critique wanted A True True Friend Septet. Am I being too tough on my french horn player

[Tritone 3]

I am a bit of beginner when it comes to making music so I would love to know if I am asking a lot from my French horn/mello player and please Note that this is meant for Intermediate to advanced players so her is the link to an excerpt of my upcoming project A True True Friend for mixed Septet. I will also take any and all Ideas

https://twitter.com/TritoneTrumpet/status/686129110377181184
Instrumentation
Twilight: Clarinet
Fluttershy: Piccolo
Rainbow: Trumpet

Rarity: French Horn
Applejack: Baritone
Pinkie: Tube/Trombone

[Bass Concerto 27]

I would have a hard time seeing a french horn playing that successfully—at least, one that's not a professional, and even there I'm not sure as I don't play brass. You can probably make the whole thing staccato eighth notes (with a few places to breathe, of course) and not lose the feel. That, or you could make the line jump around between instruments. It's up to you, really, but here are my suggestions.

[SteelSpark 124]

That sounds really nice!   keep up the good work!

 

 

you rock! woohoo!  

[BlueBrony 388]

I am a french horn player. The range is good, but the jumps and accidentals are crazy hard, especially at that tempo. It is really easy for Horns to miss notes in the upper register (because they are very close mechanics wise). Here's what I would suggest- in some parts you can have the horn do big jumps, but I wouldn't do any faster than eighth notes for those jumps. the horn can do faster runs on notes that are spaced close together. Also, I would try to make the accidentals all sharps or all flats in that section because it would be a little easier to read (it follows convention better)

 

-On closer inspection, it might actually be better if you utilized a key change at that part rather than have a ton of extra accidentals. If I did my transposition right, I think it is in the key of concert A

 

Also, keep it up! you can only get better with more experience!

Edited January 13, 2016 by BlueBrony

[Bass Concerto 27]

^ That. Listen to BlueBrony about everything. Except the key; looking at the trombone part, it looks like it's in the key of B. But everything else they say is good. Especially the part about choosing either sharps or flats. See, a musician kinda has two "modes" in their brain; sharp mode and flat mode. Which one's easier depends on the musician, but no matter who you ask, reading all sharps or all flats is ALWAYS easier than reading both sharps and flats. i hope this makes sense; I'm not always the best at explaining things. Oh well.

[Tritone 3]

I would have a hard time seeing a french horn playing that successfully—at least, one that's not a professional, and even there I'm not sure as I don't play brass. You can probably make the whole thing staccato eighth notes (with a few places to breathe, of course) and not lose the feel. That, or you could make the line jump around between instruments. It's up to you, really, but here are my suggestions.

 

 

I am a french horn player. The range is good, but the jumps and accidentals are crazy hard, especially at that tempo. It is really easy for Horns to miss notes in the upper register (because they are very close mechanics wise). Here's what I would suggest- in some parts you can have the horn do big jumps, but I wouldn't do any faster than eighth notes for those jumps. the horn can do faster runs on notes that are spaced close together. Also, I would try to make the accidentals all sharps or all flats in that section because it would be a little easier to read (it follows convention better)

 

-On closer inspection, it might actually be better if you utilized a key change at that part rather than have a ton of extra accidentals. If I did my transposition right, I think it is in the key of concert A

 

Also, keep it up! you can only get better with more experience!

 

 

^ That. Listen to BlueBrony about everything. Except the key; looking at the trombone part, it looks like it's in the key of B. But everything else they say is good. Especially the part about choosing either sharps or flats. See, a musician kinda has two "modes" in their brain; sharp mode and flat mode. Which one's easier depends on the musician, but no matter who you ask, reading all sharps or all flats is ALWAYS easier than reading both sharps and flats. i hope this makes sense; I'm not always the best at explaining things. Oh well.

Thanks to both of you means a lot to get help on this. As for the crazy part I am going to have the parts jump between Piccolo and Clarinet which will eventually come together on the last two measures of the run. Now for the key I will find a way to change it when the final project is done as Finale Notepad does not let me change it because I do not have the full version.

 

That sounds really nice!   keep up the good work!

 

 

you rock! woohoo!  

Thanks Steel will do!!!

[Bass Concerto 27]

Maaaaan, I can't use finale. I prefer to use my keyboard to input. If you're looking for a free software, Musescore's a nice one. It gets a bit of a bad rep since ANYONE can use it, but if you pay some attention to formatting and stuff, it can look as good as finale, and can do most things finale can as well. I'm a composition major, and I've been using musescore here at college and it's worked well enough so far. musescore.org , if you care to look.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Bass Concerto