trumpetnick

Guys,

How dangerous do you think it can be to combine trumpet playing with that on a french horn? That is what I am trying to do...My orchestra has only 3 horns so sometimes it may be useful if I play the french horn..I know that David Guerrier is mixing them quite succesfully...Anyone has experience in that field?

ecarroll

TN,

To the best of my knowledge David stopped playing the trumpet.

Cheers,
EC

Vulgano Brother

Have put in quite a few hours teaching horn, and was called upon to play it a few times with amateur bands, but never mixed trumpet and horn at the pro level. If you'll be playing the first part, consider a corno de caccia, or try one of the corno piccolos from Matthias Beck in Dettingen/Erms, Germany. He makes some that are fingered left-handed so the bells point the right way and the shape of the instrument doesn't mess up the scene visually (expect that trumpet players look way cooler than horn players).

rjzeller

I've done it before, so it can be handled. But keeping in mind the two horns are very different, you may want to be careful not to approach the horn like you do the trumpet.

And most brass players I know who've switched back and forth regret it eventually. (Not ALL, but most to be sure). One group I played in last year had a trombone player converted to trumpet because they were short. He played trumpet well enough, realy started to enjoy it, then tried to go back to his bone.

He was dismayed by what had happened to his chops, and swore he'd not be playing trumpet anymore.

The horn isn't quit as drastic a change...but still....

trumpetmike

I am never a fan of this style of doubling but there are certainly players who do it very succesfully - possibly the most impressive I have seen was JD Shaw (horn player from Boston Brass) - midway through their Caravan arrangement he put his horn down, picked up a trumpet and joined in the wailing up in the stratosphere
Fanntastic horn player and a mean trumpeter.

ecarroll

Mike,

Check out this link: http://www.yca.org/guerrier.html

Note that David's currently principal hornist of the French National Orchestra (Kurt Masur)

THAT is a bio. . .

Cheers,
EC

_TrumpeT_

"He captured first prize at the 2003 Munich International Music Competition of the ARD, the first trumpeter to be awarded the First Prize since Maurice André won in 1963"

Wow. By the way, didn't Maurice Andre also play the (French) horn at one time?

Tootsall

A suggestion that might be laughed at by pros but.... how about playing horn parts on a flugel and transposing? That way your chops won't suffer, the sound is "close enough" and the parts get covered.

trumpet blower88

My senior year of highschool I played trumpet in our concert bands and french horn in the orchestra. It wasn't too bad for me, I actualy thought it helped my trumpet playing a bit because it worked out some differerent muscles in my lips that I had been ignoring on trumpet, so it strengthend my overall emboucher.

But now, in college my trumpet professor won't let me play mellophone in marching band becuase he seems to think its bad.

trumpetnick

Тоот,
If I was playing in a wind community band prbably your suggestion may work. But playing in a symphony orchestra with a flugel...nobody in the orchestra will be happy about...Transposing is not a problem...I will have to transpose anyway. Nice try, but it won't work in my case.