Horn Notes Blog

I wanted to finish two more publications before IHS Denver, a technique book and a natural horn book. I did not reach this goal, made a lot of progress, but they won’t be ready until probably late 2008.

However, I did learn to do three new things (for me) this summer; use a MP3 player, text message, and Facebook. These have all been interesting to learn and on the road now I used all three today. If you have not tried them, these are three things you need to think about learning.

This summer I taught several younger students and I had to explain to all of them about the harmonic series. The harmonic series are the notes you can play on one fingering, most easily illustrated for the notes of the open F horn:

If your horn stands in F you can play all these notes on the open fingering. If you put down the second valve, you will get all the notes a half step lower; first valve a whole step lower, etc. If your instrument stands in B-flat you can play all these written notes on the fingering 1-3 (which is the same length as the open F horn), a half step higher would be 23, etc. A little experimentation will quickly show how it works.

I was exposed to the concept of the harmonic series pretty early on in warm-up materials from my first teachers. Not every teacher has students do harmonic series studies. I feel they are valuable; if exercises on the harmonic series are unfamiliar to you get a copy of Farkas, The Art of French Horn Playing, and work on the materials in his warm-up. (or The Brass Gym for horn, etc.)

The schedule is up at the website for the 40th International Horn Symposium in Denver July 22-27. I believe that the symposium will be well attended and I do look forward to the wide variety of events. For those wanting to make the most of their time at the symposium, I have a few suggestions of things to do at this or other horn workshops in the future.

Plan partially. You should have some specifics set up pretty firmly (like your hotel and travel!) but there is something to be said for being flexible. Check the schedule but see also where the flow of events and people takes you.

Go to the group warm-ups. These are often not well attended but are potentially among the best sessions of the week. I recall one I attended led by the late Milan Yancich at the Georgia workshop. He cleared up several questions I had about the warm-up printed in his method (A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing) and it was a great session but there were only maybe a dozen people there. I am leading the group warm-up on Saturday morning, using materials from The Brass Gym by Sam Pilafian and Patrick Sheridan. I plan in the session to not only give everyone a good warm-up but also include tips that will help use these new materials better.

Go to every presentation that you can. These are often scheduled two or three at a time when they occur so you can’t go to every session. But go to as many as you can, pick and choose. I am presenting a session on playing the Wagner tuba on Saturday morning, which will include practical information on how to play the instrument, the literature of the Wagner tuba, and performances with members of the ASU horn studio.

Go to concerts. This is kind of in the category “duh,” but there really are a lot of concerts and you may get a bit burnt out by the quantity of events but just keep going. Hearing actual live horn playing with your own ears is extremely important. I am performing with the Advisory Council horn ensemble and also in recital on the Tuesday afternoon, where I will be playing solo works on horn (Cantecor, Op. 77 by Henri Busser—a wonderful little work that is not performed often enough) and on Wagner tuba (the Bach Air). If you have to pick and choose I would suggest hearing as many concerts tht feature works for horn and piano as possible, these show the most about the techniques and styles of the individual players you are hearing.

Hear Frank Lloyd and Bruno Schneider. These names are not terribly familiar to horn students in the United States but from past workshops I can tell you that they should be among the most impressive of the featured artists at the Denver event, plan to hear them.

Go to master classes when you can. These are always interesting events. As a horn teacher I attend these somewhat as spectator sport. To explain that comment, at a master class a participant plays and based on that playing the teacher could go in many directions. Will they launch into some pre-packaged thing that they could say to anyone? Or will they really listen and focus in on addressing the problems they actually hear? You will see sessions that do both; hope for the latter in the master classes you attend, those are the best teachers.

Explore other sessions. For example the amateur sessions (I am leading the amateur session on Saturday on the topic “From the Natural Horn to the Triple Horn”), the “side event” with the American Hunting Horn Society, etc.

Buy some stuff. And I don’t say this just because Horn Notes Edition will have a table! Horn events are great places to see new products and get things that you need. Especially support the sheet music and book vendors; they will most likely make little or no profit on the week even with good sales. I will have my publications and CDs plus The Brass Gym and The Breathing Gym

Try horns. Plan out in advance how you will test them, be focused. As to what to play when testing horns I would say there are two things that tell me most of what I want to know initially about an instrument. For mid range articulations play something like the beginning of Kopprasch #10; you can tell a lot about a horn by how the notes start when articulated in that range. And to test slurs I like the opening of the Saint-Saens Romance very much. Test some wide slurs, see how the slots feel. The main point is you don’t need to play anything really high or low at first; the important thing is to see how it feels generally right in the heart of the range. If it feels good there work your way out to both ends of the horn. If it does not, don’t waste your time; move on to the next instrument.

Practice your normal routine. Try to keep some elements of your normal routine going well, you will have a better experience trying horns and such if your chops feel normal.

