As a representative sample, the below are highlights of what E-books are available now on Amazon.com. These are all Kindle E-books, but Amazon helpfully notes that if you don’t have a Kindle you can download a free Kindle application to read them on your computer.

Books/Methods

Hill–Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity and Horn Performance

Farkas–The Art of French Horn Playing

Kind–An Alexander Technique Approach to French Horn Technique

Schmidt-Jones–Understanding Your French Horn

Study Materials

Singer–Embouchure Building for French Horn

Labar–Horn Player’s Audition Handbook

Pottag-Hovey Method for French Horn

Solos

Beethoven–Horn Sonata in F Major, Op. 17

Strauss–Horn Concerto No. 1 

Easy Classical French Horn Solos: Featuring music of Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Handel and other composers

A final thought

While many of the above are long time best-sellers of the horn world, several are also new to me. For sure more E-books are on the way, as they are cheaper and convenient and portable. This is a method of delivering books to readers that will likely grow to dominate the market, just as downloads have decimated the CD market. What do you think? Click on the comments menu below to leave your thoughts.

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My vintage descant

Besides quoting and citing several of my publications I was very interested to actually learn something new about my descant horn! It is the one I was playing in the video, an early Paxman that in my contact with Paxman I had learned was made in 1959 by Robert Paxman himself, before Richard Merewether joined the firm. What new thing I learned from the dissertation was that, according to Paxman, my descant was a new model introduced in that year, 1959. I don’t believe a lot of these were made, with this layout and the double change valve set this way, but really it is a very fine descant. The only note being it does need a mouthpiece with a larger than standard shank diameter.

This past twelve months I have had three works come up in fact that I could have chosen to play on this vintage descant or on my triple. I did back to back tests and every time the descant has won out. If I were to cut it all down to just two horns at this point in my life I would keep this descant and my current double horn.

A topic I am enthusiastic about

Descant and triple horns are a topic that I am enthusiastic about in general. They are tools that every serious horn player needs to be familiar with on at least a basic level. As I often tell people, a descant horn can save your life! I have had a short, general article on the topic in Horn Articles Online for years.

That became the topic of a book

Seeing it as a topic that had not been covered in much depth in any existing source, I set out to in fact write a book on the topic, which expanded on materials that had originally been online in Horn Articles Online and then later in an article in The Horn Call. It was one of my first four publications at Horn Notes Edition, and was initially the best seller.

A book that is now out of print, at least for now

About a week and a half ago I reworked the shopping cart and sales page for Horn Notes Edition. Check it out; the sales area is a lot better (and last week we had the most “combo deals” ordered in quite a while), but in the process of reworking things and after having done inventory and such (I have about ten copies left) I have actually pulled Playing High Horn from publication. Dedicated to the memory of my father, parts of the book I really like still but honestly I tried to do too much in this book. Part of the problem was it was a little hard to categorize in a way as it was a combination method and excerpt book with solos and more! And I did not make that much from it, in the end. It had some real overhead to cover in particular with paying for the rights to publish the Shostakovich and Ravel excerpts.

A book that will return!

My plan is to break the book up, with the first chapter perhaps mostly never seeing the light of day again but with parts of other chapters condensed into an E-book, with other materials from the book also becoming either another E-publication or free downloads or even returning to Horn Articles Online in an improved form. The main E-book will be better focused.

It will take a few months to edit and ready this and at least one other new E-publication (more on that soon). Keep watching here or at Horn Notes Edition for updates. The recent dissertation though confirms in my mind which sections have the most value in the original high horn book and will be included.

And E-books and the horn in general

I will come back to this topic on Thursday. There are a few classic publications already out in an E-book format, and I see this format being one that has huge growth potential in the coming years.

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This was performed as a part of the Arizona Bach Festival. I really enjoyed this event and the opportunity to perform this great work.

For those equipment junkies out there, it was performed on a vintage (1959) Paxman descant. In my opinion a descant is certainly the way to go on this rather than a standard double horn or a triple.

The big challenge of this work is the long wait to play the movement, about an hour with nothing to play. What I did was bring a silent brass mute on stage and play along nearly silently with the choir on several of the movements. I doubt anyone actually noticed but it really helped in keeping things fresh and ready to go.

It is great to now have a couple of quality performances on YouTube that I can point people toward, and I hope to have a few more things out there in the near future.

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Right off the top, my recital (presented jointly with Daniel Katzen) was among the best if not the best workshop performance I have ever given. And all from memory: the Schumann Dedication and the Fantasy Pieces (originally for clarinet) and also the Franz Strauss Fantasie. I wish more people had been there; it was the first event of the conference, but for sure that started the weekend off right for me!

The venue itself was a great size and location, at a community college rather than at Arizona State. There are faculty at smaller colleges and community colleges that really need to give hosting a regional workshop some thought as the hall was big enough, everything was right there, parking was easy, etc. I hope someone out there takes note of this.

Many outstanding performances were heard. Really, we have some horn talent in the southwest!

