I like to try to be at one or two of these a year. Of the five regional events coming up, I will be at the Mid-South and Northwest events, presenting and performing.

At Mid-South (March 19-21, 2010, on the campus of Oklahoma State University) I will be presenting for the first time a new session titled “Beyond Farkas: Tonguing, the Embouchure, and More.” More on this session after the event, but in short this session will get right into the heart of some of the major differences between the pedagogy of Philip Farkas and the pedagogy of other horn professors. Also I will be performing the rarely heard (in the United States, anyway) Neuling Bagatelle, a fun low register solo that is a standard work on European low horn auditions.

At the Northwest Symposium (April 23-25, 2010, on the campus of the University of Oregon) I will be focusing on completely different topics, presenting and performing on the Wagner tuba. I will also perform the Graun Concerto in recital, a rarely heard Baroque work that really should be performed more often.

Check out all these and more regional events listed on our events page, several are coming up soon and all are very worth attending.

In school systems, single F and Bb horns are available for students who do not intend to pursue performance on the horn as a career. But the student who intends to major in horn should start on a good instrument.

I strongly recomment [sic] the serious student purchase a double horn in F and Bb. If you purchase a single F or Bb horn, when the time comes to switch to the double horn, you will have to spend more money and learn a new fingering on the double horn. Purchasing a double horn at the outset gives a giant stride in your immediate general progress and future overall performance.

Berv has suggestions as to what to test on a horn, with tone, intonation, and resistance being major factors. About the latter he notes

When you blow through the horn, there should not be too much resistance. All registers—high, middle, and low—should be about equally resistant, so that you do not have to exert undue pressure on the embouchure, especially in the high register of the horn. If too much exertion is demanded in the upper register, it can cause the embouchure muscles to become strained and stiff, and they will not be able to respond quickly enough for the instant reflex changes required to cope with the horn’s range.

He is also concerned with finding a horn that is balanced well, fits the left hand, and puts the mouthpiece out at a comfortable angle. Berv concludes,

In my many years of playing, I have always tried to find a better horn, but many times I have had to make do with the horns available. In the final analysis, the problems on the horn can be overcome with patience, hard practice, a search for compensation, and sensitivity. The chosen horn must fit the individual’s taste in the end result. No matter how good a new horn or mouthpiece feels at first, it takes time to feel completely secure and at home on it. The horn is an extension of the player’s physical body and must be treated and played as such.

It did not take long to find a version of this bit on YouTube, which is embedded below. You can hear the great Bobby Corno in action about 2:20 in! Conductors don’t like clams, which this clip illustrates well.

Sir John Barbirolli conducts An Elizabethan Suite “The King’s Hunt.” From: VAI DVD 4304 Boston Symphony Orchestra Historic Telecasts: Sir John Barbirolli. The only extant video of Sir Johns work with the BSO, this 1959 telecast finds the conductor in exemplary form, leading performances of Brahmss Symphony No. 2, Waltons Partita for Orchestra, Deliuss “The Walk to the Paradise Garden” (from A Village Romeo and Juliet), and Barbirollis own arrangement of selections from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, entitled An Elizabethan Suite. Black & White, 94 minutes. Mono with an alternate stereo soundtrack provided.

The work is an arrangement by Barbirolli for four horns and strings and features the horns very prominently. This video is set up so that we can’t embed it in Horn Matters so you will have to click over to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBYtbcPqeN0&feature=related

The section is:

1. James Stagliano
2. Harry Shapiro
3. Harold Meek
4. Osbourne McConathy

It is well worth the click over to see this classic horn section in action on an interesting mixture of horns, with the rest of the telecast available for purchase there. Enjoy!

Except in special situations (e.g., the performance of works with especially high tessituras), I think the ideal instrument for today’s normal playing conditions is the double horn in B flat and F. It satisfies more of the demands made by the orchestral and chamber music repertoires than either the single F or the single B flat horns. The double horn, being a compromise instrument, admittedly has a theoretical loss in quality compared to the single horn. But this factor is more than outweighed by the gains in accuracy and flexibility.

• More show and tell
  …or will it be Show and Terrify ?

  My workplace actively engages team strategies and workshops, and for my turn at demonstrating my “connectedness,” I am going to pull out the hunting horn and let it rip. Heh heh… that’ll connect ‘em…

• Even more show and tell
  Sometime this week I hope to post an informal interview that is in the works, with a colleague from childhood who also happens to be a horn maker in the American mid-West. I asked him some pretty pointed questions in order to delve into the art and craft of making a hand made French horn.

  To a certain degree, I believe — as John does about mouthpieces — that some aspects of horn making are like ancient alchemy – full of mystery, tradition and intuition.

• Ye gods, even more…
  This is a show-n-tell from Will Kimball’s excellent blog – the article is Brass Intonation Review. With so much great information out there, how could anyone have an excuse to play out-of-tune?

I was thinking about them again tonight as a student performed one of them on her recital and I realized that the other two are coming up later in the semester here at ASU.

