DEREK JUSTIN WRIGHT

Self-Awareness is a difficult topic to teach or learn, but it is crucial to a musician’s success on the horn. It is nearly impossible to change or correct an issue that one does not actively recognize. A very common problem that stems from a lack of self-awareness is the presence of excessive tension. Many people [...]

Most brass players know that different mouthpieces can significantly effect one’s intonation. However, what aspects of mouthpieces have the most effect on intonation, cup depth, the fit of the shank in the the leadpipe, cup shape? Surprisingly, the one aspect that may have the most effect is the mouthpiece rim’s inner diameter.
For most of my [...]

Over the past few days I’ve been listing most of my mouthpiece collection for sale. That has caused me to think about each mouthpiece and why I used them and then stopped using them. The overwhelming majority of them only saw about two weeks of use. The special few that saw years [...]

Last Thursday and Friday evenings I played principal horn on Shostakovich Symphony No. 5.  Those who saw the concert noticed that I used a descant horn on the high horn solo at the end of the first movement.  Since then many have asked me why I made that decision.  I could have played the solo [...]

This writing is an update to my two “Friday Thought” posts about mouthpieces, 09/11/2009, and 09/18/2009.  To quickly summarize them, I switched from the Osmun mouthpiece that I had used for over a year to a Laskey.  This switch lasted for 2.5 weeks before I realized that I had made a terrible mistake.  (By the [...]

Trumpeters are notorious for their obsession with equipment.  They talk about it often, play around with new and different instruments, and change mouthpieces frequently.  They try to keep up with the latest trends and want the newest expensive toys.  (I’m making a generalization, I know this does not characterize all trumpet players.)
Hornists are at the [...]