A great variety of music was heard as well, from standards to world premieres. If you like the horn you could easily find a lot of music that you liked hearing, and hear it performed on the highest level. As “Exhibit A” I would present this video below, shot at the workshop and uploaded very nicely to YouTube by an audience member. It is of Laurence Lowe, horn professor at BYU, from the Friday evening recital. A stellar performance of two of his works (I especially enjoyed the first one, his Intermezzo for Horn and Piano) and also the Caccia movement of the Reynolds Partita. (Direct link to video here).

Great master classes and sessions were heard as well as great horn choirs. And soloists! The featured artists (J.D. Shaw and Bruno Schneider) were excellent but really there were many very fine performances. It is impossible to briefly encapsulate what all was heard except to say you should have been there!

Another thing in the category of things I was very impressed by was the movie produced by Annie Bosler, 1M1: Hollywood Horns of the Golden Years. I was not sure what to expect honestly when I sat down but tremendously enjoyed this one hour plus documentary, premiered this summer at the IHS symposium. It really is in the category of must see for any serious horn player. My understanding is that the website for this movie will launch soon, when it does we will have more on Horn Matters.

Did I mention trying horns? I was particularly interested to try the new Dieter Otto horn that is now endorsed by Jeff Nelsen. It is a very nice horn, well worth a longer look. For more on that specific horn (the model 180K) check this page on the manufacturers website. And Bruce Hembd has more on the topic of horns at the event.

As I have already posted about the Konzertstuck performance  and my “Horn Secrets” session I would just close by noting again that many high notes were heard and that overall the event was very inspiring to me. In the end it is hard to put it in words exactly either but the result is that the event has me thinking bigger and looking at some existing projects and new opportunities in new ways. Hopefully others at the event came away feeling the same. Many bravos yet again to host Rose French!

And remember, if you missed this event there are always more out there on the horizon. Check our Events page at Horn Matters for more.

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A number of people asked me subsequently how many rehearsals we had, and this is the answer: one, for only forty minutes. How does that translate into a strong and exciting performance? By all of us being ready to go. Myself, I played the work a number of times through with recordings before the rehearsal to be sure I had it as ready to go as possible at a tempo faster than I anticipated it to go in performance.

An audience member shot a video of the performance and did a great job with the production, especially considering it was recorded on an iPhone. It is in two parts below. On third horn I carry the melody quite often including for the entire second movement, as we are performing the version arranged by the American Horn Quartet. (If the videos do not load below, the direct link to the videos is here.)

Be sure to watch to the end, and yes, I can now cross the Konzertstuck off my bucket list.

For those interested in the equipment used, Shaw used a Conn descant, Lowe a Schmid triple (high F), I used my Geyer style Willson, and Katzen used an early (CA made) Rauch.

To close, it truly was an honor and a joy really to play this work with this great solo quartet before a packed house of lovers of the horn. I would love to play this work again with the same quartet; perhaps that day will never come, but still I am grateful for the opportunity to perform this work, especially with so many friends, students, and colleagues to hear it.

I will have more from the conference in a later article, but to close, again, the big key to any performance that you have coming up with short rehearsal time is to be ready, totally ready, to play. That is part of what being a professional or treating any performance like a professional is.

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I have had the great opportunity to get to know many of the world’s best horn players through my work with the International Horn Society as the Exhibits Coordinator over the past three years and hear amazing concerts ever since my first International Horn Symposium that I attended in 1998 in Athens, Georgia. I was able to attend this conference because of a scholarship given by the International Horn Society.

When I found out that Bruno Schneider was coming to the United States to premiere a concerto, I knew that I wanted to have him come to Arizona, and so, the 2012 Southwest Horn Conference was born.

This weekend you’ll hear Mr. Schneider, one of the world’s most in-demand horn soloists, and the many amazing horn players that live in the Southwestern United States. Additionally, many exhibitors have traveled from all over the country to share their instruments, music, and products; a true treat for those of us who live in Arizona.

One of the unique things that you’ll notice is that this event is being held at a community college, with many faculty from the Maricopa Community College District participating in the orchestra, as collaborative pianists, and MCCD students designing the programs and t-shirts, engineering the recordings, and helping with many of the weekends events.

It is my hope that you’ll take away from this weekend many different things: premieres of new works, interesting master classes, horn choir, intriguing lectures, and discovering new music, mouthpieces, and horns, but also great memories of new and renewed friendships created at the Southwest Horn Conference.

I look forward to seeing many of you this weekend, please say hello!
Sincerely,
Rose French
Host, 2012 Southwest Horn Conference
www.southwesthornconference.org

I understand the event to be ready to go. I know I am, as I just finished my last practice session before I warm up tomorrow and play my recital! I hope to see a few of you there, and even if you can’t attend be thinking about attending a future horn event. See our events page for information on other upcoming events in your area.