So, what are these three big concertos? If you came to this from the Horn Matters website you have now clicked through to the message and I can get to them.

According to Reynolds the big three were the Gliere, Strauss 2, and the Gordon Jacob. Tonight it was Gordon Jacob, performed very nicely on a Senior recital. In a couple weeks we have Gliere on a MM recital and in a few more weeks Strauss 2 on a DMA recital.

All of these are certainly concertos that the advanced horn student should know. If any of these are unfamiliar to readers, a couple years ago now I put together with the studio a list of recordings, please check that for some suggested versions of each work.

In the context of his era there were three possible models of horn that could be used, the single F, the single Bb, and the double horn. Farkas came out strongly against the use of the single Bb for beginners, saying “elementary organizations should use F horns exclusively. Beginners should always start with F horns if they intend to have a firm foundation for their advancement.” However, earlier on the very same page Farkas wrote that by use of the B-flat horn players “will miss fewer notes, have a fuller tone in the high register, and gain in endurance and confidence.” In his era and continuing to this day there is a divide between players who advocate for starting horn players on the Bb horn as they will advance more rapidly and those players who advocate for the F horn out of a sense of tradition. To again quote Farkas,

The F horn, having an inherently “correct” horn tone plus requiring the student to develop a really good embouchure in order to negotiate the many lip changes which produce the notes unaided by valves, invariably gives a more solid foundation to the student who intends to continue into professional playing. Because of this ability of the F horn to instill the proper tone and general approach to horn playing, I prefer to see all beginners use the F horn.

While the single Bb was the horn of choice by many professional players of his time, including the great British horn soloist Dennis Brain, the double horn is certainly seen by Farkas as the solution to the question of F or Bb horn.

Perhaps ninety percent of our professional players use the double horn, which combines the best features of both the F and B flat horns. It makes use of the velvety F horn tone in the middle and low register, just where the B flat horn tone can sometimes become uncharacteristic. Then, by means of a thumb valve, the horn can quickly be switched to its B flat side, perhaps for the upper register, where the notes are much easier than on the F horn and even the tone is to be preferred.

Farkas presented one important caution about trying new equipment.

There is one necessary warning, I believe, about this experimenting. It is best to do little or no experimenting during the playing season, as it is quite detrimental to precision, tone, and finesse. Wait until the off-season.

Farkas offered a final observation on good horns compared to bad horns.

Fine artists demand the best instruments obtainable, yet will amaze us with the quality of music they can, if necessary, draw from a piece of musical junk. On the other hand, poor or indifferent performers cannot make even the finest instruments sound good. Therefore, make no excuse for the instrument. Practice and sheer hard work will make your present instrument sound always more beautiful. Should it be an inferior instrument, the conquering of its defects will develop your artistry all the more, and the eventual, inevitable change to a better instrument will only serve to further increase that artistry and the pleasure of playing.

Yet, in the reflecting stage things might be a bit foggy as to what actually defines your success – or, your need to tweak the plan. Typically, success in a regimented routine designed to improve something is defined by benchmarks alone.

Planning for success involves slowing things way down and meticulously taking them apart. Since metronome markings are mathematical, it is pretty easy to plot out a chart of tempo gradations, for example – from slow up to performance tempo – over a period of weeks.

This is the kind of planning of course that should happen before getting to the reflection stage, not after or during.

Why?

This kind of benchmarking is an example of a Key Performance Indicator and it is a way to more objectively gauge your success or failure at a task.

Documenting your performance indicators is important and can prove to be tremendously beneficial down the road – even if your indicator ends up being way off. This kind of reflection will not only improve the way you practice, but also the way you think about attacking problems and playing music with others.

Your KPI can include benchmarks, targets and time frames. Besides the technical aspects – like tempo and dynamics – be sure to experiment with writing down less tangible indicators such as:

• Feeling free and easy
• Getting the right emotional impact

Working out a plan for success is not just about the technical aspects – you want to feel good about your music-making as well, right?

First up was Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic. After a short, great performance with piano he worked with two students. The one pull away comment I took from him related to working on excerpts. The student played them well but for one in particular Alessi asked him what the orchestra played right before his entrance. When the student replied that he did not know Alessi said “‘I don’t know’ is never the correct answer.” He further explained to the class that you have to have the music going before your entrance in your head to play it really convincingly. For a horn example I can’t imagine playing the Shostakovich 5 low tutti excerpt well without clearly thinking two bars of the piano part before the entrance. Piano part? If you are not sure what I mean listen to it and memorize it.

The very next hour we had a master class with Jason Ham, Euphonium in the West Point band. I missed the beginning of his class but wish I could have seen it all. Toward the end he addressed the topic of hesitation attacks. His angle was the game of darts. A good attack has very much the same form and feel as a good throw of the dart. It is tempting to set up a board in my office to give people the feel, it is actually quite a good example visually and for the feel of the attack being in one motion, just like a good throw of a real dart.

There were many other points in each class. These are both players you should see present classes whenever you have the opportunity. And check out their websites linked above, there is much to be found in both.

