You need a warmup routine, but you also probably need more than just one warmup routine.
horn practice
Active vs. Passive learning: sometimes the best medicine is the most bitter.
Most Effective Learning Style Feels the Worst
In a recent blog article over at James Boldin’s Horn World blog, James discusses a recent visit to the University of Louisiana-Monroe by Dr. Eldon Matlick, who is the Horn Professor at the University of Oklahoma. His blog article briefly covers some of the topics that Dr. Matlick discussed with […]
Eldon Matlick and A New (To Me) Tuning System
Practicing a musical instrument can be a frustrating experience. Lots of hours focused on just getting one or two small sections perfect, only to be faced with more the next day or week. However, practice isn’t just about focusing on small details and getting individual notes correct. At least part […]
Practice Recipe: 3 Parts Focus with 1 Part Distraction
How to plan your practice is a topic that I’ve covered before, but there’s a lot more to getting in “enough” playing than just sitting down for a practice session. The typical recommendation from the ever-popular Farkas book is that you need to get in 3 hours of practice per […]
When NOT to Practice
If you’ve watched just about any sport, you’re certainly familiar with athlete’s and their love of rituals. But, it turns out that even arbitrary or even silly rituals can have a meaningful impact on your performance and reduce anxiety. The important thing is not necessarily what you do, but what […]
Pre-Performance Rituals
A new resource is available for horn players from John Ericson, horn professor at Arizona State University. According to John’s description on his Horn Notes Edition page: A practical collection of inventive scale and arpeggio exercises to develop technique and intonation, carefully selected from the classic horn method books of […]
New Horn Studies from John Ericson
Although I don’t use these terms at all in my teaching, bubbles, clicks, and bumps are an important thing for teachers and students to be aware of. These terms are used by horn player (and composer/conductor) Gunther Schuller to describe various imperfections in articulations, slurs and the slotting of notes. […]