Go to the banquet and other social events. These are usually memorable and worth attending.

Give some appreciation where it is due. I know I enjoy meeting people who have read this blog for example. There will be a lot of people at the event that have put a lot of effort into various horn related endeavors, be sure to let them know that you appreciate what they are doing.

Get some rest. Don’t play quartets or practice excerpts at midnight. Please! I would really like to get enough sleep, and your chops will do better with some decent rest too.

Do something else fun, not horn related. Finally, I don’t know when I will do it, the schedule is really tight and I have a booth, but myself I certainly plan to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden (Denver area) sometime. I have been there three or four times previously, the last time being I believe the summer I was in the National Repertory Orchestra in 1986. Must go back. Also Caboose Hobbies is not far away from the event site and is one of the largest hobby shops in the world; I have a list of things I am looking for ready for my visit there.

Again, enjoy the event if you can attend and if not hopefully the above has given you ideas you can apply to other events you may attend in the future.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the Southwest Corps Connection, an event in the Drum Corps International “summer music games.” Five groups performed at the stadium in Glendale, Arizona including three world class groups, The Academy, Phantom Regiment, and Santa Clara Vanguard. My daughter was with me and made me rate them. Some impressions:

Academy. I liked the music selection with the Mozart excerpts and the overall effect. The crowd was really pulling for them for sure and the low brass sounded great. The mellophones did well too but the high brass came across not as strong as it needs to be. They are playing the new Jupiter line of marching brass. I gave them a 73. One note for those that might hear them later in the summer, their scoring in the brass is a bit different than most corps, more like a brass band than others with Flugelhorns in the mix.

Phantom Regiment. When I saw the list of works in their show I flipped, the opener is Ein Heldenleben! As a hornist I was a little disappointed to hear they didn’t do the opening excerpt we all know and love but where they started was certainly a better opener and impressive. The group had a noticeably bigger sound on the field (King) and the mellophones had a number of great screaming high Cs. A great show with a big finale, I gave them an 80.

Santa Clara Vanguard. Their opener was also a wow and a bigger wow really, with the John Adams The Chairman Dances which I have played a number of times in orchestra. Very impressive opener. For me personally the show drug on a bit toward the end as the music became unrecognizable but they had a big sound (Yamaha) and are contenders! I also gave them an 80.

My daughter didn’t like that my scores left two groups tied so we decided that we would give the edge to the Phantom Regiment. We had to wait for the real scores and found out that The Academy got a 70, Phantom Regiment 80.5, and Santa Clara Vanguard an 80.6! My daughter was impressed I was so close but did not agree with the result. We liked the Phantom Regiment show better but I can see why in judging the Santa Clara Vanguard might have come off better. In all the groups though there are many small things to improve, spacing between people, lines, intonation, etc., that they will work on until the finals in Indianapolis.

I should also mention that two open class corps performed, the Velvet Knights and Mystikal. The Velvet Knights also did a nice job with their show, they got at 65, and we enjoyed hearing them at the end of their warm-ups before the event.

At the very end of the event the combined brass lines of The Academy and Phantom Regiment performed together. It was interesting to hear the big sound from all those players but there were noticeable intonation problems in the trumpets.

In any event, a memorable evening and if you have the opportunity later in the summer it is worth going to a drum corps event of this type, lots of entertainment value and an activity that many horn players are involved in.

Over the past six months I have had a number of requests for purchase of The Breathing Gym by tuba virtuosi Sam Pilafian and Patrick Sheridan. This book of exercises to improve breath control and airflow was their original publication and has certainly made an impact on brass playing around the world. In short, they really know breathing and present their exercises very clearly in this product.

The authors developed these popular and practical materials to teach their students to reach their highest performance level. For me personally these exercises have definitely made a positive impact on my playing as I age; I have been able to retain and perhaps even increase lung capacity these past few years. The book presents twenty-nine different exercises and fifteen breathing routines, which are explained and demonstrated well in the DVD. This is definitely a material to become familiar with if you wish to reach your highest level as a performer. The book and DVD combination sells for $59.95; I will have copies available at the horn symposium in Denver and it is now available for online purchase at Horn Notes Edition.

UPDATE: One other note, these materials really are not just for tuba players! I find that many horn players get by with weak breathing skills; for them working out better breathing really is a key to reaching the next level.

This is another post from the archive, dated 7/12/2004, when I was performing Principal Horn and teaching at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina. Who likes to miss notes? I don’t.

Last night I performed first horn on the Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Weber by Paul Hindemith, the Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 of Robert Schumann, and Scheherazade, Op. 35 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov with the Brevard Music Center Festival Orchestra. It went well, but working on this concert in particular I felt like I had to give special attention as I practiced to soft, first note attacks.

Not to give anyone who reads this unnecessary concern, but speaking generally, there are a lot of soft attacks in orchestral works and they can make or break performances.

