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Navigating Performance Anxiety

John Ericson
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For our second Brass Area of the semester the ASU brass faculty had a panel discussion, part of our Career Forward series, on the topic of “How we successfully navigate performance anxiety.” We each brought different ideas to the table, providing some broad perspectives that went well beyond the conventional wisdom.

As to myself, I had prepared notes on a few topics I wanted to get to, which I hope that Horn Matters readers might find interesting as well.

The one who executes the best is the best

This topic I wanted to mention, but actually a colleague brought it up first and covered it well. The essential thing is that you can be the “better” player, but if you execute less well than another player (who is not as strong) then, reality is, that player is actually better than you. If performance anxiety is what leads you to not execute your best, you really have to find some tactics to deal with it. The exact tactics you use will likely be different than mine, we are all wired differently. But you need to find them, it is of importance.

Something I’m a little sad about

This one is hard to explain, but I’ll try to do a short version, as I mentioned it to the brass studios also.

The series of horn lessons during my Masters study with Verne Reynolds were among the most stressful experiences of my life. While on one hand I am grateful, I learned a lot and I survived (although somewhat burnt out by the end), plus, almost nothing I experience today is as stressful as those lessons were. Orchestral auditions were certainly not as stressful, they were more of an adventure in working on great music and developing personal focus. On the other hand, I feel I lost something — from that lesson experience I simply don’t feel stress the same way as other people. Maybe that is good and was good for me. But I still would have preferred a healthier, more positive lesson experience those two years. A longer article from a few years ago on things I learned with Verne Reynolds may be found here.

I am optimistic

I have also posted about this before in Horn Matters – I’m not fearless, but I am optimistic as I approach things in life in general. In terms of horn playing, I’m optimistic if I’m warmed up nicely and I know the music! If I know I can’t play the music and my chops feel bad, I have plenty to feel anxious about. Don’t set yourself up for failure in terms of chops and knowledge of the music. More on this topic here.

Playing only to the best of my ability

Another related element is that I have long taken the approach and mindset that I am only trying to play to the best of my ability in any situation. At that point, I leave the judgements to others. When things go bad, often at issue was I was trying to impress people. Don’t try to impress anyone! Just play to the best of your ability.

Relying on the ability to do something again and again

Often you hear people say that they could play it better in the practice room. I have a more objective approach that if I can play something correctly in the practice room I can duplicate it in any other situation. But you need a clear head and mindset, mentally in the zone, etc. Essentially (and I know this sounds like terrible advice), what you want to develop is sort of a high level “autopilot” that can replicate any passage you know very well again and again. That ability is what can win the audition.

Speaking of the Inner Game and mental centering …

**See this article for more of my recent thoughts on the inner dialogue and horn playing. It was only a side point in the brass area session, but I think an interesting one.

**And see this recent article for more on mental centering and the warmup. These together can certainly reduce your performance anxiety, especially for auditions and other important performances.

A mindset based on faith

This final topic I did not get to in our Brass Area session. I have written about this several times in Horn Matters, this article being the longer one. Short version: Farkas related in The Art of Musicianship that, in so many words, as he began his career he felt inexperienced and unsure of himself. As well he could have; he had his first principal horn job before he graduated high school! He was a younger person than virtually any other member of his orchestra. But over time he realized that

It was a series of incredibly interwoven and predestined events which put me there…. Because I had been led there, certainly I could do the work assigned to me, and failure was not part of that plan.

It is a good way of thinking of things. You could have all sorts of negative thoughts when performing, feelings of imposter syndrome, etc. But actually, you can turn those thoughts toward a faith that you were led to that moment, and, because your higher power and providence guided you there, this is something you actually can do. A positive mindset based on faith. The idea won’t resonate with every reader, but I’m sure for some it does have a significant resonance.

With that I will simply repeat that there really is no one way to manage performance anxiety, we are all wired differently. I hope that my above ideas give you some new angles to consider. Good luck!

Accuracy Encyclopedia: Air and Alternate Fingerings

John Ericson
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Today as we continue our tour the subject of accuracy we have two unrelated topics, air (the use of) and also alternate fingerings (pro and con).

The use of air as it relates to accuracy

For me, the proper use of air has a lot to do with starting notes accurately — that single motion that is the breath/set/play motion. It all happens in time (and at one time), with a consistent feel.

There is a general concept that is going to come up in multiple articles in this series, the concept of the timing of everything. Focusing now on the air part of the equation, if your air lags slightly behind your tonguing or your embouchure set, you will have accuracy issues. Closely related, you can’t bottle up air as part of that motion and expect to play as accurately either.

