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Miscellaneous tips related to performance, practice, pedagogy, and repertoire.

Tips on Auditioning Horns, Part II: Mouthpieces, Leadpipes, Hybrids and the...

At the Southwest Horn Conference (SWHC) a variety of Kruspe and Geyer type horns were available to try out. I currently play on a hybrid...

Tips on Auditioning Horns, Part I: Carl Geyer, Paxman 25, Patterson...

My main agenda for the Southwest Horn Conference (SWHC) - besides hearing concerts and talking shop - was to play on as many horns...

Ask Dave: Long-term Storage for a Brass Instrument

It's the summer and you might be putting your horn away for a few months. Or, perhaps you have more than one horn and...

Tips from another Bruce

Martial artist Bruce Lee was a childhood hero of mine. While the quality of his movies has not held up well over time, his...

Those Pesky Long Tones, a Key to Better Playing?

It is interesting to me how actually a very simple topic like long tones can also be a hot button topic. Back in 2008...

Tips on Surviving Very Long Concerts

Odds are that if you were to play one opera in your life, it would most likely be Carmen. When recently playing principal in...

Tips for a Successful Recital Poster

UPDATE: 10/19/2010 - a revised graphic and final word. This is the time of year when academic music performance majors are planning recitals. A big factor...

PSA: Another Big Reason You Should Clean Your Horn

In the first paragraph of an NPR article we learn "One musician in Connecticut learned the hard way about the dangers of not cleaning...

Arranging chorales, like painting by numbers

For myself as a conservatory undergraduate, four-part chorale writing was slow and sometimes laborious. It was a learning curve fraught with rules and clams. Later...

Tips on Auditioning for a Summer Festival (or anything else)

Yet more very timely insider information on taking auditions, in a post from the original HTML Horn Notes Blog dated 3/25/05. Another little project for...