- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
A major concern of mine for horn (and brass) players going forward into 2021 is chops. It has been a strange 9 months of practice for all of us. Already several of my Horn Matters posts for 2020 have related to chops.
With 2021 starting soon, something I plan to do is early in the year feature on the Horn Matters Instagram page a series of videos toward getting and keeping your chops healthy. The videos will be relatively short, not full warmups, but will focus on use of exercises from two publications:
I will try to make the videos so you can pick up the gist of the exercises by ear, but to get the most out of the videos, you may wish to purchase the books. And be sure to follow us on Instagram @hornmattersofficial
There is a tip I want to share as well, one that I heard from an amateur hornist, and one that has really helped my most recent practice. I had noticed in my teaching, dynamics are a challenge for many players right now, due to no big rehearsals and bad practice spaces. I know in my case, in the fall I started playing VERY loud at my office for a little while every day (I was teaching from my ASU office), and it helped my chops – but not everyone has that luxury. At home, my son hates it when I play loud and will make me stop. But I do need that bit of loud playing to keep my chops feeling right.
To the tip finally, a solution to this issue, is to play very loud on a practice mute at least every day. It does not need to be long, just a few loud exercises, a few loud etudes or excerpts will help you greatly. You need the loud playing as part of your playing diet, you can’t practice all the time at MP/MF and have healthy chops. I’ve also lately been playing brass quintet horn parts for variety, not that I have any gigs coming, but they remind me of how to play and hit the needed dynamics and articulations.
A year ago, I can’t imagine I would have written those words. At my university I have to complete an annual report every year covering the previous three years of activity, and in their wisdom they changed the system. As a result, I have spent many hours working through the past 3 years. The exercise has left me very reminded of how dramatic the shift of everything was after spring break 2020.
Which brings me to a final topic, change in the horn world and Instagram specifically, where a lot of great content is being produced right now. My theory is that Facebook and Twitter got so toxic with the election that Instagram became the safe space. What is great about the platform is that you can focus tightly on specific interests with low drama. If you are not on Instagram, you really should try it. There are a surprising number of hornists on Instagram with well over 1,000 followers, putting out interesting content every day. And during my sabbatical from ASU I will be among them, both with our Horn Matters healthy chops initiative and on my personal Instagram, which will focus on my sabbatical projects. Follow me there @ericsonhorn
