- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
The related topics of playing short notes and tonguing quickly come up in lessons all the time.
At some point every horn player must learn how to play very short notes, a very dry and pointed staccato. I know some of the ways I go about teaching these skills, and I know how some other teachers do it, but thinking back now it is an interesting question to me — how did I actually learn the skill? And also, fast single tonguing?
Somehow, I figured it out on my own
I had to go back to my cassette tape collection to find the oldest audition tape that I still have. It was recorded in the spring of my freshman year of college, and on it I played the third movement of the Ralph Hermann concerto. It is not a very well-known piece, but it was on a James Chambers record in our listening lab, and there was sheet music in the main library at Emporia State.
The recording was made as an audition tape for the Kansas Bandmasters Association Intercollegiate Band. At the time I was playing a Holton 177 horn with a MDC, and it was before I had any lessons with a horn playing horn teacher! (And I was still on my original 2/3 lower lip embouchure, and maybe even before I read the Farkas book). I was very green. While my high school band director (Mr. Hodges) was a horn player, I never had any lessons with him (although he did show me how to hold the horn, etc.). By the middle of high school I was taking lessons – and my first two “horn” teachers were both trombonists (!), including Mr. Nixon, who had become my major professor in school. I started college as (of all things) a music business major.
Mr. Nixon had been the band director at Emporia State for some years, but by this point was teaching music education classes and the horn studio. Of his instruction, I only recall low-key, low-pressure instructions. I don’t remember him emphasizing short articulations, dynamics, fast tonguing, etc. But clearly, I was doing them rather well on this recording in my freshman year. I suspect he wanted me to do those things well, too, but had non-demanding tactics to get them, honed from his years of being a band director.
Don’t over teach
Which is to say yet again, “over teaching” of certain skills can lead to having problems doing those same skills. I try to be very careful of this in my teaching, but, of course, when someone has trouble with skills you have to find ways to try to make them better. But I’m glad that Mr. Nixon did not push me real hard with tons of suggestions — he let me work it out myself.
“Normal Kopprasch”
I worked through Kopprasch etude by etude as an undergrad, starting during my freshman year of college. I still have (and use) my original copy.
I would add that Mr. Nixon had me do Kopprasch 1 in exactly one lesson and I’ve never gone back to it ever again with a horn teacher. Teachers that are extremely demanding with Kopprasch 1 in particular puzzle me a little, but I’m sure they have specific things they are looking for (attention to detail, etc.).
The very demanding teacher and “extreme Kopprasch”
I could name names, but certain teachers pride themselves on being very demanding in Kopprasch. I’m not convinced this is the best use of time, but certainly within some studios a Kopprasch Club does become a thing that unites them (against a common enemy!).
Returning to the demanding teacher topic, I have shared before how for me Verne Reynolds was the very demanding teacher. He certainly fine-tuned my ability to play very short articulations and extreme dynamics, but we never did Kopprasch in any lessons! I used Maxime-Alphonse book 4 with him and the Barbeteu Vingt Etudes Concertantes Pour Cor. And he very much liked my very fast single tonguing — at one point he told me (and this is a direct quote) “John, you tongue like a one-eyed black snake.”
The effective teacher
I try when I can (in the big and small picture) to teach prescriptively, to use materials that relate to problems that need solved. All teaching is with individual students, and so many factors relate. It often takes a while to peel down the layers of the onion to try to find the most natural and effective approach. But then again, often enough you can make a lot of progress in the right direction quickly with just simple suggestions. Because,
Learning styles do vary
Fortunately for me, Mr. Nixon was very low key on all of this and with only gentle instructions and encouragement I got a great start. For others, this might not work – a more direct approach with very specific instructions and demands could be the answer. In any case though, I was intrigued to listen again to freshman John Ericson playing horn. Some rough edges for sure (and no low range!) but I could certainly tongue short notes and single tongue quite fast (and get up to a high C#!) before I had had regular lessons with a horn playing teacher. Makes me kind of glad in a way that I did not start traditionally, and in a time with no social media.
