the elephant wrote:
I also strongly dislike like-instrument ensembles such as anything with a name like [insert instrument name here] Choir. The one exception to this, in limited amounts, is a really good Trombone Choir. Something about this voice covering such a broad range is really appealing to me.
Well, you can shoot me, but I could listen to a (french) horn choir (well-played, of course) all day long. I do that too, via the CD player, sometimes. I think that's how you can tell what instrument you *really* should be playing: whether you get tired of listening to it. Back decades ago, I could listen to violin all day long. Now, yech; only rarely do I enjoy listening to it. But horn...oh, my. Perhaps it will wear off one day, but I hope there is a replacement in place before it does wear off. (I can't imagine liking to hear an oboe choir all day long though; it's fun learning it but I'm not that interested in listening to it.)
Something that I have found to be fun as well as challenging is playing cello music. I have a great cello piece by Hindemith and the girl with the flaxen hair by Debussy. The music works on your range in a few cases but nothing that isn't worth overcoming. I too am at the college level and my professor passes out the solos that we all learn. I caught onto this very soon and realized that my recitals were all going to sound the same as everyone else at my school so I went out and bought new solos (now this practice has become my way of spending birthday money) and these solos have challenged me and made my musical abilities more diverse. I still play everything that everyone plays that is in the tuba studio here but I never program it on a performance. I also still play all the standards such as the Vaughn-Williams and the Gregson, but these are important to our pedagogy and it becomes fun when you compare your interpretation with recordings and comparing different recordings.
This just my $.02
Keegan
