Hello.

Now we are going to meet a horn player on our symphonic safari adventure.

Let's go.

Hello.

Hi, I'm Violetta Vibrato, but you can call me Vi.

Hi.

Hi, I'm Leslie Bell and I play the horn.

Hello, Leslie.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

I can.

So I am originally from Alabama, and then I moved to Florida for school and I am here doing music.

That is wonderful to have you here to learn all about what I know as the French horn.

But you've told me it's also known as the horn.

Are there other names for it?

No.

So there are different kinds of horns.

You can have a descant horn, which helps you play really high.

Or you could have a natural horn which has no valves.

And then you have a single horn and you have a double horn.

But most times it's just called the horn.

That I didn't know, because I always thought it was a French Horn, and it is such an intricate instrument with all those little curves and everything, how is it that you play music?

How does it make sound?

Where does the sound come from and how do you play it?

Yes.

So I can press down.

They look kind of look like canoe paddles, so we call them paddles, but I can press down my paddles and that plays different notes.

My sound comes out of my bell here, and the sound travels through all of my air.

So my whole sound starts here in this mouthpiece and my air travels down here and goes through all of these.

Can you show me, how is it that your mouth makes the sounds with the mouthpiece?

I can so my mouthpiece actually comes apart and I can unscrew this so that you can actually see what my mouth is doing in my mouthpiece, so I'm going to hold my horn right here to do this.

So let's see OK. Yeah.

So I put my lips together and I buzz and blow air, and it goes through my mouthpiece and through my rim, this is my rim and then into my mouthpiece and then through the whole horn.

That is incredible.

I didn't even know that you could take that off.

So I know that you were actually only ten years old when you started to play the horn.

Is that right?

Yes, that is.

So what made you decide to play the horn?

I had actually heard a movie soundtrack and I heard the horns in it, and I was like, I want to play that instrument.

And I did.

Can I ask, what movie was it?

It was Silverado.

Oh my, what?

And so you heard the horn in that and said, I want to play that.

Yes, I want to know what the very first piece of music you played on your horn.

And was it from Silverado?

It was not from Silverado, but it's a solo piece by Franz Strauss.

So it's called Nocturno And I have a little bit of it actually right here and I would love to hear your very first piece that you played, were you ten when you played it?

No, I was not.

I was 17 when I played it.

I want to hear it.

So that's a little bit of it that was just beautiful, and I'm watching your fingers playing it, and I'm also seeing your posture and the way that you're sitting.

My mum always tells me I have to sit up straight.

Is that something that's really important when you're playing that?

It is because I have to breathe in so when I when I take in air, I need to be tall so that my lungs can completely expand and hold all the air that I need to play my horn.

And so if I'm not sitting up nice and tall, I can't get in all the air to play my horn.

That's really important, and I didn't know that at all, but that explains why it is you're sitting.

Maybe I should sit up straight too just like that and like my mum says, so I don't know if you know, but if you uncoil the horn, it is 13 feet long for a single horn and 22 and a half feet long for a double horn, making it the longest instrument in the brass family.

I had no idea.

Now yours is a single or a double?

It's a double horn.

I think that's marvelous.

So if you uncoiled it, it would be 22 and a half feet.

Yes, that is amazeballs.

Now I know that I saw the mouthpiece come off, but is everything else one piece together?

No, I can actually take my bell off.

So that comes off, too.

Mm-Hmm.

That makes it easier to travel with doesn't it?

It does!

My entire instrument fits in a case that is about the size of a school backpack.

I didn't know that piece came off, either.

That is notable.

Do you get to travel a lot as a hornest?

I do.

I get to travel to conferences and things like that with school.

Wow.

Where is the most exciting, or the farthest place that you've ever traveled?

I think the most exciting place I've ever traveled was I went to Greece.

Wow, where was it in Greece that you were to play?

Oh, I went so many places.

I was in Athens.

I went to Mykonos.

I went to Oh no, I forgot the name of the island.

I went to a lot of the islands.

That is so exciting and really far away.

I think the life of a musician is so very exciting.

So I also want to know what your favorite piece to play is.

My favorite piece, OK, so my favorite piece to play is actually another Strauss piece.

But so there are two Strauss's there's Franz Strauss and then Richard, and Richard is Franz's son.

And so he wrote a horn concerto, and I'm going to play just a little bit of that.

I would love to hear that.

Thank you.

It's a bit loud.

I'm just going to warn you.

Oh, thank you.

You're welcome.

I'll be ready.

That was smashing.

And I got to hear all the sound coming up from right there.

Yes.

I've gotten to see the horn in an orchestra.

How many are there in a full orchestra?

So in a full orchestra, there are usually four horns.

But occasionally, if you're doing a really, really big work, then the first horn will get what's called an assistant and they help the first horn.

They help their face, not get so tired so that they can play the solos.

So how many are there total?

So usually, there are four.

Sometimes there are five.

I need to write that one down.

There's four in it.

Do you have a favorite orchestral piece?

Before I ask you that there was something that I heard about called a stopped horn.

What is that?

So a stopped horn is a way that we are able to mute our instrument with our hand, so we put our hand in our bell to hold the horn and helps the tuning .

But I can actually close off all the air with my horn, with my hand, and then it makes this really cool sound.

And it's very unique to just the horn.

Can I hear that?

How you stop it?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, yes.

Yes.

OK, let's see.

So I also have just a little bit of a piece that goes over that if you want to hear some of that, or I can just play some stop notes, I want to hear some stop notes.

OK. OK. And you're doing that with your head right there.

That's so exciting.

I want to hear a bit of an orchestral piece that we were talking about the orchestras and the French horn.

Do you have a bit of one?

I do.

I do.

I do.

I do.

And I need to rearrange my music.

I have so much up here.

I'm going to turn this page.

There you go.

So here we go.

It's actually traditionally it's a duet but I don't have a second horn player with me, so I'm just going to play the first part today.

Perfect.

Lovely.

Do you know what it sounds like we've been talking about animals, and it sounds almost like an elephant when I listen to it.

Do you hear that too, when you play?

I do hear it.

I think it's a marvelous instrument, and I have loved learning all about the horn.

But before you go, I want to learn a little bit more about you.

And I've been asking my new musician friends very odd questions that have very little to do with music, but it lets me learn a little bit more about you said they're called rapid fire questions.

Are you ready?

Yes.

Let's go.

Chocolate or vanilla?

Oh, chocolate.

Me too.

London or Paris?

Probably London.

Yes.

Yeah.

Bike or hike?

Hike hamburger or hotdog?

A hamburger, yes.

Chips or crisps?

Now remember, chips for me are french fries and crisps are potato chips.

So chips?

Definitely me too.

It has been so much fun getting to know you.

Leslie, thank you so much for the time with you.

You are so very welcome and thank you for sharing this symphonic safari adventure with me.

Bye bye.

Bye bye.