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At first I was resistant to the idea, as for some teachers the mission seems to be to break you! Show you just how little you know. I actually not long ago saw a video of a teacher using that style. It was kind of frightening and painful to watch, brought back bad memories, yet I knew in that case that the teacher really only meant it to challenge the student.

For many teachers the idea is either to teach in much the way their best teachers taught them or to teach in a way that is as opposite as possible from that of their worst teachers. Neither plan is a good one.

I am not aware of a horn studio with a formal mission statement, although the motto used by the Rice Horn Crew comes close to being one: “The hottest, hungriest, most happening horn players south of the North Pole, north of the South Pole, and everywhere in between.”

This all led to some thought as I was revising my syllabus over break. Keeping it real simple, in my opinion the best horn teachers are able to do three things in roughly equal proportions:

• Challenge
• Encourage
• Inspire

Not all teachers are equal in respect to those things, and over time one challenge as a teacher is to take stock and see where you fit in that spectrum. Those that consciously try to inspire always come across to me as a bit fake and contrived. The most inspirational people just are naturally inspirational. The other two points though you can pretty directly influence in your teaching. This led me to the creation of the following short statement:

MISSION STATEMENT. Our mission at the ASU horn studio is to strive for excellence in performance and to encourage and challenge each other in a supportive atmosphere.

That basic mission statement is now posted on the studio website. In the syllabus itself it is further divided between goals for students (!) and for faculty (myself and the TA, in this case).

Students in this course should strive for excellence. This includes developing a primary objective of working on problems, to face those realities and overcome them with the objective of progressing toward horn performance goals. Students should also encourage and challenge their colleagues and teachers in a musically supportive atmosphere.

Faculty in this course have the primary objectives of challenging and encouraging students through honest feedback. Faculty will demonstrate high standards, guide study in the studio, and support students as they progress toward achieving excellence in their larger personal and performance goals.

The above all owes a bit of a hat tip to Douglas Yeo, who I have been in recent contact with and will be joining the ASU brass faculty in the fall of 2012. Back several years ago, in a “quote of the week” feature, I highlighted two extended quotes from his great trombone website which further spell out the challenges to students and to teachers.

In the same spirit, Horn Matters now has a mission as well. These past two years we have actually followed this basic plan, it is no real change, but to put it in words was still a good exercise. As it now states on our “about” page,

The missions of Horn Matters are to encourage, inspire, inform, and challenge horn players and to promote the best instrument ever, the French horn.

Start your year with a mission!

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Many elements of a conventional approach to horn playing were put forth by Philip Farkas in his 1956 text The Art of French Horn Playing. But the seldom told story is that many of the best horn players break many of those rules, the Farkas approach being only one end of a spectrum of ways to approach a variety of technical issues. This session will look at that bigger picture through a variety of resources from the past and present, with a particular view toward seeing clearly those points where conventional wisdom and physiological accuracy collide.

You will need to attend the session to get the full view, but the basic plan is to first quote Farkas, who pretty much defines conventional wisdom on a number of topics. With him setting the table so to speak then on each topic attention will turn to three sources that present and illustrate differing approaches, in a way that will challenge thinking but at the same time not be an overwhelming amount of information for the time available. The point being in no way to attack Farkas but to stimulate thinking about a bigger picture of horn pedagogy.

To stay within time constraints there will be only four major topic areas addressed in the session. As I know most Horn Matters readers won’t be able to attend the session (but come if you can!), the following quotes drawn from the PowerPoint and links to more, related information give a good idea of some of the concepts presented and should be of interest to serious students of the horn.

Average tonguing

Philip Farkas, The Art of Brass Playing
One might think of a series of tongued notes as simply a long note which is cut into separate segments by the tongue. When one thinks in this way, the logic of moving the tip of the tongue in a up-and-down direction becomes apparent. So many players have the mistaken idea that the tongue should move back-and-forth—piston-like. …Correct tonguing is an up-and-down motion, but when the tongue is placed between the teeth, the only direction it can move for the attack is backward.

Milan Yancich, A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing
There is a great deal of argument concerning the use of the tongue in brass playing. Having been taught to tongue behind my teeth in my early years on the horn and later to tongue between the teeth, I have concluded from both experiences that there is no one-and-only way to articulate. Tonguing is an individual matter depending on the formation of the teeth and jaw. The tongue, its thickness and length, the size of the oral cavity, the bite of the teeth, all these contribute to articulating with the tongue. I usually instruct my beginning students to tongue slightly between the teeth.

Anton Horner, Primary Studies for the French Horn
Attack each note with your tongue as though you had a small hair or tiny piece of thread on the end of your tongue and wanted to force it out of your mouth.

Dale Clevenger, as reported in Dale Clevenger: Performer and Teacher
Position the tongue at the bottom of the top teeth to articulate. The cleanest articulation is produced when the tongue meets the bottom of the upper teeth. If the beginning of the note is fuzzy or unclear, most likely the tongue is making contact too high back on the back of the upper teeth or even on the roof of the mouth, which may interfere with the flow of air. At the point of sound, the tongue should already be in place at the bottom of the top teeth, and it should move backwards to create an articulation when the air is released.

