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Mailbag: The Topic of Contradictory Information on Playing the Horn

John Ericson
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Recently a great, extended question came in related to playing mechanics and all the contradictory information out there. The reader wrote,

… I’m finding myself frustrated in hearing musicians of all types talk about breathing and body mechanics, as the responses are different or outright contradictory.

If I did what I was told and what I’ve read, I’d be more akin to a schizophrenic, than a musician! I would have to:

* raise my shoulders, but not raise them at all
* extend my belly, but not move it in or out
* tense the muscles in my abdomen, but remain relaxed
* sit up, but not so much that it limits movement
* focus on my lip aperture, which is really important, but also not think about it, because it isn’t (?!)
* Just sigh into the instrument, but also blow hard enough to get a full tone, and use ~more air~
* breathe through my chest, my back, or my belly button, but not more than one of those

Contradictions

Breaking this down, a simple answer would be that about half of the info has to be incorrect and a percentage was presented only as a visualization rather than real mechanics. But this is a huge topic worthy of more of a look. In the University of Horn Matters pedagogy course some of these elements are discussed, in various places. The following are my quick takes on these topics.

On raising the shoulders

The shoulders do go up! Part of the answer on this relates to this question — where are your lungs? They are behind your rib cage and extend up into your shoulder blades. So of course, there is some movement in the shoulders, your lungs are up there and to get air in things move! But they should not move artificially, just as part of the natural movement associated with filling your lungs.

The video way at the bottom of this article explains it better than my words. It is worth a watch.

Movement of the belly

This also moves, it is not a problem. When you fill your lungs the viscera below the diaphragm is displaced. This should also be clear from that video.

Tension in the abdomen

The choices in the question as posed were tense or relaxed, and the answer is yes. Both, in balance, speaking generally. There has to be some tension, it relates to the topic of “support,” but not more tense than is needed.

Tension will also vary by range and dynamic. For what it is worth, while the topic used to come up in lessons more, I rarely ever talk about tension in the abdomen these days. It is almost never a problem I see as an issue and why make a student worry about something that is not a problem? Most people seem to find the balance of things naturally in this area.

On sitting up

On this my suggestion is to sit up, but don’t artificially sit up. Your seated posture should be closely related to your natural standing posture. When standing you can also artificially extend and get more upright, that is not the position you want to be in standing or seated. I also always allow my back to touch the back of the chair. Don’t slouch, but be comfortable, not artificially upright.

I think the advice in this article from Tuckwell really is quite good:

Lip aperture

Our next topic is the aperture. This is another one I don’t actually talk about much in my teaching these days. I used to in the past. At some point I realized as a teacher that they way I had thought about aperture as a student was not very correct or helpful to talk about. I tended to think you could make it small from the corners, but really you can’t do that, it is more like the upper lip presses down more.

On this topic, if you want to explore it more, I highly recommend this pair of articles. First, I present a series of quotes from the William C. Robinson book:

Then, not long after I posted that, Robinson wrote me a very nice note and explained how his thinking on the topic had changed over the years. This is really worth reading.

Visualize a Visualization

The final portions of the question that came in have to do with sighing into the horn or blowing into the horn, and about inhaling through your belly button or whatever.

To the latter first, there is not (yet) a blow hole in the top of our head, you do in fact breath primarily through the corners when you are playing and that is what you have to practice. I mean, the visualization of breathing through the back might help some people I suppose, but for me I need more concrete thinking based on the actual mechanics.

Important concept: Airflow/pressure changes with range and dynamic

The sighing into the horn thing comes up with some players/teachers. It is incorrect, you do have to manage and control the air more than that. Obviously! Sighing into the horn is just not how breathing works.

This would be a good moment to look a bit deeper at this. There is a concept that was expounded by Arnold Jacobs that if you measure the intraoral air pressure of for example a trumpet, a horn, and a trombone playing the same actual pitch that the measured air pressure will be the same. More recent research has shown this to be overly simplistic, it is more complicated than that, but the general idea that higher notes (and higher brass instruments) require more air compression is correct. This is why the “sigh into the horn” concept some horn teachers expound is really incorrect. If you would like a deeper dive into this topic, this recent article on the Wilktone site (and the following comments there) will provide a lot more information.

