Old_Tom_Bombadil wrote:If I had it to do over again I would have switched to oboe or bassoon, although I think I would have been a good brass player.
I've always wanted to play the oboe along with the french horn. I'm sure I would have been good at either. I still regret not choosing french horn as I love its sound and the music it gets to play in orchestral works. Band music for french horn isn't so great though.
Brass players have to play pretty much every day, don't they, to keep up their embouchure? All instrumentalists have to practice frequently, but I understood that brass players do especially.
I would say no. I have my degree in music education so I went through having to learn every instrument. I remember having a very difficult time with endurance on clarinet since that embouchure used different muscles. My embouchure would collapse after a few minutes. My chin muscles would get tired when playing flute (not to mention having enough air was difficult). I don't think brass players have to practice any more than woodwind players do to keep up their strength. A few days off didn't affect me. Sometimes it helped me because it gave my lips a rest. I remember sometimes having swollen lips because I'd played so much. I do remember woodwind players having more endurance than brass players though.
I've not played for a year but if I were to go try again, I could still play...just not well. It's not like I'd be starting all over again though.
I found trombone very easy, trumpet a little more difficult, and French Horn more difficult still.
Each instrument has their own specific difficulty. A trombone embouchure is fairly easy because the mouthpiece is so large. But it takes a good deal of air(that was easy for you because you were a flute player). Also, getting the slide positions perfect for correct tuning and having to tongue every single note (even slurs) to prevent glissandos can be difficult. Trumpet has the most difficult embouchure out of the brass instruments I think. But air isn't such a big deal as there's a fair amount of resistance. French horn is difficult regarding getting the right notes. It's a squirrelly(sp?) instrument. The intervals between the notes for all the valve combinations is somewhat close together so it's easy to hit a wrong note when starting out. When I was teaching, one of my students was a french horn student. Because I didn't want to have to transpose, I played french horn in the lesson. I was better than her since she was a beginner, but I still found it a bit difficult. I always had what I call burrs on the beginning of my notes because I wasn't used to the instrument. Also my ear has been tuned to the key of Bb and switching to the key of F was difficult. Often my sense of pitch was off. It took me a few minutes to adjust.
We were required to play a scale for the class. For some reason I found it easier to play high notes than low notes on Horn so I played a very high scale. Considering that I'm a tenor and played flute, I determined that I must be treble oriented.
Playing the lowest notes on horn is a bit of a challenge. It's a balance between a loose and firm embouchure. Same with trumpet pedal tones. It actually takes strength yet relaxation in order to play the low notes well. It's hard to explain.
I always found playing extreme low notes to be really fun.
ax, I don't know...hearing that symphony live is pretty fun.
I got to play it with my college orchestra. It was a blast.
Such glorious music, and the spirituality of it is sublime and deeply moving. 
)