Staccato tonguing

Philip Farkas, The Art of Brass Playing
…the release of a very short note, coming, as it does, right on the heels of the attack, is most often the point of technical failure. Too often the misguided player attempts to get shortness in his staccato notes by stopping the vibration with the tongue—“tut-tut-tut”. This abrupt stopping of the air-column, and its consequent abrupt stoppage of the tone, produces a most unmusical and unnatural quality. No musical instrument in the world stops its sound suddenly. …any musical note, no matter how short, has a diminuendo at its very end which tapers it down to inaudibility….

Fred Fox, Essentials of Brass Playing
When playing a series of fast sixteenth notes only the tongue is used to start and stop the notes, since now, with the notes following each other so quickly, the hard tongue stop cannot be heard.

Harry Berv, A Creative Approach to the French Horn
The staccato note ends almost as soon as it starts by the abrupt stoppage of air, which is responsible for the so-called “dry” sound.” The tongue acts as a valve in starting and stopping the flow of air; never try to end the note by constricting the throat.

Douglas Hill, Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance.
[In relation to very short articulations Hill recommends practice of staccato eighth notes with]…the most compressed tut possible.

Embouchure

Philip Farkas, The Art of Brass Playing.
So we see that there are several forces at work in forming the embouchure. The drawstring of muscle around the mouth contracts in an attempt to form a very small circle of the mouth, but at the same time the cheek, chin and jaw muscle, in fact the complete network of muscles radiating out from the mouth, are striving to pull the mouth wide open in all directions.

Although these opposing muscles seem to be working at cross purposes, it is exactly this stress or tug-of-war which is needed to supply the tension so necessary to the creation of lip vibration. … the opposing muscles might figuratively say to each other, “You pull less hard and I will, too, but let neither of us win this tug-of-war.”

Perhaps the above discussion will make us realize the futility of the age-old argument among brass players: “Which is the proper embouchure, the smiling one or the puckered one?” A little thought will lead to the conclusion that both systems must be combined.

Gunther Schuller, Horn Technique
…there are four ways in which pitches can be altered by the embouchure: one is by pressure upon the lips from without (the mouthpiece and the horn); the second is by changing the size and shape of the lip opening; the third is by altering the degree of tension in the lip muscles; and the fourth is the angle at which the air is directed into the mouthpiece. The first approach is controlled primarily through slight pressures applied by the left hand, while the latter three are governed by the movement of the jaw, the lower teeth, and the lip muscles themselves.

Farquharson Cousins, On Playing the Horn.
There is, I believe, a rare secret to be found in every first class embouchure. It has no accepted name, so I shall invent one which is also a literal description: ‘the Upward-Resisted-Push’. When the mouthpiece is in position the player pushes it upwards towards the nose, where, provided that the pivots are firm, the muscles between the top of the mouthpiece and the nose will RESIST. Apart for from the advantage of making it difficult to press in excess of muscle support, the Upward-Resisted-Push assists the red (vibrating) part of the top lip inside the mouthpiece to be revealed. Also it helps the tightening of the lip membrane for higher vibrations. When the knack of the Upward-Resisted-Push is acquired a note seems almost to sustain itself and there is a sensation of effortless ‘poise’, perhaps the most satisfying experience in the whole game of horn playing. What has been described is the basis of what I call the ‘Embouchure-Seal’.

Douglas Hill, Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance
To form the embouchure, begin by humming the sound emmm. Feel the position of your jaw. Notice how the teeth are separated, yet the jaw is relaxed. Now simply tuck the corners of the mouth (firm but not flexed) in toward your teeth. This is not a full smile but is just enough of a smile to inhibit the formation of air pockets in the cheeks and top lip while blowing. This firm tucking should also cause the chin muscles to be pointing downward set in a flattened or concave position. Thus, the lower lip will never fill with air, and the chin will remain stable and never bunch upward. Before, during, and after the formation of an embouchure, attempt to feel heaviness in the face, especially around the eyes. Look tired like a basset hound. (Try to imagine that.)

From this relaxed positioning of the facial muscles, it is simply a matter of forming a very slight pucker at the center of the lips, as if the letter “p” is about to be pronounced. With the release of a steady airstream through an oval-shaped aperture, you should be able to produce a vibration. If your teeth form a natural overbite, then your top lip will probably also protrude farther than your bottom lip. Allow your embouchure and aperture to conform to your natural facial formation as much as possible. This point is very important in finding your best embouchure.

Mouthpiece pressure

Philip Farkas, The Art of Brass Playing
Through another of our homely illustrations we can visualize how heavy pressure achieves both the small aperture and the firm flesh. Imagine a nice, fresh, spongy doughnut, sandwiched between two pieces of plate-glass. If these pieces of glass are slowly pressed together, the hole in the doughnut can be observed to gradually get smaller as the doughnut itself is flattened. But, at the same time, this pressure also compresses the “flesh” of the doughnut into something much firmer than its original spongy consistency. In just the same way, mouthpiece pressure diminished the size of the opening of the lips, while simultaneously compressing the soft flesh into something resembling strong, firm muscle. Unfortunately, the poor lips suffer the same abuse as did the crushed doughnut, and, of course, human lips cannot take this punishment indefinitely.