For purposes of answering the question that came in though, if you are getting a good sound the breathing is probably OK, don’t overthink it. Just take large breaths and play with a good sound.

Finally, the “more air” comment came up in the question. This is a standard, low brass talking point. To my mind the answer is use plenty of air but also just the amount required. This is counterintuitive, but reality is you actually expend more air in the low range than you do in the high range. High range air is pressurized more with less actual flow through the horn. Again, don’t overthink it, use plenty of air but not so much that you get tense resisting excessive air.

Thinking changes over time

As mentioned earlier, on some topics my thinking has changed over the years. For example, while never a big fan of long tones, the longer I teach the less I think they are beneficial to progress on the horn — I tend to think they stiffen you up more than strengthen you. You would be better off playing melodic things that transition over varied ranges (and if you are stiff, the solution is pedal tones and rest).

With that in mind, some of the advice that the reader was given is to my mind wrong, but years ago I might have also said similar things to a student. Seek out the experienced teacher, especially one with good problem-solving skills, and they can help you work out the contradictions and lead to better playing results.

Two Tips for the New First Horn Player

John Ericson
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As we all know, all the horn parts are good! But there is a point when you start playing first horn in better ensembles that point out a couple of extra responsibilities.

Assistant what?

One new thing is the Assistant First horn. In better groups and on bigger pieces, having an assistant is such a lifesaver. But the assistant needs to be used wisely, it is not a doubling position, it is someone to help you save your chops for the more exposed/important passages.

You can develop the markings several ways, but fortunately I have an article on this, an extended one, UPDATE now in Horn Matters but originally posted in my Horn Articles Online site. Check it out here:

The intonation topic

Here we get to something really important, intonation. While there is an article in Horn Matters on the topic, below, it does not get to the important stuff you need to know as a principal horn.

While I know a version of this is elsewhere in Horn Matters, I don’t believe I’ve ever laid it out this fully. The question is:

Who to tune to? Especially on Principal Horn?

I often tell people when I started in as Third Horn in Nashville, I quickly figured out I needed to focus on two people for intonation, the principal horn and the principal clarinet. If I was well in tune with both of them, everything was good.

Of course, this is different than what your band director told you. They probably told you to tune to the tubas or something like that. Reality is that advice does not really work. You have to tune to the key lead voices, and they need to be key lead voices that are actually in tune and stay there. Don’t ever tune to the strings for example, almost certainly they will be sharp. They should be tuning to the horns and woodwinds instead of you tuning to them, in my opinion.

As principal horn, you need to lead the intonation of the section. Which brings me to the answer, and I have a strong opinion about this. In orchestra, you must tune to the principal clarinet and the principal oboe. Those are the two key voices. If the horns and woodwinds are all subsequently in tune, then is a big core area of sound that drives good intonation for the entire ensemble.

By the way, if the oboe and clarinet are not stable with their intonation, you will struggle to figure out who to listen to. Good luck!

But wait, what about the trumpets? This is where it can get touchy. I once asked a fine professional trumpet what he keyed on for tuning and you will see logic to his answer, but I would never have guessed it; he tunes to the timpani. Reality is trumpets can be in their own little world for tuning, but when push comes to shove on horn, we have to key on the woodwinds mostly — unless we are in passages with the trumpets and brass when you may need to adjust a bit to match the trumpets. Group intonation may just be a moving target you have to negotiate carefully.

Want more tips?

Finally, last year I posted a more general article (now updated!) on getting back in the groove for ensembles, it is worth a read now again as you gear up for the fall. Good luck!

Gender Balance in the Horn World: We Can Do Better

John Ericson
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Before a recent faculty meeting, our first of the semester, we were challenged to be ready to share about “One thing in your discipline/area that fills you with pride.”

One thing I’m proud about is the generally even balance between male and female horn players.

My experiences

As I reflect on all my teaching, I believe the students I have taught must be very close to balanced between male and female. In the big picture of the college teaching world today there is a similar faculty split. Arizona is a great example; we have three state universities, and two of the three horn professors are female.

As a player, I can’t remember a horn section I played in regularly that was all male at any point in my life. Honestly, I can hardly think of anything specific I did as a student or as a professional that was all male in terms of horn.

During the entire time I played in The Nashville Symphony, the section was either 3/2 or 2/3 in the male/female split. Currently it is 2 female/3 male. Many professional orchestras in the USA have a similar mix.

