Alphorn Playing

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Several months ago, I had the luck of hearing the Alphorn's played in Gruyeres. Does anyone know if there is a particular place, time or day that one can see/hear this happening on a regular basis?

2
Very nice instrument, grew up with them as my Uncle and Dad play them, Uncle bought 3 by now in Kriens ,starting with his first one about 12 - 15 years ago.

http://www.alphorn.com/

It is damn hard to play , i can tell you that much

Now, answer to your question :

Switzerland has a yearly " Alphorn Festival ", June or July, in Nendaz,Wallis

Oensingen,Solothurnhas a yearly Alphorn Concert too

On this site you will find links to all Single and Group Alphorn players in Switzerland, telling you when they play and where.

http://www.alphornmusik.ch/index.html

* i am not affiliated with the links or companies above,i am to my dad and uncle *

3
Link to the 2011 Festival , 22-24 July. With luck I will be in the Valais at that time

4
Agreed, the alphorn sounds fantastic...in fact a group of us liked it so much we went for a weekend of lessons, which we organised through the tourist office at Nendaz. It was brilliant and once we got the basics (embouchure the same as for a trumpet), some of us could make some acceptable sounds.

5
It is a fun thing todo, one of the " must have done " things while in Switzerland

We went with 5 of us about 3 years ago when on holiday here, took us about an hour before anyone could get an acceptable sound of it that didn't resemble a fart.

Meanwhile the onion soup we had at lunch didn't help us either, you put so much power ot it that willing or not, some air will esacpe the other way

Great laughs tho but again, hard to play..how people can get clean notes of them is a miracle to me.

Funny enough, it wasn't the largest fella in the group (me) but the skinniest one, smaller then me in every way, that got the first good sounding notes out of it!

6
That's obviously where you were going wrong then....we were all women except for one man. See http://ziwa.com/new/reports189.html for proof!

7
Oh my god ! fairplay ! lol we must have looked like a bunch of sissies compared to you girls

8
Hello

I understand this is an old post, but I still hope someone can help me.

I have some family and friends coming over next week, and I want to organize an alphorn workshop for fun, or something else typically Swiss.

Does anyone have a good suggestion not too far away from Zurich (max one hour drive)?

Thanks

9
During the summer there's a guy that does this about every day around 19:30 to 20:30 here in the Berner Oberland, Between Schanden bei Brienz and Hofstetten. I pass by him while on my mountain bike trail. He's pretty good, when he's out again, I'll post it.

10
Here's a website with upcoming concert info:

http://www.alphornmusik.ch/

All in German, but scroll to the bottom to see upcoming gigs. Looks like the next one is March 17 in Oensingen accompanied by "Switzerland's largest fireworks show". That actually sounds pretty awesome.

11
In my opinion there's nothing like hearing it up in the mountains.

An aboriginal friend of mine asked me to bring him one back to Oz as he said they are played much the same as a didgeridoo. Unfortunately even after taking them apart they are too damn big to cart back home.

The last time I heard one being played was hiking up Pizol I think. Quite mezmerising....

Definately on the 'To do' list whilst visiting CHesseville...

12
Bring him a "Baby Alphorn", a Bùˆchel

http://www.myalphorn.com/shop/shop.html

13
There was an Alphorn concert last week in Zurich! http://www.s-o-z.ch/seiten/nextKonzert.php

Perhaps you could see if the performer is playing again sometime soon. I'm a professional french horn player, and I've played the Alphorn several times. It's very fun and makes a beautiful sound! I'd love to play one on a mountain sometime.

14
I've also seen them along the way up Mount Pilatus, which could not have offered a better setting for the group of three. I imagine they are a regular occurrence there during the summer months.