music

In years of working with students on the horn, one of the most difficult concepts to teach (at least for me), has been the idea of musical phrasing. I imagine that this is (at least in part) because getting a strong set of fundamentals took me so long. I don’t […]

Teaching Musical Interpretation: Learn, Listen, Count

27 Feb, 2019 in Horn tagged horn playing / horn practice / horn problems / horn teaching / horn technique / music / practice / recording by Colin Dorman (updated 37 days ago)

So I’ve really been enjoying using my tablet as a digital music reader. It’s certainly been an adjustment (I’ve written about some of those here), but overall I really have been enjoying it. One recent upgrade that I made was for a relatively small and compact stand/tablet holder setup to […]

Upgrade to Digital Music Reading: New Stand!

13 Feb, 2019 in Horn tagged android / apple / chromebook / horn equipment / horn playing / horn practice / music / practice by Colin Dorman (updated 42 days ago)

Intonation. Almost everyone who has played any instrument with flexible intonation has been told that they are out-of-tune. In some of the middle and high school bands I work with, the director will go up and down the rows with a tuner, telling students that they are flat or sharp, […]

How Important Is Intonation? It Depends.

30 Jan, 2019 in Horn tagged horn playing / horn practice / horn teaching / music / orchestra / orchestra music / practice / rehearsal by Colin Dorman (updated 82 days ago)

Yo-Yo Ma is one of the most iconic classical musicians of the last 30-plus years. His recordings of the Bach Cello Suites (made in the early 1980’s, the late 1990’s, and in 2017) have shown an incredible ability to capture the musical essence of Bach, and they also serve as […]

Yo-Yo Ma and Doug Yeo on Changes and Choices

9 Jan, 2019 in Horn tagged horn playing / horn practice / horn problems / horn teaching / music / practice by Colin Dorman (updated 75 days ago)

OpenScore banner image — A new project and Kickstarter recently announced by Edward Guo, founder of IMSLP and Thomas Bonte, CEO and co-founder of MuseScore, aims to take music into the digital age with the OpenScore project. The OpenScore Project The goal of the OpenScore Kickstarter project – launched on May 29 – is […]

MuseScore + IMSLP = OpenScore

2 Jun, 2017 in Horn tagged digital music / music / orchestra music / practice by Colin Dorman

french horn music — In Kentucky and Indiana (and a bunch of other states, I’m sure), the end of Thanksgiving doesn’t just mean turkey and Black Friday sales, it also means that Solo and Ensemble is just over the horizon! French Horn Solo Collections If you’re looking for some good horn music for Solo […]

The End of November Means…Time for Solo and Ensemble!

27 Nov, 2016 in Horn tagged horn playing / horn teaching / music / practice by Colin Dorman (updated 693 days ago)

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 […]

Why You Should Use a Practice Log

29 Feb, 2016 in Horn tagged horn playing / horn practice / horn teaching / music / practice by Colin Dorman (updated 1023 days ago)

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 […]

Can A Model Performance Improve Your Practice?

24 Jan, 2016 in Horn tagged horn playing / horn practice / horn teaching / music / practice / recording by Colin Dorman