If you have an issue with this, it can be hard to recognize in yourself, as it all seems normal to you. It is just how you normally play! But there is an issue to address, and this is why you need clear feedback from a teacher.

For some players, I know that there is an underlying, deeper topic related to mental centering of which breathing is a central activity. This one is harder to explain, but there are some concepts in yoga that may relate. Suffice to say that the breath and a consistency of breathing can draw you mentally into playing the note.

In short though, there is a consistent way of doing things that gives you the horn player more confidence when it is going right. The use of air is part of that, and it can contribute to improved accuracy.

Alternate fingerings help accuracy

Conventional wisdom is that alternate fingerings may help your accuracy. And they certainly can, at least in part because your thumb is your least facile digit – staying on the Bb horn can give not only better response but a better fingering pattern. But also —

Alternate fingerings hurt accuracy

What? A plain fact is our sense of pitch is tied up with fingerings. As an example, let’s say that you have to play a D on the fourth line. Even just reading these words, mentally you probably put down the fingering (and certainly you have a mental T12 fingered by now), and with this further suggestion you can sense the tension of the lips and the sound of the pitch. There is a whole package of feelings that are tied up with that note, enhanced by the mind-boggling number of repetitions of that note over a lifetime.

When you use different fingerings than normal it impacts the feel (“taste”) of the note and your sense of pitch. As a result, you may find yourself to be less accurate until the pattern is worked out fully. This is also one of the challenges of stopped horn, the fingerings are “wrong” and it impacts how you feel the note.

Continue in Accuracy Encyclopedia

This is an installment of a series on accuracy, drawn from notes developed for a book on the same topic. The series begins here.

Mental Centering and your Warmup

John Ericson
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On social media very recently, I saw a brief comment pass by related to how warmups helped with mental centering.** That thought resonated with me strongly, and I think is one for every good horn player to consider.

What is “mental centering”?

It is a term that will mean different things to different people, and even to me it means something different in different situations. Certainly, the term is used in yoga and martial arts, where in the latter especially it would help you remain focused in stressful situations. For others, it relates also to mental wellness, being at your center, feeling less anxious generally.

But for sure an element of the French horn the warmup is that the process helps you get in your “zone” mentally, to be ready to perform on multiple levels (physical/mental). Or it could be!

When do you warm up?

For me, I have long preferred to warmup at the hall or someplace very close at hand, right before the performance or rehearsal. My feeling was it set up my chops better, but also, I can see how the process of warming up brings you mentally into “performance mode.” Ideally, I would time it to be fully warmed up about 5 minutes before the performing session.

Other players, fine players, have a very different tactic, where they warm up in the morning and then they are essentially warmed up for the rest of the day! This could work for you, as each person has different routines and needs. It never has for me, and I think the mental centering side if this is part of why the one-time, big warmup does not feel as good. But, again, I can see that others could feel fully warmed and centered for an entire day with the right routine. We are all different.

Application: Using the warmup to center before an audition

Potentially one of the most stressful types of performances is the audition. I have mentioned elsewhere in this site that I took 30 professional auditions for full-time jobs, and the Nashville audition I won was my 25th audition. By then I very much had a routine for preparation that involved in part a very consistent warmup that was done before every rehearsal or performance. The full routine was done multiple times a day, and when I described my method to Farkas in one of the handful of lessons I took with him he told me I warmed up too much. Which was hard info to process at the time. But I still tend to think the consistent warmup and timing of the warmup helped me to center in on my performances.

And I still like to warm up

I’m not performing nearly as much now (due to family considerations), but I am playing every day, and part of that is always warming up. Which I, to be honest, enjoy. That physical activity just makes me feel good. Realizing now that there is also some mental component related to centering, and ultimately mental wellness, is a very interesting thought to me, and hopefully one that will resonate with you.

What if I don’t like to warm up?

I would suggest that you might want to rethink what you are doing. A brutal daily routine that covers all aspects of technique might not promote centering and mental wellness. A correct warmup should leave you ready to play well, not beat up mentally or physically.

Bonus: Other music for centering and mental wellness?

I must say, for older players, Kopprasch tends to mean something different than for a student. Kopprasch becomes part of the routine, a routine that helps that player feel at center. When the Kopprasch feels good, everything feels good! (For me, I often refer back to number 40 as “my” Kopprasch etude. When it feels right, I can play anything). This is part of the long-term appeal of Kopprasch. You could use any piece really, and finding/defining a piece as “your” piece is also something to consider working in as a healthy part of your physical and mental routine.

**I like to give credit where credit is due, it was a Facebook post, but looping back to check, the person who I thought posted did not, and I can’t remember who the post was from. If/when I figure out who had this great thought, I will add credit here.

