by Marty Schlenker
Dear Fellow Amateurs,
This month, amateur Jay Kosta is featured. Jay contributed to this column two months ago with a helpful embouchure treatise. Now, more about Jay.
Jay grew up in Cleveland and began his musical life playing the trumpet. His first lessons were at the music shop where his trumpet was purchased. These were followed by lessons from a faculty member of the Cleveland Institute.
After college, Jay relocated to Binghamton NY, which was a hub of employment for IBM. He sought to join the IBM Band there, which had been active since 1915. The trumpet section was full, but the band needed horn players, and they loaned him a single F horn.
The appeal of the horn grew, and Jay purchased a King double horn and later a Yamaha 668. While Jay doesn’t try to emulate the sound and style of any specific professional, his Cleveland roots influence him to go for a big, rich sound, which the 668 enables. Jay has been through a few mouthpieces before settling on a Conn 7. Jay found that its narrow throat improves upper register intonation.
The IBM Band reflected the company’s penchant for organization. Jay recounts that the band put on 20 performances annually, with music chosen specifically for each week, on a three-year programming cycle. The sixty programs were filed with folders for each chair. Concerts would be preceded by a single rehearsal—a whirlwind for new members, but “all in a week’s work” for band veterans.
In 2001, economic conditions led IBM to eliminate the Band. The grand finale of the IBM Band was Jay’s most memorable performance. Their weekly outdoor concerts had been drawing 30-40, but news that the band was shutting down spread far and wide, and a standing-room crowd of 500+ bid them farewell. The program included the IBM march, Ever Onward, and Billie Holiday’s I’ll be Seeing You.
A few years before, Jay had also joined the Maine Community Band, an even older institution, operating continuously since 1861. In addition to concerts, the Maine Band participates in parades on a band wagon pulled by a pickup.
Jay observed this about his role in his section: “I play second these days. My job is to make the first horn sound great.” And about his section’s role within the community band: “The role of trombone and horn is to reinforce the trumpet section…provide them a foundation to ride on.”
Jay credits The Trumpet Herald and its well-organized forums for horn-transferable insights. Jay sees many more similarities than differences in trumpet and horn pedagogy, noting that both teachers and students have to overcome the fact that fine movements are hidden and difficult to describe.
High register playing is a universal topic, in addition to balancing pressure between the upper and lower lips, and the role of the tongue. Jay once was stuck at G or A above the staff. “I was doing the ‘Armstrong Method,’ and it wasn’t going anywhere. But playing isn’t about pain tolerance. It’s finesse, a skill game with very fine movements. Now when I’m fresh, I can reach the upper C. When I’m in my basement, I can play Wagner’s horn call.”
Jay’s experience reminds us that the internet can be a great gift to those who strive for self-improvement. Jay read, listened, watched, experimented, trialed, and achieved.
How many of you out there have been led to playing opportunities at work? What forums have helped you improve your playing? Please let us know by contacting me at marty.schlenker@cavaliers.org.
Your servant and kindred spirit,
Marty Schlenker
Amateur hornist
