13. iPad Wifi + 3G
Why? These days it seems to come along with me everywhere I go.

When I signed up to play in band during 5th grade I wanted to play the trumpet.  However, there were already too many trumpet players so I played the saxophone (alto, tenor, and baritone) from 5th grade into high school.  I was a good saxophone player for my age, but during all of that time I still wanted to play the trumpet.  During the first semester of my sophomore year of high school my band director asked for volunteers to learn to play a few notes on the horn for a piece at our first concert.  Her current student-teacher at the time was a horn player and he would teach anyone who was interested how to play.  (There were no horn players in our high school band.)  I don't remember how, but I mistakenly volunteered.  Since it was as close as I was ever going to get to ever playing a trumpet I decided not to correct the mistake.  Three other students also volunteered. We only played horn on one short piece.  On every other piece we played our primary instruments. Everyone including myself expected to return to our primary instruments full-time after the concert. After the concert I put the school's horn away never expecting to see it again.  During the next rehearsal we had seating auditions for the upcoming concert.  For the past couple of weeks I had been publicly bragging about how I planned to beat the first-chair alto saxophone player in this audition.  (I was second chair, and yes, I have always been a competitive person!)  I practiced a lot for the audition, however, when the results were posted at the following rehearsal I found (to my horror) that not only had I not beat the first chair player, I was demoted to third chair!  Not willing to face the embarrassment of my loss, I walked over to the instrument storage room, put my saxophone away, and picked up the horn.  I literally never played another note on a saxophone ever again.

Ever since I started playing horn in high school I've felt an unexplained attraction to music. I have talent in other far more financially lucrative fields (i.e. computer programming), yet I can't imagine myself doing anything else. Times are not great for musicians, every year several full-time orchestras close down or make cuts, and previously successful part-time organizations are struggling with declining single ticket sales as people guard their disposable income. Colleges and school districts across the country are being forced to make massive cuts, and arts education is an easy place to target. Even jobs that were once considered safe, such as positions in military bands, are now facing cuts. Worse of all lots of people do not see the value of the arts at all. Many don't even believe being a musician is a real job, deriding it as being paid to participate in a hobby. Many arts organizations themselves now malign musicians as being greedy just for their desire to make a living wage.

Because of the seemingly dire situation of the arts there are many bitter musicians out there. Lots of them have a hard time finding anything positive to say about their education/career choice and only talk about the regrets they have and their desire to get out of the field as quickly as possible. Any sensible person would see the writing on the wall and get out of the arts, but I guess I'm not very sensible.

There are still opportunities out there for those willing to work for them. Yes, in order to take advantage of any of these one has to be among the best players around. However, for those willing to work towards this goal, all is not bleak. Though things may seem dark now, odds are that at some point the economy will rebound, people will once again have more discretionary income, and there will be more opportunities available.

Everyday I get up early so that I make sure I get in as many hours of practice (at least three) as I can. I attend as many concerts as possible, I take lessons on a regular basis, I spend much of my free time listening to recordings, and I go to as many auditions as I can afford. I spend lots of time thinking about how I can improve my playing and increase the efficiency of my practice sessions. I do all of this work praying as hard as I can that one day I'll be able to take advantage of one of the opportunities I mentioned above.

Earlier today John Ericson posted an article on Horn Matters about a major turning point in his life and how it has affected his life and his career. In it he quotes Philip Farkas from his book, "The Art of Musicianship".

Formerly, I had assumed that all the events leading up to my engagement by the Chicago Symphony were completely haphazard–a bit of luck here, a chance encounter there, until I eventually ended up in the Chicago Symphony, as unpredictably as a seashell washes up on a beach. But, with my change in thinking came the realization that perhaps all these apparently haphazard events weren’t haphazard at all. Perhaps, back in high school, when I had had that fight with the gym teacher, and the supervisor had suggested that I could fill my physical education requirement by switching to the marching band, it was not just an aimless suggestion. Was it mere chance that the street-car conductor, after telling me I could no longer bring my beloved tuba on board the street-car because it blocked traffic, pointed to a French horn being carried by another bandsman that I would be allowed to bring “one of them” aboard? … The more I pondered these questions the more convinced I became that it wasn’t all just haphazard–that I wasn’t just a seashell washed up willy-nilly on the Chicago Symphony’s “shore.” So it wasn’t jut a series of unrelated, random events which eventually put me on that stage. It was a series of incredibly interwoven and predestined events which put me there. … I was there because I had been led there by an amazing chain of events, not just mere coincidence, and, because I had been led there, certainly I could do the work assigned to me, and failure was not a part of that plan.