We have come a long way

To illustrate more how far we have come, the most recent IHS symposium artist roster was clearly set up to highlight female hornists and hornists of color. The horn world is as diverse a group as any in the classical music world.

Back in the day it was not like this

Of course, years ago horn was a male dominated instrument. That began to break down in the era starting around WWII, some females broke into the professional ranks. Certainly, by the 1970s things were racing toward an essentially even gender balance in the student and amateur horn worlds.

Some notable exceptions to the equality

In some places, things seem to be lagging.

Where things are lagging the most is at the top level of the orchestral world. If you look at major orchestras in the USA for example, there are certainly fewer female horn players than seen in the average music school or community group.

We can do better

Which brings me to the reason I wanted to write this post. One day not long ago I was scrolling through social media and noticed a post showing a very large horn section, and I was struck that it was all male.

It is dumbfounding to me that such a section could even be assembled in 2022. How is this even possible? You would almost have to intentionally be excluding female players, unless the work environment was so toxic that women did not want to work with certain of the males involved. In either case it is a terrible look, and outside the norms of the field today.

That group should have done better. Be sure your groups do better! We can do better, as the French horn is the most gender balanced of all the brass instruments.

Till, Toscanini, and the Berv Brothers

John Ericson
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Working in my office, I often listen to old LP recordings. One that caught my attention prepping the office for the semester was Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1952, playing Till (and more). This recording was new to me, in a batch of records received just a few years ago.

It was recorded in Carnegie Hall. My first impression was the audio quality was pretty good on another track, so I kept listening in to Till. Toscanini was the quintessential “dictator of the baton” and I was interested to hear the interpretation. Plus the horn section would have included all three of the Berv brothers, Arthur, Jack, and Harry. There is a nice article on them (here) in the IHS website. 

Curiously, there were some tempo things done in the horns that sound for all the world like Toscanini was following something the brothers were going to do rather than them playing with really accurate rhythm of the type I would have guessed he would demand. It was a little jarring to hear the second half of the opening call start at a slower tempo than the full tempo that had been established (and is indicated in the score!).

Oh, and then the low notes in the opening call…. Listening to it repeatedly, I feel 99.9% sure that another player (almost certainly Jack on second horn) plays the final C-G-C of the opening calls. This was done often back in the day, but would of course not be acceptable today. Being performed/recorded some 70 years ago though, the standards were different.

And of course there is the “trade off” passage later, with the call in F and the call in D. First horn (Arthur) starts, it is fine. Third horn (Harry), the rhythm is just a little off — and in the following passage one note is consistently held a little too long. Did Toscanini want that? Or was it just how the brothers played it and he adapted to them?

That all being said, I believe the Berv brothers heard live in a hall must have been very impressive. Their tone comes across really well on the vintage LP, and the horns are so central to the sound of the orchestra on these works. I hear strong dynamic contrasts and really nice articulations. Of the brass sections, for sure the horns also hold up the best today in terms of sound and technique. No wonder they had such long careers playing together around New York City.

And the recording itself, the tempos are very nice, the ending being particularly wistful, almost brings a tear to the eye. As the ending of Till should.

Of course, it is on YouTube. The audio quality is quite a bit better on LP, but if you want some of the flavor of Toscanini and the Berv brothers, check it out more below.

Updating The University of Horn Matters for a New Decade!

John Ericson
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With The University of Horn Matters being online for ten years, this summer was a great one to update it extensively. I believe Horn Matters readers will find the improvements to be significant.

What exactly is “The University of Horn Matters?”

The University of Horn Matters is what I named our free horn pedagogy and repertoire courses. These were launched over the 2012-13 school year, and are still used as the primary course materials for our horn pedagogy and repertoire courses at Arizona State. As presented online, it is a resource that any horn player can make use of for performance insights and to increase their knowledge of horn repertoire and pedagogy.

Why a major update?

I have done small updates to the course most every year, but this year I decided was the one where it was time to really rework some things. Content was cut, content was added, it was a major update. I worked over every page of the course at least once, and most of it several times.

Headers to improve organization

While it was not my initial goal, as I worked on it one of my goals quickly became improving the readability of the course. Much of the quoted text in the readings is dense, and I took several angles as I went along to improve this.

