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Finally it is time to discuss building up the high and low ranges of the horn, a topic on which every horn teacher has suggestions.
Readings on range development
The readings this week are from the Hornmasters series.
Understanding Range Development- Farkas and Schuller on the High Range
- Yancich and Fox on the High Range
- More on the High Range
- Low Range, Part I: Older Resources
- Low Range, Part II: More Recent Resources
As with previous weeks, the articles have been updated over the years with insights gleaned from the recent (and ongoing) MRI horn studies.
It is interesting to read the quotes closely, as clearly some of the Hornmasters are suggesting things that are not great suggestions, and the (I think) very basic concept of “breaking” the embouchure seems to mean different things to different people.
I did not set out to be a teacher that emphasized low horn work…
This is as good a place as any to briefly share another story. When I was taking auditions, I thought of myself as being a better low horn player — but I advanced much more often in high horn auditions. I think what happened was that other “high horn” players did not have a good enough low range to play the full range of the horn well.
Which is to say, a very fine horn player can play any range well, can play any part. That needs to be the goal if you aspire to be a professional hornist.
How this has panned out in my teaching is that it is very rare for a student to arrive with a very solid low range, and even if it is pretty solid it can still be better! Lacking materials, I developed my own low range publications, for more on those visit Horn Notes Edition.
Next week we turn to endurance and other related topics.
Continue in Horn Pedagogy Course
This is week 10 of a fourteen week course in horn pedagogy. The introductory article is here, and the series is presented for the educational purposes of our readers.
