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The Thing That Needs to Happen

December 1, 2007 by John Ericson

There is one thing that really needs to happen for the horn today: more horn players. Especially more beginners started on the horn, and more people switched to the horn in junior high or high school. It is never too late to become a horn player.

I have thought about this general topic a lot the past few years in Arizona, and this issue is a big part of why I wrote a couple of the books that are coming out soon, especially Introducing the Horn. We have some good young players here in Arizona but I really have to believe that there could be more. The band programs at the large high schools around the state really could and should be larger, there should be full horn sections in every band, there should be more horn players taking lessons, and there should be more all-state slots for horn players.

I don’t claim to know the cause of the problem, but it is almost as though many band directors are content to not have much in the way of middle range brass. Is it because they have low expectations? Did they have a poor methods class experiences as college students? Are horns too expensive?

Maybe I am biased but I don’t see the horn being harder to teach than any other brass instrument and it is a critical part of the sound of any band or orchestra. It is up to all of us to think out of the box and do what we can to impact this issue, to see more horn players at every level.

Beginners, French horn teaching

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  1. #1 by Max on 12/03/2007 - 6:33 PM

    Hi John, is there really a shortage of Horn players? That is really quite sad to hear!

    In Singapore, we’re trying to give horn playing a boost!

    http://www.hornasylum.com

  2. #2 by Mark on 12/14/2007 - 11:39 AM

    i think also that our popular music has little in the way of middle or any sort. Things are recorded with lots of high end and the “important” instruments are all soprano or tenor voices (including voices) and everything is much, much louder. I’m sure there are many reasons for this, from the basic problems of early recording technology to our focus on “being number one” read: playing “melody” or solo instruments. It doesn’t help that our instrument manufacturers often lump the Horns and Low Brass together under a heading like “Harmony Brass” or “Background Instruments” (yes, I’ve actually seen this!)

    Frustrating, no?

  3. #3 by greg on 12/17/2007 - 10:49 PM

    I think horns are often “too expensive.” For a large school district with a decent budget, it’s not a big deal. When the districts don’t have the money for either new horns or adequate money to keep school-owned instruments in good repair, the horn only becomes more difficult for students. And the horns many of the local shops rent aren’t great either. Buying a horn outright is rough for many folks too.

    One thing that strikes me as weird in Arizona is how there are often many school districts in a contiguous community. Tucson has something like 9 public school districts. If all those districts could pool their money, it’s likely that they afford better equipment for music classes (and science labs, sports teams, etc.).

  4. #4 by John Ericson on 12/20/2007 - 8:36 AM

    Thank you for these comments. To them I would add that another unusual thing in Arizona is that the High School districts are different than the Elementary School districts, so the programs don’t feed across as well as they might in other places. Where I grew up, in Kansas, the school district was the same K-12.

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