Horn Matters | A French Horn and Brass Site and Resource | John Ericson and Bruce Hembd

This past weekend a colleague in the Arizona Opera orchestra showed me a new horn product. At first glance I honestly thought it was a coffee travel cup. It’s aluminum exterior and shape was almost identical to my coffee thermos.

After seeing him put it inside his bell, I realized my mistake – this was some new kind of new practice mute!

The E-Brass Sound Transformer is designed by Shinji Hamanaga who I am told used to work for Yahama and has since branched out onto his own with a company called Best Brass. Mr. Hamanaga was involved in designing the original Yahama Silent Brass system and has since improved it under his new brand name.

I tried this mute and was pleasantly surprised. Compared to the Silent Brass mute it is very lightweight — weighing a least half as a much. It blows much more freely that the Silent Brass in all ranges. Open slots in the material that grips the mute in the bell seem to play a factor in this.

The nicest feature of this mute is its small size and the built-in power unit. No bulky external unit is required in order to attach earphones. It requires only 2 AAA batteries and the entire mute can fit into the horn – even in the horn case.

As an added bonus it has a built-in metronome. While it squawks an unattractive sounding beep, it is a nice feature.

The only other shortcoming I found was that the upper register intonation sounded a bit flat – not terrible, but noticeable. Compensating for this flaw with the lip could, over time, be detrimental. A regular user of this mute would need to grow accustomed to the high range sounding lower than usual and not adjusting for it.

As with any practice mute too, there is a danger in over-blowing due to the sound dampening effect of the mute. The manufacturer recommends using the earphones at all times to counterbalance that temptation.

For the first time when using e-Brass, because of the sound deadening effect, you may blow louder than usual. As a result, the sound that comes out of e-Brass wouldn’t be deadened effectively, and you would be hard to blow. To avoid that problem, using the headphones is recommended when you play the instrument with e- Brass.

Having experienced first-hand “practice-mute chops” this message is a warning to be heeded — all fractured English from the inventor aside.

The price – $250 – may be a bit prohibitive for some, but for its built in technology, compact size and free blowing feel, it is worth the price.

This post could also be subtitled “How Not to Market a Mouthpiece.” With the information I have at hand I can’t pin down the date but at some point in I would guess the 1960s Holton had Farkas expand beyond what became the MC mouthpiece (which was based on the original Schilke FARKAS MODEL) to produce a full line of mouthpieces. By the time I was buying mouthpieces and starting to save literature on the horn in the late 1970s the line had six distinct models; SC (shallow cup), MC (medium cup), MDC (medium deep cup), DC (deep cup), VDC (very deep cup), and XDC (extra deep cup). These are all available to this day, with the MC and MDC being I am sure good steady sellers for Holton for many years.

But the mouthpieces produced in this expanded line were introduced with slightly different model designations than those used today. For example the largest two models were the VD and XD models, illustrated here. The lettering is a little hard to see in the photo, but the VD mouthpieces are on the right. I have a pair of each.

Farkas had some experience in marketing so it is really curious in particular that they ever marketed a VD mouthpiece. When I show these to students they often get a chuckle. For those reading this who are not native speakers of English, this link will give you the reason why selling a VD mouthpiece was especially odd. The change to the VDC was a great move.

These two models in the classic and modern versions I find actually work pretty well on natural horn. But on modern horn I don’t know of any player who actually is a fan of these particular models. They are based on very deep designs similar to nineteenth century and Viennese designs, and are really off at an extreme end in a size range few players use today. But they make a great “poor man’s” authentic natural horn mouthpiece and, in the case of the VD mouthpiece, a conversation piece.

I was recently contacted by the maker of Soft Stands to try their horn stand. Looking at their site, it looked like an interesting product. What horn stands I had seen in the past were either sort of variations on a guitar stand or seemed to be more for display purposes than actual daily use by horn players. The Soft Stand looked to be well suited for daily use in my situation as a studio horn teacher. [See UPDATE at end for availability.]

Their product description begins,

We are offering a radical new approach to French Horn stands. Most other designs are simply variations of the “display plate” approach, where the horn is placed on three points of contact, with the majority of the weight being distributed on the two lower points. The total area of support is very small; on many models well under ½ square inch. “Soft Stands” gently cradle your horn with a support area of over 25 square inches of soft polar fleece fabric…. If properly used, it is impossible to dent your horn with a Soft Stand.

The photo shows the stand and how I have it placed in my office, between my chair and a magazine rack that I use for music that is frequently used in lessons. As advertised, the horn sits securely in the Soft Stand in for me an ideal, convenient location.

One other selling point of the Soft Stand is that it can be assembled and disassembled easily and packs up in a compact carrying case. The stand itself is held together with bungee cords.  This leaves the frame slightly flexible which is I think generally a positive thing but some might perceive to be a negative. If you desire the frame to be completely solid it would not be difficult to glue it into a fixed position. In any case the stand is stable and would take effort to knock over.

Besides daily use in a home practice room or teaching studio I can also see this product being very handy for the player who often plays shows or opera and for some orchestral works. In a situation where there are many rests it keeps the horn right there handy next to the chair ready to go. For this same reason, it would also be handy in a work such as Bruckner 8 where you have to make quick changes from horn to Wagner tuba.

In short, if you are looking for a horn stand this is a solid product worth looking into. It is priced at $75 (shipping included) and comes in two sizes, double horn and triple horn. My stand is double horn size but actually my Paxman triple fits it just fine as well.

There is more information to be found in their site along with ordering information. Also note that this product is also available sized for Euphonium, which I believe would also have applications in an orchestral situation where horn and Wagner tuba doubling is required.

Finally, a disclaimer: I was given this stand by the maker, under the understanding that I was not obligated to review it. I posted the review because I do feel that it is an interesting product worth looking into.

UPDATE 2015: These are no longer available, as noted in the comments as well. Someone handy enough could make something similar just from the photo. I LOVE the soft stand I have, it is wonderful in my office, it is to be hoped a similar product makes it to market again.

UPDATE 2016: And they are back on the market! The link above still works, and I still love this product. Everyone needs one!