A person looking casually at the before and after would probably most notice the headers dividing sections of content better, and sprinkling more memes and illustrations around here and there to break up the content visually, but there really are a lot of changes.

Being less “diplomatic”

When I put the course together, I know I took some pains to be diplomatic with my commentary, especially as published online. I’m still pretty diplomatic, but this time around I do take more direct aim at flaws in the conventional wisdoms of the horn world.

Credit this to my being a more experienced teacher. I have seen too many problems that were caused or made worse by following conventional wisdom approaches, especially some of them laid out in the venerable Farkas book. The default ideas presented there float around in the ether of horn teaching. The danger is that conventional wisdom sounds right and gets repeated endlessly — but it can be the source of the problems, rather than a solution. I encourage readers to think critically about the words, to question if they accurately reflect physiological reality, and recognize that some approaches presented only work for a subset of players.

Lots of quotes from lots of books

As you read into the articles in the course there are numerous quotes from books. There is a bit of a story to that.

Basically, one summer about 15 years ago I was going to try to put together a book of a similar scope to Trumpet Pedagogy by David Hickman. I started by typing out quotes from classic horn methods, organized in the order seen in the Farkas book. For several reasons I eventually dropped that book idea and instead used that text as the basis of the University of Horn Matters content, in combination with some other unpublished materials that were incorporated into the repertoire course.

As to the sources I quote, there is good in every one, but if I had a suggestion of a book to track down it would be the Harry Berv book. He has some great insights, and it is a shame this book is not often referenced today.

The goal: better horn playing and teaching

While you can only cover so much in a free online course on the horn, I hope that within the course as presented I can significantly impact the following elements for those that take the time to study it on your own:

  • Knowledge
  • Improvement in your own playing
  • Development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills
  • More “tools in your toolbox” that you can use with your students

Intrigued? Check it out here

Periodically I am in communication with horn teachers that use The University of Horn Matters with their students — and also in communication with teachers that are unaware of the resource! Spread the word.

Below is the link to the main page of the course, which will lead you to hundreds of articles related to all aspects of horn playing. And if you are a horn teacher, consider it as a resource for your students, there is nothing like The University of Horn Matters online for any instrument.

UPDATE: Episode 56 of the Horn Notes Podcast looks in more depth at the updates to the University of Horn Matters

Brief Review: Horn Teaching at the Paris Conservatoire, 1792 to 1903 by Jeffrey L. Snedeker

John Ericson
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I finally had time this summer to read properly a substantial 2021 publication by Jeff Snedeker, Horn Teaching at the Paris Conservatoire, 1792 to 1903: The Transition from Natural Horn to Valved Horn.

Before getting to the book, I would share this side story. Jeff and I go way back on the horn scholarship thing. Back when I was a Doctoral student at Indiana University I met Jeff for the first time, at the home of Richard Seraphinoff. Jeff was down to try a Raoux horn with a detachable valve section, and to consult with Rick. At the time Jeff had staked out France as his research focus and I was focusing on Germany. Our dissertations stayed in those areas generally as well, but of course we have many intersections of interests, and it is great to see where his have finally taken him with this wonderful new publication.

One lingering problem in our horn world is there has not been much scholarship published in book form on horn history in the past 50 years. With this publication Snedeker has much new to say about the transition from the natural horn to the valved horn, including updates in his own thinking that came from looking at the topic so closely over many years to develop this publication. He makes many connections that have not been noted before.

Looking online for background on the development of the book itself, there is a very interesting 2021 presentation by Snedeker in the video below, from just before the release of the book.

In the video he states that the book “ups the ante on everything I have done before.” Mention is made of an “Elephant in the room” — what was the color of the stopped notes at this time? Question has huge ramifications. I agree with him that in general the colors should match as much as you can, as it would be on natural horn — that is what a fine artist would strive for. A related elephant in the room is that of muted horn, what did composers want at this time? What did players do? Some of these things would be in the end artistic decisions made by players; this topic is but one of many that could be explored in greater depth in further research.

Finally, on a more personal level, the book and all the footnotes bring back good memories of when I was more actively involved with horn history and scholarship. Not that I’m not active now, but I have taken interests in other directions, including instrument making, instead of tracking down obscure sources, translating quotations, and documenting things with footnotes. I do hope some younger players and Doctoral students out there will take up the torch and look deeper into horn history and pedagogical resources, the more you look at them the more you will realize there still is to study.