Accuracy Encyclopedia: Adjust your Thinking

John Ericson
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In notes dating back to 2008 I’ve been working off and on toward a possible book on accuracy. Some of the notes have found their way into Horn Matters here and there (click here for a list of articles on the topic), but a lot of it is new material that I anticipate I will be adding to the site over the next year or so in this new series.

Accuracy: A touchy subject

Accuracy can be a touchy subject. Some horn teachers seem to view it as their personal mission to point out all of your mistakes as a way to improve your accuracy. To be more specific to my own studies, Verne Reynolds during the years of my Masters study certainly did this. The problem with this method is that lessons can degrade to sort of an “accuracy through fear/survival of the fittest” experience or some version of an aversion training session. It is not a healthy situation for anyone.

While there is value in giving clear feedback and setting expectations for students, my feeling is that most horn players actually basically know what they missed. Furthermore, trying hard to be accurate often results in worse results overall; when you as a player trust yourself, and let it happen you will tend to be more accurate.

With that being said, there are tactics that can help improve accuracy and can be applied as you practice the horn.

At least 1,000 ways to miss notes!

From conductor perspective, conductors it seems to me often think the reason horns miss notes is they are either not that good, or they are nervous or not focused enough. But I can assure any conductor reading this, I can be completely relaxed and focused and still miss notes!

As to why we miss notes, as players and teachers we tend to gravitate toward certain reasons in our own thinking. On a high level, players are not missing notes because they can’t hear them. I tend to think in my own case that I am mostly missing because my chops are not set quite exactly right. Other fine players I have known have focused on the tonguing being just right, or on the air as being the culprit that sends notes flying in the wrong directions if not managed just right. But, really, there are at least 1,000 ways to miss a note.

Adjust your thinking

Which brings us to the topic for this first article. This series will address topics alphabetically, so the first topic for the encyclopedia has to do with adjustments related to your concept of “good enough.”

We are all wired differently, and I think a lot of good horn players are the type that tend to be hard on themselves. Being very critical of yourself is not going to help your accuracy, it tends to only make it worse. In the big picture, you will do better if you trust yourself more and tried less hard to play perfectly.

There are, by the way, a LOT of reasons you might be missing notes and lack of effort is probably not one if you are in the hard on yourself category of player. For just one example, you really might find a change of mouthpiece or horn ups your accuracy level instantly. Experiment!

But we are all wired differently. Yet other horn players, I begin to think that they are so used to having accuracy problems that missing some percentage of notes just seems normal to them. They think they are playing well or at least well enough. But actually, they could, I think, correct some problems quickly with some very focused effort and hit a higher level – if they insisted on a better result.

Like lots of elements of accuracy, it is complicated. Extreme thinking either way causes problems. But if you see either of the extremes of concept as being close to your normal, give yourself some space to experiment and adjust your thinking, it might just help.

Continue in Accuracy Encyclopedia

This is the first article of a series on accuracy, drawn from notes developed for a book on the same topic. Articles will follow roughly every week.

Rethinking the “Inner Game”

John Ericson
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For many years many have recommended The Inner Game of Tennis as a resource for improving your performance. I found it helpful — an article getting specifically into some aspects of the inner game is this one from 2010,

But now I’m rethinking things. Why? Because a major premise of The Inner Game of Tennis relates to an inner dialogue, and,

News flash: Not everyone has an inner dialogue/monologue

There have been some articles come up in recent years on the topic of the inner dialogue or monologue, easily found with a simple search. Basically, depending on the source you read, an estimated 50-70 percent of people have no inner monologue, or, stated another way, only one in four people have an inner monologue. Clearly there is a spectrum on this, and we only experience how we actually think. How other people think is a total mystery to us.

In short, I believe it is probable that if you have no inner monologue the Inner Game books will be an interesting curiosity with little personal impact.

I’ve used the book as a reading assignment in my pedagogy class for years now – with students writing an old-school book report on it. Nobody ever said to me “Dr. Ericson, but I have no internal monologue and the book doesn’t make sense.” But surely it did not make sense to probably quite a number of students!

I personally have a very active internal dialogue

In my own case, the book makes total sense and was very helpful for me to calm my inner dialogue in auditions and performing. In particular, for some years it was part of my routine to re-read the book before professional auditions.

But to that I will add that I also have noted that things kind of mentally “synch up” at times too, the inner dialogue comes and goes. When I’m teaching, for example, there is no internal dialogue, my thoughts happen as I speak them. When I’m writing though, it is all guided by the inner voice, if that makes any sense.

