Archived under: Performance & Playing | Breathing, Frøydis Ree Wekre, Philip Farkas
Hornmasters on Opening the Corners to Breathe
Another brief topic in the embouchure chapter for Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing was that of breathing in relation to the corners. It is something that he realized that some students would have to practice to make completely comfortable. He notes “When we breathe while playing we properly keep the lips on the mouthpiece and quickly stretch the mouth into a wide smile, at the same time opening the corners of the mouth and inhaling deeply through those open corners.”
For sure this is topic some players need to think about, as you can hear the sound of the air going in through the too-small opening of the lips at the corners of the embouchure. But how to best achieve a bigger opening?
Frøydis Ree Wekre in Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well makes a point of stating a somewhat opposing view to Farkas on this topic which for some players is certainly the answer. She feels that the corners are not stretched into a smile, but rather are relaxed on the inhale.
RELAX your face quickly and totally in every possible mini-second of a rest, especially whenever you inhale. No smiling when inhaling! Fear of not re-finding the right lip position for the next tone keeps many players away from this type of super-quick-relaxing. In my experience this fear is without reason for the most part. You will find your position for the next tone very quickly if you trust that you will find it…and of course if you do practice quick lip-relaxations regularly.
Related to this article
- Hornmasters on the Geometry of the Lips and Corners
In this series of posts I have quoted from classic horn texts following along the topics as presented in The Art of French Horn Playing. Of all the chapters of this classic book the chapter on the embouchure is one of the most controversial. In fact... - Hornmasters: Farkas on Horns
For the next topic in the Hornmasters series we turn to horns and begin again with Philip Farkas. For the average reader today, this section of The Art of French Horn Playing must seem especially dated, but is still worth a closer look. In the context... - Hornmasters: Yancich and Robinson on Right Hand Position
Milan Yancich in A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing offers a practical approach to finding a good hand position. There are many hand positions that result in a range of sound from a closed or covered one to an open sound…. There is no one... - Hornmasters: Farkas on Right Hand Position
Most active horn teachers have read the Farkas book at some point but mostly not recently. One thing that you may have missed was that Farkas described a “new method” for the right hand in the bell, one that actually I suspect few use literally exactly... - Hornmasters: Farkas on Holding the Horn and the Left Hand
Continuing in our series of quotes from classic publications on the the horn, now that we have our horn selected and in working order we turn to the topic of holding the horn and the left hand. As an orchestral player Philip Farkas in The Art... - Hornmasters: Tuckwell and Bushhouse on Horns
In this series I have titled “Hornmasters” we have focused on quotations from books on the horn published originally 25 or more years ago, books that may or may not be well known at the present day. Today we have quotes from two publications on the... - Hornmasters: Farkas, Schuller, Berv, and Tuckwell on Fingerings
Chapter four of The Art of French Horn Playing is on the topic of fingerings and tuning as Farkas felt that “these two subjects necessarily belong together, as one cannot tune a brass instrument without first determining what fingering will be used for each note.” However,...
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