Farquharson Cousins, On Playing the Horn.
Lips are tough, and with training can support almost effortlessly whatever pressures are consistent with their development. There must be no confusion about this. Imagine a wheelbarrow being edged by a mini-car, then the mini-car by a lorry, and the lorry by a locomotive. In each case pressures are brought to bear without much effort on the part of the stronger party. A mouthpiece made of metal could crush any human tissue if allowed to do so, but if the player develops the muscles in his lips, reasonable pressure can not only be harmless but can improve the efficiency of the ‘Embouchure-Seal’, the only condition being, as already emphasized, that pressure is relative to muscle support. The stronger the lip muscles, the greater the pressure that can be exerted, and the firmer the contact between mouthpiece and lip.

Joe Barbenel, John Booth Davies, and Patrick Kenny, “Science proves musical myths wrong,” New Scientist, April 3, 1986
From these experiments, we can make several guarded statements. First, it is simply not true that professional players of the highest calibre use low levels of force on the mouthpiece. We could not differentiate amateur players from professionals in terms of the amount of force they used to perform a given task. Secondly, skilled players were no better than other groups at ranking photographs of players for the amount of force the subjects were using on the mouthpiece. The experts appeared to base their judgments of force on the general appearance of effort rather than on any specific cues. When asked to judge between different players, experts could not reliably tell who used the most force and who used the least.

Randy Gardner, Mastering the Horn’s Low Register
Many people are taught to anchor their mouthpiece into the bottom lip and lighten pressure on the top lip when playing in the high register. This is essential in the upper tessitura to ensure that the top lip remains free to vibrate.

——————–

And there will be a lot more covered, with a look at elements of The Balanced Embouchure, the general topic of why Farkas presented his approach as he did in print, and much more.

By the way, I will also perform! In addition to a half recital shared with Daniel Katzen I will be playing third horn on the Konzertstuck with an all-star group (J.D. Shaw, Laurence Lowe, and Daniel Katzen) and more! If you are in the area and not sure about attending, do attend. Hope to see you there!

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In working on our regional audition music with high school students recently I noted that they had a sheet of scale requirements for all the instruments. If this was generated by their band director or by AMEA I am not sure, but it does give some clear goals for horn students preparing for our regional auditions. Specifically:

Tempo. “Maximum controlled speed” is requested. My suggestion is at least 1/8 notes at a quarter note = 60. Practice them with a metronome, keep yourself honest.

Articulation. The sheet says “At least one scale is to be played slurred and one tongued,” so be ready to play scales either way. But from the judging angle of this I am more interested in hearing good, medium tonguing.

Range. The document specifies either one or two octaves for each scale. The list is the same for horn and low brass in this regard (even though listed separately) so I am not sure how much thought was given to this topic by the people who generated the document, but their list is as follows, the number after the scale being the number of octaves required “to receive full points.”

Major Scales: C1, F2, Bb2, Eb1, Ab2, Db1, G2, D1, A2, E2, B2, F#2, C#1, Gb2, E to Bb chromatic (2+ octaves)

Note the 2+ octave chromatic scale, that would be something to be specifically ready for as well.

[And yes, Db/C# and F# Gb are the same scales, I don't know why they are listed twice.]

So if you needed something specific to push you, and a lot of students do, those are the goals suggested on the document I saw related to Arizona regional auditions. In the bigger picture of horn performance the list above is pretty minimal and needs to be mastered by any horn player serious enough to be reading Horn Matters, challenge yourself to reach a higher level. Now get busy!

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The first step is to focus on the K syllable with cut offs. For a group of four sixteenth notes followed by an eighth note and a rest this could be represented as Kuk-Kuk-Kuk-Kuk-Kooh. He notes

In actuality the “k” which ends one note is the same “K” which starts the next; the consonant is simply opened to allow a short puff of compressed air (blown firmly) into the instrument. Try to make the “K” attacks sound as much as possible like “T” attacks….

Many teachers advocate, and many students find it easier to end each syllable with a breath release. Step No. 1 would then become “Kooh Kooh Kooh Kooh Kooh,” stopping each note with a breath release….

The main draw-back to this approach (using the breath release) comes when speed is increased. There comes a point at which it is no longer possible to make the breath releases. At this speed one must shift into “high gear,” blow a steady air stream and stop each note with the consonant which begins the next.

The second step extends this to double tonguing which in our same example could be represented as Tuk-Kut-Tuk-Kut-Tooh. At a slow tempo “this will sound a bit crude,” but Brophy notes that “since the ultimate speed desired for double tonguing precludes the possibility of breath releases it is wise to start the routine in the same way that it will eventually have to be done when speed is acquired.”