For people with no internal dialogue …

I think probably your best performance tactic relates to visualizations. For me, visualizations do very little, although mental representations of how the music is supposed to sound are really important, which may be a type of visualization. But for someone with a much less active inner dialogue, I think visualizations could be an effective tactic.

And really, reader out there with no inner dialogue, you could be at an advantage over me. I can only imagine what it would be like to have no inner critic causing me to lose focus and impact my ability to perform.

This is pretty deep …

It would be a big challenge to study, but I wish someone could study a large group of very fine horn players and see what in the world is actually going on inside. It would be interesting to know if as a group they had any trends in terms of their actual inner game, or if the spectrum was the same as the general population. Maybe some very motivated DMA student can take on the project.

The Mind of the Horn Player. Click for a closer look.

Image from this article by Bruce Hembd

3 Main Aspects of Playing Improvement

John Ericson
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I have heard it said that we are standing on the shoulders of those that have gone before us. In terms of horn playing, this is very true, and it is something I have thought about often as I worked on cleaning old files in my office this summer. I have several articles in mind related to things that were found.

In one folder, in some materials from the late Tom Greer (of Moosewood Mouthpieces), there was a group of materials from his wife Susie, pedagogical materials saved from her studies. I can’t tell you who wrote this little document, but from the paper and handwriting I’m going to guess it was a European teacher or perhaps from their time in South Africa. The paper is that thin paper like was used for airmail letters, and the text fits neatly on two small pages of the paper. The advice below, presented in full, is thus anonymous, but is great to consider as we head into the fall and getting back into the groove of playing horn. I’ll have a few additional comments at the end.

3 main aspects of playing improvement:

  1. Flexibility
  2. Strength
  3. Endurance

Musical priorities:

  1. Tone quality
  2. Intonation
  3. Expressiveness in phrasing
  4. Coordination in ensemble
  5. Mech. [mechanical] technique

1. Flexibility: First stage of daily practice: one-minute segments arpeggios, expanding from mid-staff downwards, ½ minute rest, expanding upwards and downwards increasing range without strain, always resting in time equiv. to playing time. Play arp’s slurred and separate until full range has been covered. After 20 minutes, rest 20 minutes.

2. Strength: Second stage of daily practice: spend first 5 minutes reviewing flex. Studies, extending to high range; rest 5 minutes. Carouso [sic] studies, then rest 5-10 minutes. Etudes exploring full range and dynamics in approx. 5 min. segments with equal rest periods. Rest after 20 minutes of constant practice. 20 minutes of playing by ear, not using music except for reference (etudes, concertos. Rest 15-20 min. Etudes of non-traditional type for development of ear, dynamics and range (Schuller, Reynolds). Rest after 20 minutes.

3. Endurance: Third phase of practice, done later in the day. Emphasis is on long setting of the mouthpiece and constant use of diaphragm and face muscles. Etudes, both traditional and modern, played through from beginning to end, not allowing mouthpiece to move from the lips, not stopping to empty water or correct notes missed. Rest for equal time periods. Do no allow pressure on lips to overcome lip tension., but rather miss notes and continue regardless. Orch. Excerpts: Play these in increasingly greater sets, ie: twice through, 5X, 10X, without moving mouthpiece from lips, (perhaps) next day repeat but in a higher key, (perhaps) hold highest note 5X or 10X normal time in the excerpts. Always rest after the lips feel nearly “finished.” To practice beyond this point will damage them. They should “burn,” and feel “crampy” at the corners at the end of each etude or excerpt. Fine tone should be a high priority in this phase, but the passages must be gotten through, to the end, regardless of failure of good tone quality due to fatigue. The endurance phase of the practice should be put off on any day where a heavy playing load is expected (long & difficult performances or several rehearsals). Ideally, the endurance phase should be sufficiently strenuous to do only every other day, allowing the body to build on the off days. Too much – you go backwards in your playing.

This teacher was certainly influenced in the section on endurance by Carmine Caruso, and their comments on balance and rest should not be missed, they are a very important element of the training scheme he outlines – or you can hurt yourself.

Still, the endurance section comes across as rather hard core, and when following advice like in the above, you can become very hard on yourself. As the teacher references Caruso, I’d like to close this article with a quote from Caruso, something to think about in not only any teaching you do but also your own practice.

Instead of thinking “perfection,” encourage yourself to think in percentages, that is “it’s a percentage better than it was.” The words “perfection,” “wrong,” and “good” should have gone out with the feudal lords: they have nothing to do with the art of teaching, and often their use can be a negative factor. If a teacher says something is wrong, the student has the right to ask, “What’s wrong about it?” Then the teacher will explain, and the student asks, “Now, what do I do about it?” It is easy to dispense with all those steps if the teacher merely tells the student what to do. It’s improvement, not perfection, that the student is trying to achieve.