Like Farkas and John Ericson I don't believe my involvement in music was an accident. I believe that God has guided my life in this direction for a reason. I don't know what that reason is yet, but I know there is a reason. My career in music has been progressing well so far. Lately, I've won positions in part-time orchestras, I've made it to the finals for full-time orchestras, and I've begun to find more work as a freelancer in Dallas. It is a privilege to play and teach music for a living. I don't look to music to fulfill me, I firmly believe that anyone who does will be very disappointed. Being a musician is a job and it has positives and negatives just like any other job. However, even now, I can't imagine myself doing anything else, so I'll continue to work as hard as I can to become the best player I possibly can.

I was using a silver-plated San Francisco cup and an uncoated stainless steel Jon Ring rim. Both were still on an extended trial. Once I decided that these were the models I wanted to stick with I decided to purchase a black H-Kote (titanium-ceramic composite) stainless steel rim and a stainless steel cup. I liked the fact that stainless steel rims didn't irritate my lips, in fact I'm sure that the lack of irritation and swelling in my lips helped my playing. However, I didn't like the cold hard feel of the rims when left uncoated. The black H-Kote was warm, smooth, and comfortable. I was able to enjoy the feel of it on the Bob Ward rim I mentioned earlier.

I purchased a stainless steel cup because I liked the fact that they don't show wear easily and looked better than silver-plated cups. However, I did not consider the fact that the change in material would produce a significantly different sound. The stainless steel mouthpiece cup produced a far brighter and more piercing sound than the silver-plated cup I used before. However, notes "slotted" much better on the stainless cup and thus excellent accuracy was easier to achieve. I tried the stainless steel cup for well over a month, however, I could not live with the sound (a fact affirmed to me by colleagues and mentors). I switched back the the silver-plated cup and I once again had the mouthpiece I originally fell in love with. (Luckily, I had to purchase the silver-plated cup when I purchased the stainless cup because I had done too much damage to the shank during my extended trial.)

I liked this mouthpiece so much that for the first time in my horn playing life I couldn't imagine, nor was I tempted to switch. I decided to make sure I couldn't hurt myself in the future with unfruitful mouthpiece trials by selling off my extensive collection (a major source of temptation). In September it reached an embarrassingly high number. Now it's almost completely gone and I hope to ultimately get it down to four. I'll keep Morse and European taper versions of the San Francisco mouthpiece cup I currently use and two custom mouthpieces that can't be easily sold. If you would like to see which mouthpieces I have left check out the classified ads section of the Horn Matters website and let me know if you're interested in any of them!

I believe I'll be much better off by being a one mouthpiece man. The Mouthpiece Wheel of Doom can be very determental to one's playing and can deprive one of truly "bonding" with their equipment. However, it is still important to know what's out there. If I've learned anything this year it's that trying a wide variety of mouthpieces is a good thing, as long as you know when to stop.

After this realization I started to think about how I had gotten to this point. One thing I believe helped to improve my accuracy was my work on reducing extraneous motions. First, I tried to reduce the motion of my tongue while articulating notes based on the suggestion of a teacher I took lessons with this year. Second, I started to work on reducing the "chewing" action of my jaw while playing. Third, I started to work on being very still while I play because I noticed that many of my students who had accuracy and stability problems moved their bodies around too much. Finally, I began to seriously work on not moving my fingers off of the keys while playing, an issue that has been pointed out to me many times in the past.

In my case, all of the extra motions I made while playing can be attributed to my subconscious attempts to display musicality by the way my body moved instead of "displaying" it in the sound being produced. When recording myself I never felt that my phrasing was as apparent in the recording as I felt while playing. When I started to control my physical motions it caused me to open up my ears to the actual music I was producing and thus improve it significantly.

The side effect to all of this was the improvment in accuracy I experienced at the beginning of this post. For me reducing my extraneous motions gave my playing stability. This stability made it easier to hit notes.

A few days after the week of rehearsals and concerts I asked a friend of mine how well I fit into the group. (I believe it's always a good idea to get feedback whenever possible, about everything possible.) He told me that everything was fine, but some of the other players complained about the loudness of my warm-up. What I felt was a reasonable volume for an on-stage warm-up was apparently not reasonable. After thinking about it for a little while I believe that the materials I played were also an issue. Part of my warm-up usually involves fast articulated scales and full-range harmonic series based lip slurs. These exercises are probably too aggressive and annoying to play around others.

