Category: Horn
Here you can view a specific archive, or you can go to the homepage.
-
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…
-
Horn-Timpani Interaction: Confirmed
The Acoustical Society of America recently helped out horn players the world over by publishing an article in 2014 in their Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA) titled: The effect of nearby timpani strokes on horn playing. This study, performed by Jer-Ming Chen, John Smith, and Joe Wolfe from the School of Physics, The University of New South Wales…
-
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…
-
App Review: Official Quality Tones App
Accuracy is probably the number one concern for most beginning to intermediate horn players. Until your ear, embouchure, and air become well developed, hitting the correct note – especially the first note – can seem like a crap shoot. That is precisely what the developer of the Quality Tones app wants to improve. What Are…
-
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…
-
Give Your Horn a Gift – Clean It!
If you have some extra time this holiday season (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?) try to find some time to give yourself the gift of a clean french horn! The Christmas break is a great time to do this since usually the few days after Christmas are pretty slow gig-wise (and, often, practice-wise), and…
-
PSA: Clean Your Horn!
A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Pennsylvania to play assistant principal for a good friend in the Reading Symphony. These trips are fun both from a work and a personal perspective, since Pennsylvania is not exactly close to Louisville, and any excuse to see a friend (and get paid) is welcome! While I was there,…
-
Horn Player Problems, Vol. 1
I guess this is payback for all the great Brahms, Mahler, and Strauss horn parts.