Verbal negativity is not encouragement to the student. Teaching is giving with love, giving in a positive manner. This is such an important concept for teachers to remember. Unfortunately, I have known many students who lost interest in their musical careers because they didn’t have a teacher who could communicate to them a love for the instrument and the art form. They may have been technical wizards, but those teachers could not translate the proper inspiration, and because of this they lost their students’ interest.

“Each instrument has a different personality,” or, different horns are in fact better on different repertoire

John Ericson
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There is a big amorphous topic that is rarely discussed related to horns and repertoire. Over the years it has become more and more clear to me that different music feels better and worse on different horns. This may seem like one of the more oddball topics I’ve ever posted on, but stick with me for a few minutes. Some music is more fun to play on different horns, there is something important here for every horn player to consider.

And note: If you would rather hear me talk about this (with a few more stories and asides!) check out Episode 59 of the Horn Notes Podcast! This summer I will be posting new episodes at least every other week.

“Personality,” and your horn

While thinking about this topic I saw a link to this recent article in the Horn People (Facebook) group:

Nothing else sounds like vintage brass: These CSO musicians are avid collectors of age-old instruments

It is a nice article but this quote really spoke to me.

Second trumpet John Hagstrom puts both of them to shame: He tells the Tribune his grand total was “classified” but concedes he owns more than 100 trumpets which he rates as “performable,” plus hundreds more he’s amassed as historical curios.

“It’s like being a cat person: there’s a point where it becomes a little weird,” Hagstrom jokes. “But like a cat, each instrument has a different personality.”

Modern horns, on the whole, have less personality than older horns, driven somewhat by market forces, but even there you can see differences of personality from brand to brand.

A story about an audition

I have heard a story about a true artist in the finals of a major orchestra horn audition some years ago. The story is that our artist came into the finals with multiple horns, different horns for different rep. One horn was the Mozart horn, one was the Brahms horn, one was the Wagner horn, etc. Unimpressed, the conductor asked them to play Brahms on the Wagner horn. They did not get the job.

(What would the various horns have been? I’d guess something light and small for Mozart – perhaps a single Bb – and for other rep who knows, but horns that felt better for that rep to that player.)

But with years of playing, I can see kind of what the artist was getting at, I can certainly feel it between the various horns I own. And, disclosure, I used a descant and a double horn on the Nashville Third Horn audition that I won. The right tools for the right rep is very important.

Orchestral, or soloist horn?

There is a widespread mindset that there are only two types of horns – good horns, and bad horns. Or maybe professional and student horns. And that you should be able to play any type of music on a good/professional horn. But the reality is that within the category of good/professional horns you can see that horns are made to favor different types of music and playing.

My Patterson Geyer

Speaking generally, I’m going to offer that Geyer style horns are better for orchestral music. This past year I had quite a few students taking professional auditions and I found it really was the best to demonstrate and play excerpts on my Patterson Geyer.

But I love to play the big Paxman 25A that I used to play my first two solo recordings. And the funny thing is I think it is easier to do warm-ups that I like to do on the Paxman (or a single F), and for sure the music I recorded on the two CDs is easier to play on the Paxman. It is almost as if I chose the music because it felt good on the horn. If I was using the Patterson when I put together the CDs I likely would have recorded at least somewhat different music.

For the same general reason, as I’ve changed horns over the years, for sure the instrument has influenced what pieces I choose to play on recitals.

My Paxman 25AND

Related: Let’s talk Gliere

I’ve played the Gliere a few times over the years. I was very comfortable with it on my Elkhart 8D – won the concerto competition at IU! — and am comfortable playing Gliere on the big Paxman. But any other horn among those I own I’d rather not play the piece.

Of course, it is actually very playable on other horns, but the piece feels just feels the best on certain ones.

Aside: Let’s talk about the low range

The fair comparison are my three main double horns. Of the three, the big Paxman is the best in the low range, but the Patterson a very close second. The post-war Kruspe, as sweet as it is, I’d really rather not play low horn on it.

Which is to say, some players struggle with ranges and part of the issue is choice of horn and mouthpiece. The problem is not always you.

Aside: Let’s talk about Sousa marches

A more extreme example is illustrated in this article from a few years ago,

The Alto Horn — The Ultimate Off Beat Playing Machine

Back in the day that Sousa wrote his marches, players “on the march” would have used what they used to call “peck horns,” upright Eb alto horns. They can powerfully punch out those off beats, much better than a French horn.