Now when I am on stage before a performance or rehearsal I limit my playing to slow exercises at mezzo piano and light excerpts from my parts. If I'm playing a rehearsal or concert where I feel I need a more robust warm-up I will go somewhere isolated or use a practice mute.

For years I must have unknowingly annoyed many people with my on-stage warm-ups. I can only hope that I have not done so too excessively. I know that many of the people reading this post may say to themselves "so-what" and believe that it doesn't matter if someone is a bit annoyed by something like a warm-up. However, the music industry is a competitive business and if you antagonize someone, even a little bit, there is a very good chance that there is someone else they can call next time.

I believe that these problems stemmed from the fact that I NEVER played below middle C for my first several years as a horn player (I had no private horn teacher for most of high school). I developed an embouchure that was very tight and geared towards playing as high as possible. I went through one embouchure change that helped loosened my face up a bit and helped my flexibility when I started college, but it didn't help my tone nor my low register production. Midway through my master's degree I went through another embouchure change that further loosened my face and revolutionized my tone but did not help my low register. After this change I felt that I was playing efficiently (and I was, compared to what I was doing before) however, I still had a ways to go.

This year I did not go through an embouchure change to finally produce a good tone in the low register, but I did have to make a few changes that caused me to play in a far more relaxed manner.

1. I stopped trying to drop my jaw.

When I played the opening excerpt to the 1st horn part of Strauss' Ein Heldenleben for a teacher this year he asked me why I was moving my jaw around so much, he then asked me to try to keep it in the same place. Not only did the excerpt go better, but all of the low notes sounded much better. From the very beginning of my time as a hornist I've been told that I needed to drop my jaw to play low, so it never occurred to me to try not doing that. When I try to drop my jaw it causes my chin to bunch up because I end up using muscle to try to keep my lips together. Thus other muscles are activated and I end up playing in a manner that is too tight. Maybe I have shorter lips than other players who do drop their jaw.

2. I started to only move my jaw out (but again, I don't move it down at all).

I'm not totally sure why this helps me to play low, but it does work. It may be that moving my jaw out causes me to change the direction of my air stream or it moves pressure off of my top lip.

3. I stopped just trying to relax my lips and started concentrating on relaxing my entire face.

I would continually try to relax my lips, however, I would still play with a lot of tension in my cheeks and my eyebrows (angry eyes). Although not seemingly connected to my lips relaxing my entire face made a world of difference when working on my intonation and stability of tone in the low register.

4. I pushed my tuning slides in.

I know that pushing one's tuning slides in is a very controversial issue. Many teachers feel that the tuning slides should just be placed where the hornist plays notes in tune, and I fell in this camp until recently. I took a lesson with a teacher this year who suggested that my tuning slides were pulled way too far out and that I should push them in and learn to relax into each note. I was skeptical of doing this, but I tried it anyway. Pushing my slides in helped all registers of the horn, including the low register. I'm now playing in a more relaxed manner, with a far more "centered" tone, and with better intonation than I ever have before.

5. I started to drop my tongue instead of dropping my jaw.

Dropping my tongue gives me a richer tone in the low register and opens up my mouth cavity in the same manner as dropping my jaw, but without the uneccessary tension.

Through lots of hard work I was finally able to conquer a problem that I have been actively struggling with for the past five years. It had almost gotten to the point where I resigned myself to believing that I would never be a good low hornist. However, I don't think it is a good idea for anyone to give up on the low register. I have noticed that many of the players I've known who do well at auditions (even high horn auditions) have excellent low registers. In the horn world a player with an excellent low register is far more rare than one with a great high register, so that fact gives them an edge over others. However, players with excellent low registers may just play in such an efficient manner that they end up sounding great in every register. I've certainly noticed that my low register work has improved my overall tone and accuracy significantly.

This summer my goal is to spend as much time possible playing in the low register to solidify all that I have learned in the past year and attempt to become an exceptional low horn player. I'll update all of you with my progress at the end of the summer!

