Adventures in Tenor Horn

In August, I was invited to join a new group – the Silicon Valley Brass Band. Because I know and trust the conductor, Tony Clements, and many great people were signing on to play, I said yes. My part assignment was Solo Tenor Horn.

What’s a Tenor Horn, you ask?

Excellent question. It is kind of like a Mellophone, pitched a tone lower (in Eb). Oh, and you have to use a big mouthpiece. That has proven to be the most difficult part of the whole experience. But I am getting ahead of myself.

My Mellocasting partner in crime, Al Perkins, knows a great deal about the Tenor Horn. He is always bragging about his beautiful Besson. I used to think it was some kind of oxymoron, until I did a little research and found out that most of the top Tenor Hornists play on the Besson Sovereign. Which costs $3500.

Now, I want to play on the best gear possible, but shelling out that kind of money for an instrument I had never played in a group that had yet to have its first rehearsal seemed a bit, well, insane.

So I talked to Al about it while we were working on a Mellocast. He offered to lend me his horn. Talk about generous – I have never even met the man face to face and he is offering to let me use his baby! What a guy.

Actually getting the horn turned out to be like an episode of Mission Impossible. My friend Terri was taking a trip to New York, and turns out she was staying just a few blocks from Al’s place of business. They arranged a drop, and she brought the horn to California.

Southern California.

I managed to get it from her and started the search for a mouthpiece. My buddy Eric at Peninsula Music hooked me up with a Dennis Wick 5 and I was good to go.

We started rehearsing after Labor Day, and it was immediately obvious that this new horn was not like a French Horn. Or a Mellophone. Or a Trumpet. Or anything else I had ever played. Notes that were in tune on my Horn, were totally out on the Tenor.

After a few rough rehearsals, it started to click. And, at our first concert this week, it all came together. I was able to get a decent sound out of the horn and to play (mostly) in tune. Now I am even starting to enjoy the instrument. And I am very much enjoying the group and my great section. Paul Dhuse and Dan Smith are doing great. They both switched over, like me.

So, I now play French Horn on Monday night, Tenor Horn on Tuesday night, and soon I will add Mellophone on Thursday night when the Renegades' Minicorps starts up. All on different mouthpieces. All in great groups.

I am a lucky guy.