When a friend decided to reduce his inventory of horns and sell his Paxman 10 (medium belled, yellow brass Bb single, stopping valve, F-extension), I jumped to buy it, for two reasons: 1) This is a horn that can ease me into my senior years since it is easy to blow and play, and is light to hold. I took off the F-extension piping since I don't need to play the missing low notes when I use this horn, and removing the F-extension piping reduces the weight-- playing off-the-leg is very easy with such a light horn. 2) Compared to my Elkhart 8D, my playing endurance is significantly increased with the Paxman 10, so I use it for the bloody church orchestra rehearsals where the director drives the brass to exhaustion. And, this horn is much more secure and responsive in the upper range compared to the 8D.
Playing all the notes on the Bb side calls for one to practice the Bb fingerings, but I think being adept with Bb fingerings is a good skill to have. It's a pleasure having two playing horns with very different playing characteristics and tone colors. I play both horns everyday, and select the horn for the venue-- if I were playing the 2nd or 4th horn part in a concert band, the 8D would get the call, for example. Finding a good single horn, in tune and responsive in all ranges, reduces the necessity for the double horn configuration. There is a subtle beauty in playing on a single horn where there is no cross-over transition between horn sides. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
