Why I play the Horn

 When I was in elementary school, 6th grade was when you could start a band instrument. I wanted to play trumpet. However, it was 1964 and everyone in my life thought that girls don't play trumpet. Thinking back, it is astonishing how much effort was put into talking me out of trumpet. 

My mother called my orthodontist. I don't know what he actually said, but she implied he said no trumpet. My father got out my brother's toy trumpet and had me try to play it. I didn't realize it wouldn't make a sound unless you pressed one of the buttons, so my dad insisted that I couldn't make a sound and therefore could not play trumpet.

Finally, a compromise of sorts was reached - I could start learning cornet. Now, a cornet is basically a trumpet. The difference is trumpets have a cylindrical bore while cornets are conical, giving the cornet a more mellow sound. [shrugs shoulders]

Band was big in my hometown of Neenah, Wisconsin. I was in a group lesson with 5 or 6 boys as I remember. The beginner band included all the elementary schools in town, so it was huge. 

The next year we moved to Connecticut and I joined the junior high band in our new town, playing my uncle's old cornet. 

People kept telling me that I should be playing French horn. And they didn't say that because trumpet/cornet was not for girls. They said it because something about the way I played said that French horn would be a better fit. Finally in 9th grade, I saw that the world was filled with trumpet players and was lacking in French horn players. So I agreed to take a horn home along with a beginner method book. 

Side note: (9th grade was still junior high in my school district in Connecticut.)

(I will now call my instrument the "horn" as that is the universally accepted name for it.)

It is much, much more difficult to find the correct pitches on a horn than on a trumpet. I struggled for months, but I got better. When I arrived in high school, I was the only horn player in the school. And it was not a small high school. My band director told my parents I should take private lessons. They eventually found an excellent teacher for me in a neighboring town. With his  influence, I went to his alma mater for college, the Eastman School of Music.

Along the way I fell in love with this beautiful instrument.

And my father was incredibly proud of me. And repeatedly embarrassed the teenage me in front of numerous relatives and friends. 

If you ask any horn player why they play the horn, almost all of us will say "the sound." But there's also the incredible repertoire of music written for the horn, from Bach to 21st century pieces. I am lucky that so many people kept nudging me to try it. 

I'll be off to a rehearsal tonight!