csammisrun

I was looking up tour dates for Kamelot - a power metal band from Florida - and what a shock, their current tour doesn’t stop anywhere near Kansas City. Not even St. Louis. As near as I can figure the closest they get is Mokena, IL. It’s a southwest suburb of Chicago. This is not a town I’ve heard of before today, even having lived in the Chicago suburbs for eighteen years. I’m guessing that they’re playing there because of the Tinley Park amphitheater.

This keeps happening with metal bands, for reasons that I’m not completely clear on. I’d blame a perceived lack of listenership, but Gigantour ‘06 went to Oklahoma City of all places. Come on guys, Kansas City has some places where a band can do a thing like play a song

My horn came back from the shop on Wednesday, only a day after they’d called with the repair list and estimates. I’m stunned at how fast it went, but I’m also really impressed with the work. The slides are all working now, and I had a hard time locating the dent that had to be removed from the 1st slide. The valve rotors are much quieter, and they even polished the keys! It seems clearer as far as sound goes, though I only played for a few minutes when I brought it home, as I haven’t been feeling well for the past few days and expending precious oxygen through a horn didn’t seem like a good idea. This weekend I’ll give it more of a workout and start a concentrated effort to get my chops back.

Kansas City weather continues to confound me. This isn’t the first winter I’ve spent in KC, but this one is definitely worse than last year. Yesterday it was 40 degrees when I woke up and drove to work, today it was 14. I’m helping a friend move this weekend; it was going to be Sunday, but just yesterday the weather report changed to announce rain, snow, and wind moving into the area Saturday afternoon. Spring can’t come fast enough :/

On Saturday I took my French horn to the shop to get various things repaired, and this morning I got the repair checklist:

• Pulling stuck slides (1st and 3rd F slides, at least)
• Flushing the valves and pipes
• Working out various dents in the bell tube
• Removing a sharp dent in the 1st F slide
• Replacing the rotor bumpers on all four valves
• Shimming the rotors with Mylar to reduce noise

All told, only $280! I was expecting a much steeper bill for the work items, since this is the instrumental equivalent of an engine rebuild, but I will freakin’ take it. The shop offered to do a total reconditioning of the valve rotors, but that would have bumped the bill to $400…strongly tempting, and if I were planning to go pro with this horn I’d have done it, but I’m not so I didn’t. I’ll just be happy that everything’s clean, moving, and quieter. It should be done by this weekend.

In other horn related news, the music store I went to gave me the number of a French horn instructor in the area. Once I get my horn back and playing again on my own, I’m planning on giving him a call and setting up at least a weekly lesson to improve in areas that I find myself lacking. Embouchure is pretty high on that list, I’m not sure that I was ever doing it “correctly.”