From giving your pickup notes character to ironing out bumpy spots (in sheets and music), Jessica Valeri is here to share some of her tips and tricks on being the best musician you can be.

A member of SFCM’s faculty since 2023, Jessica Valeri joined the San Francisco Symphony horn section in 2008. Prior to her appointment, she was a member of the St. Louis Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, and Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra. 

Our full-length video gives an inside look at what it’s like to take a horn lesson from one of the best in the business. Here are the top takeaways: 

"If you put 10 percent more thought into it, then that 10 percent really translates to a 'yes' vote at an audition, like 'YES, I want to hear them play again."

"If you give your pickup notes character, then people will hear it and be like, "What is that? Oh! It's a horn solo!" and that's what you want." 

"When you find a bumpy spot in a piece you're working on, I often talk about taking an iron—it's like there's a wrinkle in your pants. If you were ironing bed sheets and there's a big crease, you're not going to start by ironing the whole sheet, you're going to go right to the crease and iron that a couple of times. So it's like you have this wrinkle that you can't work out, and you go over it and over it and over until the area gets bigger and bigger and then you have this lovely flat sheet. It's efficient. You go right to the problem, work it out, and then smooth it out into the bigger picture." 

"How do you do this when you're not in a lesson? How do you have the awareness to be like, 'Oh I see what the actual issue is. I've isolated it and now I have to figure out how to fix it.' It's just problem-solving. Sometimes we just start at the beginning and go to the end and say, 'Well, it was better. But why was it better? Where was it better? We have to ask those critical questions. What is the actual issue? Where is it? How do I fix it? Start asking yourselves those questions. It's much more efficient." 

"The more you get comfortable, then you start to do it within the realm of possibility. Keep doing that. So you're doing it from a place of ability, then when you start to feel more comfortable, you can open it up a little bit if you want to—but if it's not possible for you, then don't do it. You need to be extra solid and do it enough so it's consistent and then expand from there." 

Learn more about studying brass or horn at SFCM.