You Can Never Have Too Many Horns

I love french horn. Plain and simple. It's big, bold, beautiful brassy sound is very distinctive in any performance and the wonderful versatility of its range is always a delight to listen to. Our family has produced five horn players so far. My hubby played it and so do four of my kids. In fact, one of them is a french horn performance major right now in college.



Live by the Horn by marchingbandstuff


My daughter who is a high school senior is preparing a tryout right now for a horn concerto competition. She is trying to decide between playing Mozart's 2nd and 4th horn concertos. I think the 4th will win out. Partly because her older brother played Mozart's 2nd Horn Concerto for his senior concert.
From Wikipedia:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 417 was completed in 1783. The work is in three movements:

* I. Allegro maestoso
* II. Andante
* III. Rondo Più allegro 6/8

I think my daughter is playing only the allegro and andate movements. I can't wait to hear it at her spring concert!




Horn Grunge Womens T-shirt
by madconductor

Too Often Overlooked - The Marimba Rocks!

I asked my kids if they knew what a Marimba was and they looked at me with blank faces. Okay, so the Marimba gets overlooked in the musical world. But we all love the way it sounds, right? So I decided to find out a little more about it.
Some Marimba Facts:
A Marimba is made of bars, usually made out of rosewood for concerts or a synthetic for marching bands.
They are struck with mallets to make the sound.
Sometimes two mallets are used, sometimes four, sometimes even six!
The funny metal tubes that hang below each bar are called resonators. They amplify the tonal sounds.



Marimba
by

Zatara2


From Wikipedia, here is a list of notable Marimba performers:
* Keiko Abe
* Amampondo
* Bogdan Bacanu
* Pedro Carneiro
* Vida Chenoweth
* Pius Cheung
* Musekiwa Chingodza
* Dave Danford
* François Du Bois
* Mark Ford
* Evelyn Glennie
* Bobby Hutcherson
* Jack Imel
* Alex Jacobowitz
* Brian Jones
* Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens
* Marta Klimasara
* Joe Locke
* Hokoyo Marimba
* Nick Matthews
* Christopher Norton
* Gloria Parker
* Percujove
* Dave Pike
* John Rae
* Ney Rosauro
* Michael Rosen
* Eric Sammut
* Robert van Sice
* David Smith
* Leigh Howard Stevens
* Gordon Stout
* Art Tripp
* Ruth Underwood
* Bo Wagner of Starbuck
* Julius Wechter (with Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass and Baja Marimba Band)
* Jack White of The White Stripes
* Nancy Zeltsman




Funny Marimba Cartoon Tee Shirt by madconductor

Great Music Novelty Ties For Christmas Stocking Stuffers

If you have a musician on your Christmas shopping list, these fun novelty neckties can be a unique music gift especially for stocking stuffers. They are printed on the front side only; the back is white. But the designs are a whole lot of musical fun and will make a hit at holiday time.
Here are a few examples:



Trumpet Tie and Art Noveau Leaves Design by arluz1


Tuba Neck tie and Art Noveau Pattern Design by arluz1

Violin Tie and Art Noveau Pattern Design by arluz1


Mozart Classical Composer Tie by madconductor

Cool Dark Hoodies For Musicians

Whenever my kids have had evening marching band practices, they have complained of how cold they get as they go through their drills on the foootball field. Well here's the answer.
Everyone loves a hoodie, especially band members during the cool fall marching band season. Instead of freezing their katookers off, music students can pull on a warm, comfy hooded sweatshirt to ward off those cold winds. Here are some of my favorite band sweatshirts. They make great gifts or buy matching hoodies for your whole marching band section.



Tattoo Hear Drumline by TeeShirtsTShirts




Peace Love Drum Majors by TeeShirtsTShirts