Wife's first comment

[RWiegand]

My loving wife of 20 years has never heard a Euphonium. Last night I started my road back and was doing a little buzzing and a couple soft long tones. From the other room I heard the lovingly encouraging words:

"What are you doing to that Moose?"

I then played a couple Dave Werden and Steven Mead MP3 snipits for her. She added..



"This is going to be a long road, isn't it..."



So, my Besson is now named Moose

[dsurkin]

My loving wife of 20 years has never heard a Euphonium. Last night I started my road back and was doing a little buzzing and a couple soft long tones. From the other room I heard the lovingly encouraging words:

"What are you doing to that Moose?"

I'll soon be starting a similar journey. I played baritone horn in high school and euphonium in college, but my career as a professional musician was on piano and other keyboard instruments with only occasional gigs as a euphonium substitute for various community bands (I stopped being a full-time musician after I turned 30, opting for a steady job, but that's a different story). In recent years, arthritis has cut into my piano playing. After talking it over extensively with my wife, she decided to buy my a Mack Brass euphonium for my birthday. I'll be resuming playing after more than three decades. Although she is a musician herself (specifically, a music therapist who plays piano and violin), she has never heard a euphonium, either.

The real funny thing will be to see how the dogs react to me making these strange noises.

[ghmerrill]

My wife and I work (not as frequently as we would like to) on a bunch of euphonium-with-piano things. One is a book of Steven Mead stuff. And now we're starting on some of the simpler Rochut exercises since good piano accompaniment is available for them. We also play Christmas tunes for our children and grandchildren (when they can't manage to run away fast enough), Anna Baadsvik's arrangement of "Gabriel's Oboe", and Dave Werden's (Gounod) version of "Ave Maria". There's a lot of stuff that you can have fun with, even if you're building/rebuilding skills.

[David Bloss]

Back in February, the Heart of Texas Band did an all-James-Barnes concert. One of the pieces was his Concerto for Euphonium and Wind Band. Soloist did an outstanding job. On the way home from the concert my wife said "So THAT'S what your instrument is SUPPOSED to sound like!"

[tampaworth]

I'm sure she meant well, but this is a favorite of mine

[dsurkin]

As to getting the family used to the sound of my taking up euphonium after a 32 year lay-off, take a look at my signature--While Jazz took to it right away, and curled up on the day bed in my practice room, Sherlock avoided the noise for the first four weeks. The past few nights, he's started coming in and resting by my feet.

My wife (who is a multi-instrumentalist herself, piano/violin/guitar and a number of other instruments) has been very encouraging. A few nights ago, she said, "why didn't you do this years ago?"

[JTJ]

Whenever I take my euph out of the case to practice, our cat gets up and, with dignity, leaves the room. With some critics you never get a break.

[tampaworth]

My wife has been very encouraging.

I'm a bit jealous as my wife who is not a musician could care less. I come down from my upstairs man cave after a practice and performance worthy of any of the finest concert halls in the world (in my mind) to an unmoved audience. Perhaps the competition for time.............hmmmmmm

[RickF]

I remember when I first started back playing nearly 15 years ago (after 33 yr break). Fred Dart came over to my house to give me my first lesson. (For those who don't know, Fred Dart was euphonium soloist in the USAF band in Wash, DC back in the late '50s, early '60s). After the lesson my wife said, "I could tell when you were playing". "Oh yeah?" I asked. "Mr. Dart has a good tone". Gee thanks hon.

[dsurkin]

Rick:
Nice to know I'm not the only one who took a three-decade break. Actually, since piano was my main instrument, I took more than one break: I didn't play a horn from the end of 10th grade until sophomore year in college (I always played a school-owned baritone or euphonium, depending upon what was available, either Conn, King, or Olds). After college, I did take out my trumpet every now and then (I did a stunt on gigs--I'd play bass pedals and left hand on the organ while playing trumpet), and I did some gigs on euphonium for a community band as late as 1982. Around 1982, I made a gift of my trumpet to my nephew, who had started music. I hadn't played a horn of any kind between 1982 until this past June, when I got my Mack Brass horn.