Over the past few months I took many auditions in my search for a full-time playing job. I've taken auditions before, but never as seriously as I have this year. I spent lots of time, money, and energy in preparation for these last few job openings. Over the past year my skills have improved by leaps and bounds and I felt that I was playing better than I have at any point in my life. When I went into this series of auditions I felt that I was prepared to be truly competitive. I played the first couple of auditions well, however, I made mistakes that I felt probably left me out of the running. I was able to move on past those auditions without much struggle and move on to my next challenge. Then I played an audition that I completely nailed. I felt that my rhythm, intonation, accuracy, and tone had all locked in and I was playing at my very best. However, I was shocked when I was stopped after the third excerpt (there were five total in this preliminary round). It was the first time in a long time that I haven't played all of the excerpts in a preliminary round. Also, after talking to many of the people who followed me I may have been the only one who was cut off so soon. I know that I must have done something to offend the committee, but since this particular audition did not allow for comments to be given to the candidates I can never know what happened.

This outcome crushed me. I had never been so upset after an audition than I was after this one, nor afflicted mentally for so long. I had been severely humbled and my confidence shaken. The subsequent auditions I took did not go nearly as well and I am certain that the hit taken to my confidence had much to do with the outcome of those performances.

In an audition one can not control what the committee is looking for, how the committee is feeling, nor how well the other candidates play. A friend of mine once wrote that at an audition you don't compete against others, you only compete against yourself. Instead of focusing on playing my best, and improving with each subsequent performance I focused on competition with others, playing with a sense of rivalry and conceit. It was this attitude that set me up to be severely humbled. I realized this mistake by the last audition I attended and subsequently played much better.

One must practice many long hours for an audition and become confident that they know and can execute each excerpt with a high degree of excellence every time it is played. However, that confidence should not be focused on an expected result. At the audition the focus should be on creating an excellent musical performance. Regardless of whether the desired result (winning the job) is achieved, after the audition one's focus should be on making their next performance even better.

A different bell flare can have a significant effect on the tone, range, control, and feel of any horn. Yet it is often overlooked, even by some professionals, when one is looking for a change. Bell flares have four primary variables: hand-hammered vs. pressed, metal, weight, and screw ring.

Hand-hammered and pressed bell flares are made in two different ways. Hand-hammering is more time consuming (more expensive) and results in a flare that is thinner at the edge but thicker at the joint. The thinner edge is the reason why some hand-hammered bell flares will have a garland (a piece of metal around the edge that may or may not be decorated) added for reinforcement. Pressing results in a bell flare that is thicker at the edge but thinner at the joint. Hand-hammered bell flares generally produce a tone that is darker and closer to that of a natural horn as opposed to the more modern sounding pressed bell flares. From my experience pressed bell flares produce a better tone at loud dynamics while hand-hammered bell flares sound better when playing soft. Also, hand-hammered bell flares tend to favor the horn's high register while pressed bell flares favor its low register.

There are three basic metal choices when considering a bell flare: nickel-silver, yellow brass, and rose brass (sometimes called by other names). Each of these metals has their own unique sound characteristics that are very hard to quantify with words. To my ears the best way I can describe the sound of the metals is this: Nickel-silver is the brightest sounding metal, followed by yellow brass, with rose brass being the darkest. However, nickel-silver will produce less edge in its sound at louder dynamics than yellow brass.

Heavier bell flares project sound better while lighter bell flares have more control at soft dynamics. The heavier ones also tend to sound a bit darker. Garlands (as described above) add to the weight of a bell flare.

The last thing to keep in mind is whether or not a particular bell flare will fit your horn. Alexander-compatible screw rings are most common and are made and placed on bell flares/horns by many different makers. I would recommend this type to anyone purchasing a horn or getting the bell on their current horn cut as it will allow for the most options for a different screw bell in the future. Paxman and Englebert Schmid horns use their own proprietary screw rings that only work with bell flares from their respective manufacturers. There are also horns out there with custom made screw rings. I would avoid these since they almost completely eliminate the possibility of a future change.

I personally own two yellow brass bell flares. One is a hand-hammered, moderate-weight flare made by Duerk and the other is a pressed, light-weight flare that came with my current horn (Lewis-Duerk LDX5). After purchasing the horn I obtained and switched to the hand-hammered bell flare after a few months. I did so because I preferred the sound of that bell at that time. Years later, after I moved to Texas, I switched back to the pressed bell. I did so partially because my tastes had changed, and partially because I felt the sound fit in better with the local players.

When one is looking for a change of sound or feel they should remember their bell flare along with all of the many other aspects of a horn.