The topic is the Vienna Horn on Mellocast episode 105. I have touched on the topic previously as well, but for more check out the podcast and the website of the group in the video, Vienna Horns. And become a fan on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/VIENNA-HORNS/65043630604

• Born performers?
  Even in front of millions of people, some people are able to calm themselves better than others, according to Psychology Today.

• An oldie but goodie
  If you haven’ read Jeffrey Lang’s article, Playing Horn in the Big Apple you should check it out. I found it over the weekend at the Osmun.com reference area.

• Blowing it off
  John Averell shares his 50-year journey on the French horn and the time he met Carl Geyer.

• Ghosts in the machine
  At Jay Friedman’s blog, Kirk Lundbeck gives some thought to aiming the airstream down the center of the mouthpiece. Given the some of the film evidence that is readily available on YouTube, this advice seems contrary to what is actually happening inside the mouthpiece for most people.

Basically there is a set of machinists drills that are numbered and the numbers are similar to those used in wire gauge as well. The ever-useful-for-general-information Wikipedia reports,

Number and letter gauge drill bits are still in common use in the U.S.. In the past, they were popular elsewhere, but now have been largely discarded in favour of metric sizes….

Number drill bit gauge sizes are analogous to, but different from, American wire gauge.

There is a chart of the sizes in the Wikipedia article but in short all you really need to know as a horn player is that a #1 drill is the largest in the set. Actually I have drills as small as #80 in my model railroad tools. That size is roughly the size of a small needle, as can be seen in this photo, linked from the Wikipedia article.

Some mouthpiece makers have for many years used these drills as the system used to measure the bore of horn (and trumpet) mouthpieces. So a C-8 should have a bore that just lets a #8 drill pass through but not #7, which is slightly bigger. Etc. The letter is a designation for the shape of the cup.

In my studio I keep a complete set of drills #1-20 and it is very handy to sort out what things really are, especially when comparing brands and models, it is easy to fool the eye.

A box of mouthpieces is a fascinating possession and potentially fatal. The hornist’s beatitude could well be: “Blessed are they who start with a good mouthpiece and stay with it.”

As to selecting a mouthpiece, “There are two approaches to this most difficult and ultimately important matter: either we can observe the shape, size, depth and rim of mouthpieces used by leading players and try to deduce basic principles governing choice, or we can consider the findings of an individual who has deliberately experimented and acted upon them.” As to the first tactic, if you were to look at the mouthpieces of some to the leading orchestral horn players in the world you would according to Cousins observe that

…almost all use a relatively thin-rimmed mouthpiece. How thin is ‘thin’, you may ask. The answer is to observe for yourself…. Generally it will be found that 1st and 3rd horns have a smaller and thinner-rimmed mouthpiece than their 2nd and 4th horn colleagues.

He observes that there is an embouchure difference visible between successful players who play on mouthpieces with a smaller inner diameter compared to those who play on a larger inner diameter. The smaller mouthpiece demands an embouchure with more of a “stretch” to it and the larger demands more of a “bunch” of the lips. He continues,

Let us assume that we have narrowed our choice down to, say, three mouthpieces. It is time for a more public experiment (mindful that a player is never able to hear himself as others hear him, and that microphones, by their very nature, distort tone for better or for worse).

Two or more volunteer listeners are needed. They should stand at the far end of the room, or preferably hall, and be invited to give their opinions regarding ‘quality’ and ‘carrying-power’. In order to maintain an acoustical constant, the player and listeners alike must remain in the same physical position throughout. Such experiment will not necessarily lead to choice of the ‘perfect’ mouthpiece, but at least it may help towards it.

Another topic for Cousins was that of modifying mouthpieces, on which he has an interesting perspective.

This brings us to the final and most exciting mouthpiece sin: altering the rim. Whether by lathe or by hand this is a dangerous business. What is scraped off cannot be put back. And yet … a slight ‘taking down’ of an offending lump, or a slight rounding-off of a too sharp inner edge, can make a great difference. My past is littered with ruined mouthpieces. I urge you most earnestly not to alter a rim unless it is absolutely necessary.

He concludes with a few more notes on trying mouthpieces.

Finally, any haphazard ‘preluding’ with first one mouthpiece and then another is likely to leave the player in a state of depression. The trouble is with any mouthpiece experiment is that the embouchure is quickly thrown out of gear. Note the fact well that every change of mouthpiece temporarily rests the muscles for the next mouthpiece by creating new lines of muscle contraction. Now this sometimes fosters the impression of a discovery, but the moment the new muscles tire, we are filled once again with doubt. Nevertheless experimentation should give some useful results.

This time I however had an idea, would the Curry 1HTF mouthpiece that is popular on marching mellophone work, for my purposes as a horn teacher playing trumpet? Actually it works pretty well, my embouchure fits the thing and it sounds really pretty good. If you are a horn teacher teaching some trumpet lessons this is a model to try for your own demo playing on the instrument, I really can’t manage on a standard mouthpiece like a Bach 7C. But, on the record, I don’t recommend trying to double in any serious way between trumpet and horn, it can only lead to frustration.