one of these years I might learn

Specifically: I hit this point in term and I'm actually, like, halfway competent at the horn! I hit most of the right notes most of the time on the first attempt! I start getting to think about how to sound more musical!

... and then we play the concert (I am currently at home getting dinner and changed between rehearsal and gig) and I get overwhelmed by something else and don't touch the horn again 'til next term, even though playing makes me feel better (for a variety of reasons, via a variety of mechanisms).

Nice bits today: I finally managed to (approximately) play a phrase I'd been having trouble with all term in about the right place, at about the right speed, with about the right notes, so I'll have done that at least once in context by the time this is all over bar the shouting (hey, Alex, that was five minutes' dedicated practice, it makes a difference and you enjoy it, <3); and, yesterday, my first turned to me after we'd played through a movement of the Débussy and said "... can you play that bar?"

Because, see, it's a relatively straightforward movement! It didn't need a lot of work doing! I think we'd played it through once or maybe twice before near the beginning of term? So at that point, the fact that we'd both flubbed it hadn't been particularly concerning, what with it being relatively fast semiquavers that were over relatively quickly.

Yesterday, however, we had a Dawning Horror.

We came to the conclusion that whoever had orchestrated the piece (it was originally a piano piece, as I understand things) had never picked up a horn in their life, so had written something that was absolutely fine for e.g. the bassoons but unambiguously an absolute pig to play on the horn. We spent some time staring at it, and got nowhere.

This afternoon I worked out a playable fingering.

It took my first a few goes to realise what I was suggesting, but now all of a sudden we can both approximately play this single sodding bar.

And it was very satisfying.