Brief Review: From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks

John Ericson
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A new book by a (former) professional hornist that I have found very interesting is From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks.

As indicated by the title, the book is directed at finding greater happiness as we age and change, and at a wide audience of potential readers. But the book will I believe especially resonate with readers who are horn players, and I feel it has given me some new and helpful perspectives.

Early in the book we read,

… arguably, retirement happens too late. In surveys, classical musicians report that peak performance occurs in one’s thirties. Younger players often groan over the prime spots occupied by older players with tenure – orchestras have tenure just like universities – who hang around long after they’ve lost their edge. The problem is, these older players often can’t admit decline even to themselves. “It’s very hard to admit that it’s time,” said one fifty-eight-year-old French horn player in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. “We’re expert at denial. We have been successful because we refuse to accept the overwhelming odds at making it in our profession, so early in our development denial is a positive.”

In terms of Brooks and his own career, by age 19 he had left school to tour, playing 100 concerts a year and recording albums with the Annapolis Brass Quintet, in addition to other freelance work. This went on for several years,

But then, in my early twenties, a strange thing happened. I started getting worse. To this day, I have no idea why. My technique began to suffer, and I had no explanation for it. Nothing helped. I visited famous teachers and practiced more, but I couldn’t get back to where I had been. Pieces that had been easy to play became hard; pieces that had been hard became impossible….

I sputtered along for nine more years. At twenty-five, I took a position in the City Orchestra of Barcelona, where I increased my practicing but my playing continued to deteriorate. After a few years, I found a job teaching at a small music conservatory in Florida, hoping for a magical turnaround that never materialized.

Realizing that maybe I ought to hedge my bets, without telling a soul other than my wife (I felt ashamed) I went back to college via distance learning….

He went on to earn three degrees in economics and developed quite a career in a new field, including teaching at universities and running a think tank.

While not as dramatic, I realized while reading the book I had done something like he had. I never had the serious playing problems but I did effectively change career (at age 36) from playing full time to teaching full time.

In the book Brooks lays out how there are two types of intelligence, fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is that seen with younger people, while crystallized intelligence is associated with the wisdom of the aged. Some careers combine both types, some don’t. He gives the example of tech entrepreneurs; they rely mostly on fluid intelligence and their career curves match that decline. On the other hand, and this is what is interesting to me, college teaching relies on crystalized intelligence and favors in general older professors, who are better able to combine and apply complex ideas.

In my own case, I feel sure I am a better teacher now than I was 20 years ago; I can see problems and solutions much more easily.

My comments above really only relate to the beginning of the book, and there is much more that follows that applies readers of any age and background. A simplistic summary would be that ultimately the things we do are not as important as the relationships we build. But there is much more to it than that, laid out with many examples from real lives, this is a wonderful read in relation to finding happiness and purpose, and was a great one as my summer began.

If you are interested in the book, check it out on Amazon and read the free sample. I would recommend this as a great read where you can explore some deeper things, and as said earlier I feel there is some special resonance for us, with Brooks having also been a horn player at a high level.

The Tragic Tale of Mouthpiece Man

Bruce Hembd
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What follows is a parody, an absolute farce. But take heed dear reader; as bizarre as this tale may seem, it contains a kernel of truth here and there – things to think about later.

Let the story begin.

Mouthpieces. Sometimes when I am doubting myself, I reach into my vast collection in search of answers:

  • Will this rim help with my endurance?
  • Will this deeper cup open up my low range?
  • Maybe this one will have the magic I need…
  • Or this one… no, this one…

One afternoon, while spinning the mouthpiece wheel of doom, I gazed deeply into my custom Ion Balu abalone valve caps and it struck me.

Those aren’t valve caps. They are eyes… and, they are looking at me.

“B-r-r-u-u-u-u-ce…” they whisper in unison. Wait… what?

I pause for a moment and become very still. Am I hallucinating? No, this is insane. You can’t do this. No Bruce… don’t do it…this is not right…

The effect was almost immediate; I felt… different. It was as if a wall of glass, steel, and concrete had come crashing down and now, at last, I could finally see. I was in another universe, breathing in fresh air from a place both familiar and unfamiliar.