The third step Brophy suggests is to make T and K sound as nearly identical as possible and the final step is to “try to move the ‘T’ and ‘K’ closer together in the mouth—the ‘T’ as far back as possible and the ‘K’ far forward.”

Barry Tuckwell in Playing the Horn feels that for triple tonguing TTK is “generally better, as it gives more force and balance” and suggest that the best way to learn double and triple tonguing is to

…play the tonally straightforward études of Kopprasch, Kling, or Gallay, using double or triple rather than single tonguing. It will be found that many of the difficult notes fall on the weak articulation; this is the best practice for getting all the notes to sound even.

Verne Reynolds in The Horn Handbook states that “horn players need to develop a reliable, steady, strong, fast, single tongue in all registers and dynamics.” He continues,

Practicing multiple tonguing by slowly articulating “tu ku,” or “tu tu ku” probably does no great harm. Like all slow practice, it assures us that we can do the procedure slowly. We are still faced with the necessity of rapidly articulating “tu ku,” or “tu tu ku.”

His basic context is that “A fast, reliable single tongue is more necessary on the horn than on the trumpet,” a viewpoint that very likely many horn players would agree with but few have expressed in print.

To close with a personal digression, as readers may know I studied with the late Verne Reynolds for my masters degree. In that time we worked on a wide variety of challenging works on a high level but the topic of multiple tonguing never came up in lessons. The fact being that he very much wanted his students to develop a very fast single tongue, which I did have coming in and further developed as his student. But I could not multiple tongue worth beans. I finally learned how in the period right after my MM studying with other teachers and working on audition excerpts, with Eli Epstein having perhaps the most direct influence on my approach to double and triple tonguing.

Where I am going with the above digression is that really I should have learned it sooner.

Ever notice how children learn languages easily and with no accent? But adults have an accent? I have never truth be known ever been really happy with my multiple tonguing and I blame it on learning the technique too late. If you are a younger student reading this or are a teacher that works with younger students, don’t wait! The sooner you start working on multiple tonguing the better you will ultimately be able to multiple tongue. Which is why I included multiple tonguing exercises in my recent publication Ultimate Horn Technique.

This series on tonguing is almost done! One more concluding article on the topic from the Hornmasters before New Years. But a final note to regular readers; I will need to slow down on posting articles for at least the next month, I have some large projects to organize on break and also a workshop presentation to prepare. And to all readers as well best Christmas and holiday greetings for 2011.

Return to series on multiple tonguing, part I

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1. Hornmasters on Double and Triple Tonguing. Part II: Yancich, Fox, and Berv In part I Schuller and Farkas ultimately come across as not being big advocates of multiple tonguing. Today we turn...
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Milan Yancich in A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing has a section of exercises to develop triple and double tonguing. While he notes that the most common syllables used to describe triple tonguing are “Tu Tu Ku, Ta Ta Ta, Ti Ti Ki”

I ask my students to use Tu Tu Q. The Ku or Q must be stressed with a breath accent…. To attain speed one must begin the patterns slowly, gradually, increasing the speed to the point where the tonguing begins to sound “galloping”, stuttering, or just plain uneven. At that point return to the original slow tempo and begin again.

He goes far beyond the printed description of this idea in the audio recording that goes along with A Practical Guide. Originally on two LP records and currently available on two CD’s, in the recording he explains that this approach was learned from the virtuoso cornet soloist Bohumir Kryl, who was the grandfather of his wife. I highly recommend listening to the audio version of A Practical Guide for the insights found there. And the printed exercises in A Practical Guide are great ones for working on the skill as well; I don’t believe any horn resource published prior to A Practical Guide has exercises for multiple tonguing.

Fred Fox suggests the syllables “ta” and “ka” in Essentials of Brass Playing, and especially recommends developing the “ka” attack well (“Practice playing scales using the ‘ka’ attack only”).

Harry Berv in A Creative Approach to the French Horn feels that the mastery of double and triple tonguing “is an absolute necessity on the horn.”

Every horn player, no matter how quickly he can tongue, will many times in his playing career encounter passages that will necessitate either double- or triple-tonguing. Mastering this art is not as difficult as are the hours of tedious and laborious practice. As with most techniques on the horn, it will be easier for some than for others….

For double tonguing Berv recommends “TU-KU.” To develop the KU he suggests practicing scales with the KU articulations.

The speed of double-tonguing must be controlled so it can be used at any tempo. You must perfect it so that it can be used in a single-tongue passage undetected. A good horn player should be able to accent double-tonguing to produce whatever effect he might find written in the music; for example, he might find he is able to play a triplet passage more easily double-tongued than triple-tongued….

For triple tonguing he suggests TU TU KU as standard and TU KU TU as the alternate method. “Control of speed is a prime requisite” he noted. “A horn player must never be caught having to play a passage that is too slow for him to double- or triple-tongue and too fast for him to single-tongue.”

When the series returns, we will have a few more helpful notes on multiple tonguing.