This past year at ASU we had the opportunity to have a pair of horn master classes with Gunther Schuller, better known today as a conductor and composer but he was, earlier in his career, principal hornist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. In his book Horn Techniques he describes his warm-up, which in a sense is a little extreme, but it consists mostly of repeated, soft attacks in the following pattern. To begin the pattern, on beat four you breathe in. On beats one and two you play a half note. On beat three you breathe out, followed by repeating the pattern. Play three or four half note patterns, then play a whole note, a whole rest, and continue on another pitch. The action of breathing in and starting the note is the focus, that nothing locks up, that everything happens in one motion. Use a metronome or tap your foot; you want the timing of the soft attack to be very secure.

Think of the music an operatic hornist plays–it is literally full of soft entrances. This may be why this routine was so important to Gunther Schuller. You want to play with style and dynamics and all but soft attacks are what set the best players apart. Schuller in his master class spoke of this type of routine in almost magical terms, that after a performance of say Wagner in the afternoon followed in the evening by Mozart, that this routine was “a balm, an elixir” for the lips.

A similar patter may be found it the Singer book as well (Embouchure Building). I usually do this pattern going either up or down starting on F on the first space, but will vary the exact pattern of pitches (around the circle of fifths, etc.). The main new idea for me lately is to practice a pattern like this as soft as possible. I used to in the past do this type of routine daily as part of my warm-up, and this summer I am adding it back in and getting my students on to it as well.

The other thing I did on the concert yesterday was consciously apply a “trick” to feel the set of the embouchure before I played the most exposed notes. One of my more influential former teachers is Nicholas Smith at Wichita State University, who will be giving a master class at Brevard this summer. He has been working on a book on first note accuracy for some time and some of his preliminary writings on this topic may be found online at Don’t Miss: Some Random Ideas and Reminders for Improving Accuracy. In short, I was most interested this item:

If after a long rest, you must play a delicate or touchy entrance, put the mouthpiece up to your lips several bars before the entrance and try to approximate the amount of air and mouthpiece pressure you will need without actually playing the note. Give yourself just enough rest to feel fresh for the entrance, and then “set up” for the note as you normally would. By experimenting with this little “trick,” better first note attacks should be achieved. Also, during a long rest, put the mouthpiece up to the lips several times and approximate the needed pressure for that entrance in the distance. Keep blowing warm air into the horn. Don’t allow your horn to get cold and your concentration to lapse. Don’t let down!

It may be a mental thing to a point, but it works! Feel free to give it a try.

Don’t let accuracy concerns worry you too much, you want to just go for things, but, for specific spots where you don’t want to miss these are good ways to approach first note accuracy.

When I was a Doctoral student I traveled one time from IU to the Historic Brass Society event in Amherst with Rick Seraphinoff and Viola Roth by car. To keep in shape on the road Rick had developed a “crook” that was mostly made out of half inch vinyl tube that plugged into a natural horn. It put the horn into as I recall C basso or D. The horn would be in a partially open gig bag in the back seat, behind the driver. You could have a nice workout on it driving down a smooth, rural section of interstate.

The thought of this instrument came back to mind for me looking at all the car travel I have the weeks before the horn symposium in Denver, driving all the way to New York state and back, where I certainly plan to have the chops in top shape. I won’t be able to take along the natural horn, I have three other instruments to manage and a lot of books, but another thought occurred to me, to make a Hosaphone™ horn in C or D.

I have had a link to the Hosaphone™ headquarters in my links page for years (check out the FAQ on this low-cost valveless trumpet for the post-modern age, it is great). Knowing that C basso should be roughly 16 feet of tubing, I purchased 20 feet of half inch tubing and had at it. I cut about three feet off and with the short lead pipe of 3/8 inch tubing added the instrument plays in C-sharp, a good compromise as I had been undecided about building it in C or in D.

The finished product came out nicely. The intonation is a bit rough but there are plenty of high harmonics to surf while rolling down a lonely highway, definitely better than just mouthpiece buzzing and isometrics.

I have long been fascinated by the legendary brass teaching of Carmine Caruso (1904-1987). He was a saxophone player but earned a reputation as a builder and re-builder of embouchures, working with many brass players over his long career.

The best known of his publications is Musical Calisthenics for Brass. This publication itself is somewhat unstructured and difficult to figure out without instruction from someone who actually worked with Caruso.

In my own case I have used a Caruso routine for many years, learned from David Wakefield and based on the approach of Julie Landsman, Principal Horn at the Met, who worked with Caruso; I later saw her present on Caruso at the Georgia IHS symposium which further clarified her approach. I started doing Caruso regularly when I was playing in Nashville to solidify the top end of my range, and come back to it periodically.

