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Horn Secrets: Putting Conventional Wisdom to the Test

PUBLISHED: January 8, 2012, John Ericson

A week from today I will present a session at the 2012 Southwest Horn Conference with the title “Horn Secrets: Putting Conventional Wisdom to the Test.” The following was turned in for the program book: Many elements of a conventional approach to horn playing were put forth by Philip Farkas in his 1956 text The [...]

Hornmasters on Double and Triple Tonguing. Part II: Yancich, Fox, and Berv

PUBLISHED: December 16, 2011, John Ericson

In part I Schuller and Farkas ultimately come across as not being big advocates of multiple tonguing. Today we turn a corner however and arrive at sources a bit more committed to learning the skill. Milan Yancich in A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing has a section of exercises to develop triple and double [...]

Hornmasters on Staccato, Part II: Fox, Berv, and Hill

PUBLISHED: December 8, 2011, John Ericson

Staccato tonguing is a problem for many horn students. In part I of this article Farkas and Schuller laid out their approaches to teaching this, approaches that sound right on paper but in reality are confusing to many readers. The problem being that they ignore a a physiological reality of staccato on the horn that [...]

Hornmasters: Attacks, a Prelude to Tonguing

PUBLISHED: October 11, 2011, John Ericson

Tonguing would seem on the surface to be a fairly uncontroversial topic. We have touched on this topic in this series of quotations from Classic horn methods but now it is time to turn more directly to the topic. Tonguing is a topic that every teacher has tips to offer. Looking at the big picture [...]

Hornmasters on Legato Tonguing

PUBLISHED: September 20, 2011, John Ericson

As a prelude to his general discussion of tonguing in Chapter 9 of The Art of French Horn Playing, at the end of Chapter 8 Philip Farkas kicks things off with a brief discussion of legato tonguing. Legato tonguing involves making a connection between the notes. In a legato phrase the player … must keep [...]

Hornmasters: Berv and Reynolds on Slurs

PUBLISHED: September 11, 2011, John Ericson

For Harry Berv in A Creative Approach to the French Horn the concept of “leverage” was essential to a good slur. In making a slur on the horn, the airflow must be even so that the lips will be in a constant state of vibration. Should the airstream become uneven, the lips will not vibrate [...]

Hornmasters on How Much to Practice

PUBLISHED: July 19, 2011, John Ericson

There are a variety of approaches to the question of how much to practice on a French horn. Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing was a strong advocate of three hours of practice a day. He does allow that rehearsals and concerts are a portion of what playing can be done in one [...]

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