Closely related, Eb tenor horns can punch stuff out in a brass band that just can hardly be done on a French horn. Piston valves really help with fast runs!

My Paxman “pre-40” descant

Descant and triple horns

These both have so much difference in character and personality when compared to a double horn. Certain rep becomes much more playable.

For a tangible example, I have performed the Telemann concerto at least three different times on a descant. It lays so nicely on a descant! It is playable on a double, but why? It is so much more work. A triple could be used, too, but I tend to think it a horn more suited to heavy orchestral playing than light solo works like the Telemann.

Going back to the low horn topic, the descant and the triple both have the full low range, but if you are really trying to sound your very best in the low range a double really is better.

Seraphinoff natural horn and Paxman compensating triple

Natural horns and trills (and your horn)

Then we get to a really good topic, why are there so many trills in the Mozart concertos? Reality is that it simply is easier to trill on a natural horn. Try it! If you have a reasonably authentic natural horn and mouthpiece you will find that trills are, relatively speaking, a breeze. No wonder they are everywhere!

Modern horns, on the other hand, tend to be stiff and much more of a challenge to trill on. This is part of why you can’t trill well. Be sure to try different horns and mouthpieces, the problem may not be you.

On vintage horns, “personality” can just be bad notes

When my various natural horns and vintage horns it is very clear that different horns would work better on different music – for a number of different reasons. But what it eventually boils down to is bad notes and the way the slurs work. Each horn tends to be favor different notes. We would not tolerate that on a good horn today, but it is fascinating to see how the personality is different. And it is not all a bad thing, the sound does have more character in a way that is hard to describe in words.

Let’s talk about brass quintet

Early in my career I was primarily an orchestral player. When I left Nashville, I quickly started doing a lot of quintet playing in my next position, at SUNY Potsdam, including recording a full CD of music. This is yet another category of horn playing. It would not seem like the right horn, but I purchased my big Paxman in that timeframe, and I loved it playing in the Potsdam Brass Quintet.

Horn playing can be fun

Finally, it is fun to play a variety of horns. I think for demo of excerpts it is hard to beat my Patterson, but the Kruspe has a sweet sound in the right rep and the Paxman is just fun to play.

If you are not having fun, a change may really help. Your head won’t explode, and you could spend money on a lot of worse things than horns! Try some horns with an open mind, it may impact life much more favorably than you imagine.

What Makes a Horn a Bad Horn?

John Ericson
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Often, I see listings of horns for sale that emphasize that the horn would be a good horn for a student. And some of them probably would be, but others are in reality substandard or even bad horns you would be better off avoiding for a variety of reasons.

As it is also a question people ask often, it inspired me to lay out the following topics. There are a number of factors that make a horn a bad horn. The horn in the photos that follow, I’m not going to name the brand, beyond that it is Chinese and not a good horn at all.

Too big

Truthfully, the size and left-hand position on this Chinese horn is not that bad. And it is fairly compact which is a plus.

The really bad horns in this category are some of the older US made horns, which come up for sale frequently. Many are really big and would be hard to hold by a smaller person. You should not give a student a horn that is hard to hold, don’t give them reasons to quit!

Single F horns can be particular offenders on the overall size issue. Which is especially bad as beginners tend to not be full grown adults.

Bad left-hand position

On double horns, the thumb valve position and motion can be a big issue to check carefully. Remember: if it does not feel good when you try it, it won’t start feeling better later.

The point being that you need to try a horn before you buy, and don’t buy it if it is too big. The plain fact is that a LOT of older horns were aimed at adult male players, and that leaves them as poor choices for a lot of people today, and they were never good choices for younger players. You will spend a lot of time on a horn, it needs to be comfortable to hold.

Bad leadpipe

It has been said that the first 12 inches of the horn are the most important, and this is pretty correct, it is a very important area.

The issue is “hidden,” but with this Chinese horn it is one of the two biggest issues making this horn play very badly. A leadpipe when correctly made has a venturi about an inch up inside, a “small point” of the horn into which the mouthpiece snuggles down into and then opens up into the leadpipe taper. But, on this Chinese horn, there is no venturi! It is big and open; a pencil of any size falls right into the horn. The Venturi as conventionally made varies at a size just under the size of the average pencil. I strongly suspect there is an acoustical nightmare right there. They did supply a mouthpiece with an oversized shank with the horn, probably to compensate for the strange or poorly made venturi, but this key a part of a horn simply should have been made correctly.

Of course, you could replace the leadpipe of this horn and it might play OK, but there are other problems ….

Bad valves

I was honestly astonished how bad the valves are on this Chinese horn. To make valves this bad basically says there is no quality control, the people making this horn did not care.