Last week however preparing for episode 50 of The Mellocast I learned of a new resource! It is the book FLEXUS: Trumpet Calesthenics for the Modern Improvisor by Laurie Frink & John McNeil. There are several reasons a horn player might not notice this coming out, as it is a trumpet book and related to improvisation. But there is a big reason to check it out too as it is based on Caruso methods and is by players who worked closely with Caruso. The publication gives a number of insights into how to use Caruso exercises in horn playing.

Looking online I see more resources I was not aware of. In relation to the horn Frink is quoted by hornist Lucinda Lewis in her article “The Extraordinary Carmine Caruso,”

The Caruso method, she said, isn’t composed of generic, one-size-fits-all playing exercises; rather, it is made up of prescriptive exercises that are designed specifically for each individual player’s needs—exercises that can “link” a player’s good mechanics into his/her problem area. It is sometimes necessary for the exercises to be adjusted, based upon what is working and what is not. These exercises can only be devised by those few players who have a thorough understanding of Carmine’s technique. Frink cautioned that the exercises in Caruso’s book are largely worthless and perhaps even a bit dangerous without a concise understanding of his whole method.

Which is why I am hesitant to post online a specific routine, but I do feel that Caruso is valuable.

If you still wish to experiment with Caruso exercises on your own I learned of another great Caruso resource via The Mellocast, the Caruso forum at trumpetherald.com. If you have never been there, this is an interesting resource itself, different than anything we have in horn. This particular forum has great information on how to develop a Caruso routine from people who actually worked directly with Carmine. As he passed on over twenty years ago this information is quite valuable, and it has given me more insights as to how to apply this to my own playing and teaching.

In short, if you have an interest in learning more about building your embouchure with Caruso studies there are resources out there, and also check out Flexus, it is a most interesting publication.

Another post from the archive, this dates to 7/2/2004 and is a favorite of mine.

As I type these words I am at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina for my fifth summer, teaching half of the 16 student horn studio (9 college students and 7 advanced high school students–there are two divisions of students at Brevard–Jean Martin-Williams from the University of Georgia is the other half of the horn faculty) and performing principal horn in the top (of three) orchestras, the faculty/student Brevard Music Center Festival Orchestra. Works on the schedule for me this summer include Tchaik 4, Symphonic Metamorphisis, Scherazade, Dvorak 9, Gershwin and Pops concerts, two operas, several major Wagner excerpts, and Mahler 5. Not so long ago, I was on the other side of things at a summer music festival–a student at a summer music festival–and as one of my students this summer is working on an embouchure change my mind has been brought back to my first summer festival experience.

In the summer of 1982 I was between my sophomore and junior years of college and had the previous semester changed my major to horn performance from music business. I was accepted that summer to study at the Aspen Music Festival and went to Colorado for the first of three summers of intense study. After seating auditions I was somewhat surprised but the horn faculty felt as a group that I needed to change my embouchure. My teacher at Aspen, David Wakefield, knowing already that my teacher at Emporia State (my undergraduate school, a small college in Kansas) was a friend of his parents in Oklahoma and a trombonist, felt that this was something that needed to be attempted now. Up to that point I had played the horn 1/3 upper lip and 2/3 lower lip. It was a long but focused summer of study; I worked a lot on Mozart 1 and Kopprasch in low transpositions, went to lots of great concerts, played in the horn choir, a brass quintet, and all my assigned ensemble seatings (only performed one orchestral concert–fourth horn on Lt. Kije), and watched a lot of Cubs games. I learned a great deal that summer. As I was about to leave my last lesson Dr. Wakefield said he wanted to leave me with a deep thought, something that would propel me through the next year of study. Striking a somewhat Wagnerian pose, his final words to me that summer were “strive for tone.”

I know that he would have no special reason to remember this moment in a life but I have had it firmly in a corner of my mind for years. Not only was the whole summer very pivotal for me as a hornist, the longer I teach the more I understand the truth of his comment: if you have a full, round tone in all registers and dynamics this is a sure sign that many aspects of your playing are fundamentally correct. So, if you “strive for tone,” you will probably keep on track pretty well as a student of the horn. He also probably didn’t mean for me to take the comment so deeply, of course, but this reminds me yet again that the small and large things we do and say impact others in a variety of ways.

So this summer especially, “strive for tone.”

One thing I have noted with the improved statistics available with the enhancements to this blog is that there are many visitors interested in the mellophone. In relation to that, I have converted into full scale articles several of what were originally blog posts. In “My Mellophonium Mood” I discuss my experiences playing the classic Conn 16E Mellophonium, an instrument notably used by the Stan Kenton orchestra in a number of recordings and also used by the great Don Elliott, and in “Mellophone Mouthpiece Options” I combine the best of a group of posts on mellophone mouthpieces. Both are online bonus materials to my publication, A Mello Catechism, available from Horn Notes Edition.