I slowly move forward. Lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce, is an entity. I can feel it.

“M-M-M-MAUOWWTH-PEE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-S-S-S-S-S-S-s-s-s-s-s-s…”

A blue-skinned creature appears. It has cold, metallic eyes. Are those mouthpiece rims for nostrils?

I cannot speak or move. I tell myself that there is something to this. I sense a deeper purpose.

“I am The Watcher,” it whispers. It taps my forehead and I feel warmth, radiating from head to toe. “You are Mouthpiece Man. Now go. Be kind and fair, but be vigilant.”

A gentle breeze howls as The Watcher, in its magnificence, slowly fades away.

“What is happening?” I ask myself. Questioning my sanity, I take out my smartphone and snap a quick selfie. I am shocked at the results.

The pain is too much. I weep and wail, screaming in agony, wringing my hands and beating my chest.

“People will laugh at me! Are these mouthpieces fangs or tusks? I look like a CONFUSED WALRUS!! This is not a gift, it is a CURSE!!”

After a few minutes of this, I take some time to catch my breath. If this is indeed my destiny, I tell myself, I should just move on and get to work.

I gather my wits and venture out into the world, born anew as Mouthpiece Man, ready to enforce a unique and special brand of justice.

* * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * *

Do not mock Mouthpiece Man.

* * * * * * * * *

Forget your mouthpiece AND dare to be snarky about it?

* * * * * * * * *

The downfall and defeat of Mouthpiece Man.

* * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *

 

Reflecting on embouchure changes, injuries, and other playing issues (and an important summer)

John Ericson
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With many years to reflect back on, there are certainly periods of time when important things happened. For me, one of those important periods was 40 summers ago. Aspen, 1982, and the year that followed.

Wait, you had playing problems?

Some players I am convinced try to project an image that they have never had any issues as a player. Even without projecting that image, some must look at someone like me and think I must have always been good and probably never had any problems. That is not at all the case.

I started college in the fall of 1980, a music business major (!) at Emporia State University. My horn teacher, Melbern Nixon, was a very nice man and helped me with many things, but was not actually a horn player, he was a trombonist and mainly a band director at that point.

I don’t know exactly how I decided to apply to attend the Aspen Music Festival. I did like Colorado, having taken many vacations there with my parents. Another influence might have been Mr. Nixon, he was close friends with the parents of David Wakefield, on the horn faculty at Aspen for many years. My parents drove me in and dropped me off there, the other two summers I attended I had a car.

The embouchure change

Soon after arrival, we had seating auditions and I was not placed in a group! What I was told was the horn faculty (Wakefield, Hatfield, and Cerminaro) agreed that I needed to change my embouchure and wanted me to work on that.

So that week I changed my embouchure. My setup then was that I played mostly lower lip and I had no low range. Wakefield did give me two lessons that first week to help me set up the new placement, and we worked out a plan. I had simple etudes, etudes in low transpositions, Mozart 1, etc. Shorter practice sessions, don’t push things too far too quickly. Don’t play more than I comfortably could play. Keeping my eyes on the end goal of developing a full range.

By the second week they started putting me in some conducting orchestras and such. I did the horn ensemble and by the end of the summer played a concert with an orchestra. Played in a quintet. Learned a great deal! Sprinkle in some great hiking and watching Cubs baseball on cable, that summer was a key one toward all that came later for me on the horn.

Name dropping from 1982

I could name drop a little too. That summer among the horn players there and close to my age were Ellen Dinwiddie, Richard Deane, and my roommate at the end of the summer was Paul Stevens. Paul is now horn professor at the University of Kansas, Ellen is in the Minnesota Orchestra, and Richard is in the New York Philharmonic. And I’m at Arizona State. I wonder who of those attending Aspen this summer will advance to the upper levels of the horn? And I believe I would not have been one that you would have guessed would advance, had you been there.

The injury

That fall I got pointed toward Nicholas Smith in Wichita for extra lessons, and I did that weekly for the next two years. During the school years I took two lessons a week, working on completely different materials with two different teachers. I made a ton of progress, but did have an “event” with my embouchure during the spring semester of 1983.