What makes this issue worse than the leadpipe issue is that while the leadpipe could be replaced, the valves are what they are, and they are really bad. They simply were not manufactured correctly; you can’t put the valves together with the top bearing seated down fully, and then we get to the mechanics of the action. The issue is something about the fulcrum points and ball joints not being placed correctly. Things just don’t work well no matter how clean and how much oil. It looks like a horn, but this is just not a usable horn.

Speaking generally, you also need to examine the “compression” of the valves, which gives you an impression of how tight or leaky the valves are. If they are too leaky for sure the horn won’t play as well as you would like.

Bad braces

This horn has a broken brace and it could be fixed, but in this case the broken brace is also due to bad design, there is only that one brace on the first valve side of the valve cluster keeping the middle of the horn in place. Not a good design, and it did not hold up.

Speaking generally, often horns at a low price point had some of the parts jammed together, instead of the parts fitting very correctly. Broken braces are often a sign of this.

Valve tube issues

The valve tubes mostly work fine on this horn, but many of the inner tubes are cut off very short relative to the length of the outer tubes, if that makes sense. Acoustically this is not a good scheme, but, with the crazy bad leadpipe and bad valves, I suppose this is not much of an issue on this horn? Still, it was not made correctly.

On the plus side, they move pretty well. Some horns there will be issues related to the tubes not being parallel, which can usually be addressed but is an issue to watch for.

Odd design

While this Chinese horn looks kind of like a Geyer, it is not a Geyer style horn, it is a modified design. If you were to really play this horn you would find it an ongoing challenge to get water out of the F side.

On the other hand, at least you can tell what the slides do easily compared to other popular horns. Some older designs are just odd and confusing as to function and location of the main and other slides. These are often a poor choice.

Dents and dings

This horn has a couple big dents, but it is in good shape generally, probably because it was not played very much. Which is to say, sometimes a horn in really good condition is that way because it has problems, and does not play well.

I suspect that the original player of this horn was a beginner and they may have just quit horn after playing it for a year. This was not the outcome desired — hopefully they moved on to a better horn. I’ll never know.

Water key?

Speaking generally better horns SHOULD have a water key, but reality is that due to “tradition” some very good horns continue to be made with no water key. On the other hand, some bad horns (such as this horn) are made with a water key! I think sometimes the goal is to give parents a perception of being better quality than it is.

In any event, I hope to see a day when every horn is built with a water key in my lifetime — but if that actually happens, I have no idea.

Lacquer?

The lacquer here is in good shape, that is a plus. But the horn was hardly played.

In a prior article I also mentioned that I’m not a fan of the “brushed” finish used on some rebuilt horns aimed at students and amateurs. See that article for more on the topic. The issue is that often this is done as a way to hide flaws rather than as a type of bling.

Built like a tank

Some bad horns are built like a tank. This one honestly is not too bad. I’ve played worse. The bell is very reasonable.

If a horn is too heavy you end up working hard, it won’t be as responsive to play. Of course, a light horn will dent more easily, but there are solid reasons why more expensive horns are generally not so heavy.

My plans for this horn?

I obtained this horn from a former student who had been given the horn by a third party. For me this is a parts horn. The bell has an unusually small throat, and looks intriguing in relation to my projects and interest in horns of the 19th century. Which has me looking closer, as I’m likely to either try putting this bell on one of my project horns (one single F in particular is on the radar) or use it as the basis of a plausible natural horn. And I can make use of the slide tubes, braces, etc. in various ways as I work on things in the future.

You get what you pay for

If it is a bad horn, it is actually just a bad horn, it will never be a good deal to play – and it may discourage someone from continuing on the horn. Don’t buy a bad horn.

A competent horn teacher will have some ideas of horns that are good choices for your situation, talk to them, the honest advice is worth it.

Introducing the Redesigned Conn 6D

John Ericson
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Back in March (here) I posted about the new and improved Conn 8D for the 21st century. I have still yet to try one, so far as I know no example has made it to the Phoenix area, but I remain interested to try one of these and also the new 6D. This is also rather big news, the 6D is a venerable horn. It has also been redesigned and updated — noting especially that it is now being built as a Kruspe wrap.

Wait, the 6D now a Kruspe style horn? What?

I’m excited about this change. In 2021 I posted an article with the somewhat provocative title, “Could the Kruspe style horn come back?” The basic idea of the article was that there really are nice qualities to the Kruspe wrap, and you could make one that had essentially the same sound as a Geyer – and the best original Kruspe horns were not built huge, they had smaller throated bells than the 8D.

