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To make it official, I have had a push on for some time toward the completion of two new publications, Ultimate Horn Technique and Ultimate Low Horn, and they went to the printer on Friday. They have already been added to the sales page and sample pages are online as well.
UPDATE 2018: Ultimate Low Horn is now off the market, replaced by The Low Horn Boot Camp, now in a second edition. And UPDATE 2019 Ultimate Horn Technique has been replaced by Horn Scales and Technique Exercises, also now in a second edition. More info at www.hornnotes.com
New books? On what topics!
I have actually hinted occasionally in articles here that I am working on several more books for Horn Notes Edition, in particular a technique book and a low range book. The covers seen here are of the last test copies made before publication. I have been working with draft versions of elements of both books with my students since 2006.
A technique book? Why do we need this? Can’t I just use Pares Scales or Schantl?
You could use Pares or Schantl—I have used both in my teaching—but in using them I always felt there had to be a better way. Both are OK in their way but are repetitive and don’t cover every key well, plus don’t contain any exercises for multiple tonguing or transpositions and especially in Pares I had to ask for many things to be worked out an octave lower as it does not cover the full range of the horn well.
My new publication Ultimate Horn Technique is more comprehensive in scope. It is based on materials from 19th century horn methods, mostly exercises that are unavailable today, in particular some great materials from the early valved horn method of Joseph Meifred, but quite a variety of materials from other 19th century masters including Gallay, Kling, Gumpert, Dauprat, and Schantl.
I have arranged the materials by key and have included exercises for double and triple tonguing, exercises for working on transpositions, and more. Besides being full of great exercises I am also excited that exercises in the book are non-repetitive. While many exercises are similar, hardly any pattern is actually repeated in the whole book, which keeps you on your toes and reading them carefully. This book is intended for horn players from the intermediate to advanced level.
And a low horn book?
It is not a secret; every horn teacher knows that developing tone and facility in the low range is the key to everything for an advancing hornist. Ultimate Low Horn is the result of a long search for practical and effective materials for low range study by intermediate to advanced students, containing focused exercises by Bordogni, De Pre, and Gallay to develop low range facility and characteristic playing.
Where can I see a sample copy?
Some sample pages are embedded in this article [UPDATE: But not now; see the actual listings of current publications in the Horn Notes Edition sales page to access sample pages] which give the general idea of each publication. If you want to see the full books I will have them available for purchase in the coming months at the Southeast Horn Workshop, the MidSouth Horn Workshop, and the International Symposium. Check them out at the sales table for Horn Notes Edition.
They should start shipping on Tuesday this week. They were added (with, temporarily, a black and white version of the cover image) to the Horn Notes Edition website on Friday night, and already on Saturday orders had been received. Order both books directly from Horn Notes Edition.
To conclude, while I know there should be some decent initial sales, horn teachers are generally speaking notoriously slow in adopting new products. They have a way they teach and that is the end of the story. I believe that these new books are both very good products, check them out as they are I believe very focused and practical study materials for horn players of today.