Continue to Part III

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Related articles:

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2. Hornmasters on Average Tonguing, part II: Schuller and Yancich Gunther Schuller in Horn Technique has a rather different take on the tongue and tonguing than Farkas. He certainly does...
3. Hornmasters on Average Tonguing, Part III: Fox and Berv Continuing our series, we turn to two more Classic horn methods for their notes on tonguing, both of which hit...
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Articulation exercises such as those found in the Kopprasch etudes are absolutely essential for horn players to work out in their studies. But, sometimes, you just have to hit a really different groove.

This past year I have performed the most jazz probably ever for me, primarily with the Salt River Brass Band. So when the pops program came up at Brevard this week with a program of Gershwin and Ellington, I can get into the groove pretty quickly. But I found myself saying to the students in the section to not play it “like Kopprasch.” I recall saying similar things previous years to other sections. It can be especially hard for horn players to lay back and swing, but it can be done! As much as anything, just relax an fit in. This is something, actually, that has to be done in many non-jazz situations as well. Tune in and match the sounds around you–jazz is not that hard to get the feel for, but it is pretty different than Kopprasch.

One aside, sometimes it is interesting to try to play something like say Kopprasch 10 as if it were a Bach cello suite movement. Give it try, it is entertaining.

In a somewhat related topic, it is good to get a bit of variety in your Kopprasch. There is a version of the Kopprasch etudes published by Wind Music that is very different than the standard version. The articulations and dynamics in this version rather heavily edited by Josef Schantl are much different, and it is enjoyable when I am in an etude/chop maintenance mood to pull out that version (which may be purchased here).

In short, while there is a way that the standard Kopprasch etudes need to sound, and it is a valuable project to get them sounding that way, at the same time there is a big musical world and a lot of music needs to not sound like standard Kopprasch. Especially if it is jazz, get out of that Kopprasch groove, relax, use your ear to match the sounds around you.

Finally, for more historical information on Kopprasch, I have a two part article on the topic on Horn Articles Online, with part II covering the topic of this Schantl edition of Kopprasch. As I note there, this version “is a rather heavily edited edition which includes 51 of the Op. 6 etudes and 13 of the Op. 5 etudes,” it is not “complete Kopprasch” but I do enjoy the variety it presents.

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Some players are gifted with extremely fast-moving and agile tongue muscles. Others are more sluggish in this respect…. In many cases no amount of practicing will compensate completely for a ‘slow tongue’. In fast tongued passages, many players therefore have to resort to what is known as ‘double tonguing’ and triple tonguing’. This is an ingenious method in which notes produced by means of the normal tongue movements of ‘tah’ and ‘dah’ alternate with notes produced by the syllable ‘kah’, thus giving us in combination ‘tah-kah tah-kah’ or, in triple tonguing ‘tah-tah-kah’ or ‘tah-kah-tah’. When first practising this tonguing, the attack produced by ‘kah’ will be very rough. This is because in the syllable ‘kah’, there is no direct contact between the tongue and the teeth.

Schuller suggests learning to make the “kah” very strong and to start practicing double tonguing very slowly. He notes

Although at first discouraging, clean attacks can eventually be attained. I have not known a single student who, once he had put in the necessary amount of practice, could not master double or triple tonguing.

While not covered in The Art of French Horn Playing, Farkas addressed at some length the topic of multiple tonguing in The Art of Brass Playing, presenting it as an alternate used only in specific situations.

When a tongued passage occurs which is too fast to be single-tongued, the brass player can always resort to double- or triple-tonguing. I use the word “resort” purposely because, in my opinion, these two types of tonguing should only be used as a last resort. Not that there is anything wrong or cowardly about their use, but…. resolve only to use them when the tempo absolutely cannot be handled by single-tonguing.

Farkas recommends the syllables “too-koo,” “tih-kih,” and “dih-gih” noting that

This principle can be easily grasped by reversing the syllables and saying rapidly a phrase we have all used at some time, “(Here) kitty-kitty-kitty-kitty.” If you can say this rapidly, you can double tongue….

After a discussion of how to build up the “K” syllable he notes

Strangely enough, many students, when first studying double-tonguing, can attain great speed, although it is usually quite uncontrolled. So it is essential when learning both double- and triple-tonguing to play very slowly and evenly. The unevenness, so difficult to prevent, is much more pronounced at a slow speed and can thus be corrected more satisfactorily.

Farkas presents that most brass players visualize triple tonguing as a T-T-K motion (“tih-tih-kih” or “dih-dih-gih”) but then notes that

Occasionally, brass players get into heated discussions with flute players, who contend that the proper articulation for triple-tonguing is “tih-kih-tih-tih-kih-tih-tih-kih-tih”, with the “K” attack in the middle of each group of three. But this is splitting hairs, for a glance at the figure will show that this series, once started, continues to repeat two “T’s” and one “K” just as the brass player’s articulation does.