A brief history lesson

The new 6D is described in Conn website here. The 6D has significantly changed once before. As Conn relates,

The story of the Conn 6D begins in the early 1920s with the introduction of the original “6-D” model. Equipped with a piston change valve in the “Schmidt” style, this 6-D was Conn’s first double horn. The 6D was revised in 1935 with a rotary change valve to much acclaim, quickly becoming “…the favorite of big symphony players.”

The next-generation 6D takes the critical mouthpipe, first branch, and bell tapers of the historic 6D and pairs them with the chassis of the iconic Conn 8D.

The plain fact is that the 1935 redesigned 6D for a LONG time has been a cheaper, lower-level horn, and it was also built rather “big,” at least that is how it always felt in my hands. A big left hand would be helpful! To my mind I have never felt the 6D as produced in the recent past to be a good choice for a younger student, and clearly also it was not a good enough horn for even a good adult amateur. Over the years the 6D was seen I believe more and more as an oddball design with a strange tubing layout. They sold lots of them to schools over the years, due to the lower price point (it was the first horn I played!). I suspect even though the new horn is completely redesigned, they had to maintain the 6D designation (and the price point) to maintain a sales base for the horn.

The 1935 6D clearly had become a tired, old design of low interest to serious players. The image below is from a Conn parts manual ca. 1970, providing a nice overview of the familiar version of the 6D.

The new 6D

At long last Conn has gone big and made huge changes, changes that were long overdue. The new 6D is a yellow brass Kruspe style horn, with nickel-silver slide tubes and more.

Wait, isn’t this just a modern version of the 28D or 8DY?

Over the years Conn off and on (mostly Elkhart era) produced a model called the 28D. Essentially it was a brass 8D, originally made with a smaller throated bell. It was sold at the same price point as the 8D. A good Elkhart 28D carries some special value to the right buyer. The image below of a 28D is again from a Conn parts list, ca. 1970. In black and white you can hardly tell the difference between an 8D and a 28D.

Later (Eastlake era), a similar model was the 8DY, which was an 8D with a large yellow brass bell. The new 6D really is significantly different than the 28D and the 8DY models, it is based on different tapers. According to the introductory video (at the end of this article) the tapers in fact favor the Bb side, which will be a plus for some players and for sales.

More details

Although placed in the same “Professional” category in their website as the new 8D, the 6D occupies a lower price point, it is in the “Artist” series rather than the “Connstellation” series. I would still be really interested to see how it plays though, as I do believe that there is room in the market for a real, professional Kruspe in brass with the smaller throated bell. It may be a good starting point for customization.

There is no mention in the website of a CNC machined receiver (a feature of the new 8D), although the 6D pipe on the horn in their website has the visual look of the new 8D pipe. I should mention one minor disappointment — based on the photos in the video, it has no water key. They must have felt the minor cost saving of leaving this off helped them place the horn at a lower price point. But clearly the new 6D has benefitted with the updates in the 8D in various ways – bracing, improved manufacturing processes, etc.

Interested?

Some examples must be getting slowly out to dealers. The new 6D and the new 8D are certainly horns I look forward to trying soon. When I do, I’ll report on it further, as this really is big news in our horn world. The videos below tell more.

A Word on “Brushed Finish” Horns

John Ericson
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A type of finish that has been showing up on some of the used horn postings you see is what they call a “brushed finish.” It is a potential “hot button” topic that I don’t believe has been much commented upon in the horn press.

What makes a horn shine?

The typical finish desired of a new horn is achieved by cleaning, buffing, and polishing the horn completely in the final stages of construction. It may then be lacquered to preserve that look, or it may be left to develop a natural patina over time.

What is being done on some used horns is an alternate finish, the brushed finish. This finish is accomplished by working the surface with steel wool or similar, aiming for an attractive pattern.

What do I think of it?

The first time I saw this finish on a horn I was not impressed. I can see the advantage of this type of finish in a complete rebuild situation, but I am certainly biased toward a conventional finish. [For more on “why” see the update at the end.]

Which led me to pose a question on Twitter. Only 25 responses, but I think maybe a fair sample:

As you can see, about half were “meh” and almost 1/3 were not fans.

But some love it

I was interested to see though that some do actually love the finish, so maybe it has some room for growth in the market. Time will tell! But I’m not a big fan personally at this point.

UPDATE: Comments on Facebook line up with why I’m not a fan. My perception is generally this finish is applied to hide or disguise issues with an instrument. Also, it is destructive, it takes material off the horn and, in the process, probably creates new problems. And if there are more repairs done later it can be difficult match the brushed finish in the newly repaired area. I prefer a traditional finish, there is a reason why it became the standard.

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