Now *that's* a (Spanish) trumpet! Or maybe not...

A nice comment from an old trumpet playing buddy of mine got me thinking a bit. It's been some years since I played regularly. Being an early music enthusiast, I recently acquired a cornetto. The embouchure is a bit different, so I have been avoiding playing the modern horn in an effort to build up the appropriate chops.

It is taking longer than I thought...

The cornetto is devilishly hard to play, with a tiny mouthpiece and fingerholes like a recorder that are not conveniently located. On top of that, middle "A" is completely open, so it is hard to hold the instrument while playing that note. The tuning is very sensitive, so one must be very careful to get the feel of the correct pitches.

So far I can last about 5 minutes, and am up to the "farting bedpost" stage.

Nevertheless, I have the opportunity to play it in public for the first time in a couple of weeks. My community chorus is singing a Chanukah piece called "Ocho Kandelikas" in our upcoming concert, and at one point it calls for a soprano solo in the style of a Spanish trumpet. There is a notation that a kazoo would be acceptable.

"Aha!" said I. "A perfect place for a cornetto!" The cornetto was considered to be the instrument that most closely resembled the human voice, and the way I play it sounds a bit like a kazoo. Our director went for it, and I'm going to be wailing away in two weeks. Luckily, it is only about 3 measure of music in an easy range. Now to see if I can make my lips buzz with all the adrenalin in the heat of passion of the performance!