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Teaching the horn, concepts in horn pedagogy.

Size Matters; Big Horns, Little Hands

From the family archive. A sister-in-law of mine once played French horn as a child. We like to swap stories now and then about her...

The Single F Horn Dare, a challenge to horn teachers

We need more horn players in the schools. I would offer readers a challenge in two parts. The first part is a general challenge to...

The Space Between the Notes

Improvement -- a process of subtraction. Music is the space between the notes. This well-known quotation attributed to the Impressionist composer Claude Debussy can have many...

Things Horn Teachers Say: Not PC on Farkas, and Some Notes...

As noted in part II of this series, most horn and brass teachers that disagree with elements of the Farkas approach to the embouchure...

Things Horn Teachers Say: PC on Farkas

I have begun a project that involves closely reading a number of horn method books this summer. While I don’t at this point want...

Things Horn Teachers Say: Ineffective Teaching

Derek Wright posted recently on something a teacher (not me!) said to him in a first lesson. The teacher asked him “do you have...

The Ego-Driven Music Teacher: Good or Bad? (II)

Continued from Part I The ego-driven approach to music instruction reminds me of the used car salesman whose opening sale pitch was that their company...

The Ego-Driven Music Teacher: Good or Bad? (I)

Teaching -- more art than science? I occasionally lurk -- read, but do not participate in -- the various horn discussion groups. Interesting topics come...

Nudge Theory

A method for guiding students on their learning path. In When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality author Jeff Sommer reports on an interesting principal...

A Shortage of Young Horn Players

Some things never change. John Ericson has made it a mission to promote and encourage more young horn students in Arizona. As a private (and...