Farkas also notes that “many players will solve certain triplet passages with double-tonguing, emphasizing the proper notes.” In other words, double tonguing with accents in triplets is another way to produce triple tonguing. Farkas advocates learning double tonguing first and to then when mastered learn triple tonguing.

Continue to Part II

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In particular another valuable angle to explore in this video is double and triple tonguing on horn and on trumpet. It is very interesting to see this inside look into the process, giving a view of the actual contact points and the actual motion, which is a bit different than we might imagine it to be.

I was thinking of this video again recently not only because the Hornmasters series in Horn Matters will arrive at the topic of double tonguing next, but also because one of my colleagues this year at ASU, Joshua Gardner, recently completed a doctoral project titled “Ultrasonographic Investigation of Clarinet Multiple Articulation.” In this project he used ultrasound technology to look at multiple tonguing on the clarinet, this quote from the study giving some flavor of what was covered.

Articulation and voicing, both involving highly refined tongue motion, are the primary intraoral mechanics that clarinet teachers must address with students of all ages and abilities. Articulation presents the most evident tongue motion during clarinet performance because the tongue dictates the initiation of a sound. During single articulation, the tongue moves from a resting position to touch the reed and then returns to the resting position, continuing in a cycle defined by the articulation pattern of the music being played. Multiple articulation adds a posterior articulation, with the tongue moving in a compound cycle: touching the reed, followed by a posterior tongue segment touching the hard palate.

With both types of articulation, the persistent pedagogical problem is the inability to see the tongue during performance. Consequently, when teaching, clarinetists often use spoken vowel sounds to approximate the appropriate tongue positions for specific registers or notes; however, these phonetic syllables may not accurately replicate performance tongue shape. Syllables are also used to teach articulation; however, the consonant context of the syllable (such as /t/ in “tee”) moves the tongue in the general location with correct motion to complete the articulation (to either the tip of the reed or the hard palate), while the vowel context shapes the rest of the tongue during the articulation and between articulations. Again, the linguistic model may not be a perfect fit.

A video of Gardner using the ultrasound may be found on this page, with the image at right being from a conference presentation handout.

It is a line of study that I am not aware of any brass player taking but would be a great topic to address with new, safe technology. Any takers out there? Has it already been done?

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At the Southwest Horn Conference here in Arizona in January host Rose French has made a prominent element of promotion the world premier of a new concerto. This was highlighted in an article, “Premiere of a Horn Concerto in Arizona” in the October, 2011 issue of The Horn Call. This photo is of the set of parts for the work when they arrived in Arizona last week, and from the article we learn

A concerto written by American composer Eric Chasalow will be premiered by Bruno Schneider at the 2012 Southwest Horn Conference on January 14th, and performed again on January 27 with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Eric Chasalow is the Irving G. Fine Professor of Music at Brandeis University and Director of the Brandeis Electroacoustic Music Studio.

The article continues that Chasalow is “noted for being among the few composers comfortable composing both electro-acoustic music and for traditional ensembles,” and he has a long relationship with the soloist Bruno Schneider, “beginning when Schnieder’s older brother lived with the Chasalow family as an exchange student from Switzerland.” There is more in the article but I am personally very intrigued to hear this new work. The article reports that it has “long, lyrical lines” and is scored “for a small chamber orchestra, with reduced winds and percussion.” I am always hoping to hear the next great horn concerto and look forward to hearing this one. Yet another reason to attend the 2012 Southwest Horn Conference.

Speaking of great concertos, what about that Mozart? And what about playing Mozart with an orchestra? At the Northeast Horn Workshop participants will be able to do just that, with an organized opportunity to perform a Mozart horn concerto with the Burlington Chamber Orchestra.

From a press release from host Ann Ellsworth,

You’ve practiced them forever, listened to recordings, played them for auditions and recitals, now is your chance to perform with an orchestra. The NE Horn Workshop in Plattsburgh is providing the unique opportunity for ANYONE to hire the Burlington Chamber Orchestra with Bill Purvis conducting the Mozart Concerto of your choice on Saturday afternoon the 17th.

The orchestra costs $350 for ten minutes which may be enough for a first movement. For a complete concerto, we recommend 20 minutes for numbers 1 and 2, and 30 minutes for numbers 3 and 4. The BCO and Maestro Purvis will all be in concert dress, the performance will take place in the beautiful Giltz Auditorium at the SUNY Plattsbugh campus and you are free to make an audio and or video recording of your performance.

The orchestra will only play for 3 hours, this is a first come, first served event, please contact Ann Ellsworth … with your reservation and 50% deposit by January 15th.

But also note that you can also win your way into this as well. Also from the press release,

20 minutes of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra time will be reserved for the winners of our solo competition, 10 minutes for our high school division and another 10 minutes for our college division. The concerto competition will take place Friday afternoon and details to enter are on the website.

The event website is here for the Northeast Workshop this year. Both are good examples of event promotion and good ideas. For information on even more workshops coming up this year be sure to check our Horn Matters Events page.

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