My French Horn ‘n’ Me
Shortly after making my horn into an art, I decided to start playing it again. I played the French horn from when I was 10 until 19, then when I was 21 and 22, but I haven’t done anything with it in over two years. For the past week I’ve been fiddling around, seeing what I remember, and it turns out that playing it is burned into muscle memory. I’ve been thinking about finding an instructor who can get me back up to speed, since I’d really like to find a brass choir or a community orchestra.
While looking around the Internet for some information on my current model, I got curious and started browsing around to see what’s new in the world of French horns. To my out-of-practice eye, it looks like Holton’s making some really nice things. A five-valved horn that compensates for the half-step transposition when playing stopped, a horn with interchangeable lead pipes in a very nice rose brass…gosh, if only I didn’t need to buy a car and such. Maybe I should think of it as an investment. I found out that the current minimum salary for a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is $138,000. Perhaps this is what I’ll do after I get done with software 
