Archived under: Publications, Teaching | Descants & Triples
The Modern Horn Teacher
I recently had a question posed to me about classic and modern horn teaching methods. In terms of myself, I aim to be practical and effective –I believe my approach is a hybrid between the two extremes.
To my mind the ultimate “classic” horn teacher would be an old-school type who has you work only on Kopprasch until you are “ready” to play other music, which you may never be. There is much to be said for classic methods and teaching, Kopprasch is great stuff for teaching some essential skills, but you have to balance it with other materials as part of an overall approach to learning to play the horn.
One element of modern teaching is certainly keeping up with trends and developments in equipment. This is one of the big reasons I prepared my publication, Playing High Horn: A Handbook for High Register Playing, Descant Horns, and Triple Horns. I tried to make it book full of information and tips on high horn playing and effective use of descant and triple horns. And I think I succeeded in this goal, and was able to illustrate it all well with many photos and clear, clean musical examples.
Keep up with trends, don’t be stuck in the 1950s in your approach to the horn, and like most modern orchestral high horn players incorporate the new tools of descant and triple horns into your playing and teaching.
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