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SubCategory Archive (tags): ‘Hand position & holding’

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The Cabbage Speaks on ‘Wolf Notes’

PUBLISHED: January 25, 2012, Bruce Hembd

In response to a question about bad notes on a natural horn crook, both John and Dave have taken a crack at an answer. Behind-the-scenes we also heard from Brian Holmes a.k.a. the “Cabbage.” The initial question: My question is why a natural horn instrument with a certain crook might have a bad note. What is [...]

PSA: How to Position a Hand Strap on your Left Hand

PUBLISHED: September 27, 2011, John Ericson

At least a half dozen or so times I have seen horn students use a strap-on type hand strap but position it incorrectly. This type of strap (the Fhrap is one example) is a very handy thing but used incorrectly it can’t help much. In our first photo the strap is positioned correctly. Note that [...]

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Hand position & holding

On Holding the Horn and Tendinitis

PUBLISHED: September 22, 2011, John Ericson

Bruce Richards posted an article very recently to Living the Dream on the topic of horn player tendinitis. Richards and I go way back to Aspen in 1983 (more in this article); we are the same age and share it turns out some similar problems. For him four of the keys to working with his [...]

Playing on Piston Valves, a King Mellophone, and the IYM

PUBLISHED: May 31, 2011, John Ericson

As I have been preparing for my session at the IHS symposium that involves performing on a vintage piston valve horn, I have been playing on piston valves quite a bit. Piston valves are very interesting animals if you have basically only used rotary valves for years. As I have commented elsewhere, they feel quite [...]

From the Mailbag: Ouch, My Shoulder Hurts!

PUBLISHED: May 11, 2011, Bruce Hembd

A question has come to me through private email about shoulder pain: I’ve recently started playing horn again after many (many) years away, and I’ve developed quite a pain in my left shoulder. I think I can definitely attribute the pain to playing. Is this common? Are there strengthening exercises I can do? I never [...]

A Study on Hand Position: Notes on the High Range and Hand Stopping

PUBLISHED: March 24, 2011, John Ericson

I found the link in Random Monday this week to a recent (2009) study very interesting, on the topic of hand position. The title of the project is “Spectral Analysis of the French Horn and the Hand-in-Bell Effect” and author Adam Watts wrote the paper as a Senior Thesis in the Department of Physics, University [...]

From the Mailbag: Why does Another Horn Player in my Section Sound Bad?

PUBLISHED: March 15, 2011, John Ericson

Another question that came in recently was that of why a person in a horn section sounded bad. In the E-mail it mentioned the player was talented (high school aged) but that the tone was very bright, loud, and out of tune. In short there could be a whole group of things wrong and it [...]

John Ericson & Bruce Hembd
on the French horn, brass related topics, and the field of classical music.