Introduction

You have stumbled on a self-centred account of my musical life as an amateur horn player in Adelaide, South Australia. Why? Because I’ve made a big decision to buy a new Paxman horn, and I’d like to record my progress from here on as a sort of public display of accountability and, to be honest, a large dose of narcissism.

Being able to play the horn is a wonderful musical opportunity. Because players are scarce there is no lack of requests, and horns are versatile instruments – I play in chamber orchestras, symphony orchestras, concert bands, chamber ensembles, wind quintets, brass quintets, musicals. About the only groups that you never find horns in is string ensembles, big bands and brass bands (the bastards :), although they’re also very uncommon in jazz ensembles and pop groups.

If you click on the various tags you will be taken to lists of pages. These are the sorts of things that you'll find:

  • A list of works that I have played since starting this site, with comments from a horn player perspective. I am categorising them into classical, popular, jazz and blues.
  • Random thoughts, doubts and hopes of a horn player and amateur musician
  • Accounts of performances
  • A bit of humour, pictorial candy and sound bites

And now, finally after probably at least a year of inactivity, a short report on the new horn, thanks to an emailed query.

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