Horn Player/Web Developer

Tag: horn teaching

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  • Tony Halstead Horn Hangout

    Tony Halstead Horn Hangout

    Sarah Willis’ most recent Horn Hangout video to be archived is her discussion with acclaimed natural hornist Anthony Halstead. As someone who has done very little with the natural horn, this was a very interesting chat, and makes me wish I had some spare change to put toward a real valveless instrument! Anthony Halstead –…

  • VerMeulen Video: Six Quick Fixes to Horn Playing

    VerMeulen Video: Six Quick Fixes to Horn Playing

    This year the International Horn Society (yes, that’s a real thing!) is holding their International Horn Symposium at Ithica College in Ithica, New York from June 13-18. Horn workshops happen around the world. There are at least four regional workshops that happen every year in the US: the Northeast, Southest, Mid-South and Mid-North horn workshops…

  • Google & Bing make finding a metronome even easier!

    Google & Bing make finding a metronome even easier!

    It seems that once a week or so I have a student claiming that they couldn’t use a metronome for some reason – if you have a similar problem, there are two options that anyone with a web browser and an internet connection can use – completely free! If you go to Google, and just…

  • Why You Should Use a Practice Log

    Why You Should Use a Practice Log

    Practice Log – The Introduction My first exposure to the concept of a practice log was in Phil Farkas’ Art of Horn Playing. In that book he shows a sample practice log featuring things like different warm-up exercises (lip trills, transposition, scales), etudes, and pieces of music – along with the length of time that…

  • Can A Model Performance Improve Your Practice?

    Can A Model Performance Improve Your Practice?

    One questions that comes up a fair amount in lessons – especially lessons with younger students faced with new or difficult repertoire – is “can you play this so I can hear how it goes”? Most of the time, my answer is something along the lines of “yes, but everything you need to know is…

  • Michael Thompson: Elegant Simplicity of Horn Playing

    Michael Thompson, a British horn player, is probably best known for his (along with fellow British horn player Richard Watkins) fantastic CD t, but in this Youtube video, he gives some great tips for horn players of all ages: You should definitely watch the whole video, but if you don’t have time (make time!), here…

  • Ear Training – Work Your Ears!

    Ear training, as painful as it was during undergraduate theory, was one of my most useful classes, and is an essential skill for a musician on any instrument. For players of brass instruments (especially horn) it is especially important, since one fingering can play about a dozen notes! Knowing how to play the horn technically is…

  • How Long Should I Practice?

    It’s likely one of the most common question asked by both students and their parents  – how much time should they be practicing? While I was in high school, I read Phil Farkas’ Art of French Horn Playing, and in it, he advocates for around 3 hours of practice per day. As an undergraduate, I tried…

  • Horn Playing From the Inside

    Sarah Willis, the first female brass player in the Berlin Philharmonic, an incredible low horn player, and the host of several music- and horn-related TV and internet shows,  has done an incredible experiment on what goes on inside the mouth while playing horn by playing a specially-made horn inside an MRI machine!

  • Know your Right (Hand Position)

    There are many reasons why I wish I could observe students’ practice habits at home, but one of the biggest reasons is probably one that they think little to nothing about – their right hand position. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen students playing (either in lessons, in rehearsals, or in performances)…