I still puzzle about it, but I must have developed a tear in my lower lip, there was a hot spot and it took ages to heal. Too much playing for sure, I was a very motivated student and playing 1st horn in everything at my school and in the faculty brass quintet (!), as the Master’s degree level Graduate Assistant left after only a couple days (small town Kansas was not for them).

There is a conventional wisdom that a muscle tear will take 3-6 weeks to heal. In my case, it dragged on for as I recall about 2 months.

Tactics to get through it

And I still had a junior recital to play! The tactic we adopted was I developed a recital program that only touched a G at the top of the staff a few times. It was not “low horn” but it was not too high!

I had a very stable warm-up routine, and there was also another tactic I learned that year. I basically looked at every day I only had so many notes I could play. Push too far and there would be consequences.

It did heal eventually, and I was off to Aspen again in 1983, playing a lot of interesting music on much better parts! (For more on that, see this interview with Bruce Richards, who was also a student in ’83). And I went again for a final summer there in 1985. Those summers I made a great deal of progress as a player and laid foundations for all that was to come. And, as I tell people often, you can make a semester of progress over the summer if you use the time well, with the structure of a summer festival being ideal.

Lessons that formed a career

In the big picture, I think making that huge embouchure change and having that injury has helped me as a teacher a great deal. I think embouchure problems can simply puzzle players who never had any embouchure problems. In my case, I got both categories of problems out of the way early (I actually changed my embouchure again as a Doctoral student!) and was able to achieve my goals beyond my dreams of the time as a player.

One type of problem I didn’t have

Talking to someone recently I was reminded that I was fortunate I did not have any teachers with odd ideas on breathing. Or, if they had them, I sounded good enough they did not bring up the topic. I feel fortunate too to teach now at a place where The Breathing Gym has been widely used, a deep and active type of breathing is needed on the horn.

Postscript: “The wobble”

I would mention one other playing issue that came up years later, a number of years into teaching at ASU. One fall semester I developed a significant wobble in my tone. While it passed as a vibrato of sorts, I privately worried if I was developing focal dystonia — although I could rule that out as it was more general to my playing than typically seen for FD. I found that practicing “Shawarma” from the Brass Gym helped, as did pitch bending and a slower warmup. But also, I know there was a mental component, as the wobble appeared noticeably at the beginning of the semester that I became Brass Area Coordinator. It comes back occasionally – almost always in the fall! — and I’m convinced it is part physical and part mental.

Conclusion: I’ve had my share of problems

Which is all to say, I’ve had some playing challenges over the years. It was not all easy and natural. If you are having some issues, don’t abandon hope, keep working, there are probably solutions to your issues.

I’ll add one final footnote. Going back to 40 summers ago, and this may sound a little shallow, but I get such a kick when I see David Wakefield “like” my Instagram posts. And I like to think he gets a kick out of liking the posts too, my teacher in a pivotal summer in Aspen some 40 years ago.

To hear more about the topics covered in this post, check out Episode 55 of the Horn Note Podcast (direct link here, or wherever you access podcasts). 

**The photo featured in this article was AI generated in a website (Dall-E mini) that as I write this has been trending on Twitter. The specific prompt that generated the photo was “French horn at the Maroon Bells,” a famous hiking destination near Aspen.

On Vienna horns and the important topic of wires

John Ericson
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Something you might have noticed is that in Horn Matters (and elsewhere) I have rarely written about the Vienna horn. A perennially popular topic in our horn world, I have instead focused my own single F horn playing on period style instruments with rotary valves in the German style rather than Vienna valves (or French style instruments with piston valves). Beyond extensive writings on the topic, I made a solo recording on a horn of this type (more on that project here).

I played the instrument I used on that recording, which is a convertible natural horn (with rotary valves) built for me by Richard Seraphinoff, for nearly all my playing for 6 months, to be very familiar with how it played and to get as authentic a sound as I could. In particular, I adjusted my method of tonguing to promote the best articulations I could produce, and got very good at adjusting for intonation quirks.

What is a Vienna (or Wiener) horn?

The Vienna horn is an interesting anachronism in our modern musical world. Invented in 1897, the double horn revolutionized horn playing and quickly became the standard instrument in most of the world. One corner of the musical world that did not adopt the double horn was Vienna, where they kept using a type of single F horn with crooks and unique, double piston Vienna valves. A handy article with more info on this topic may be found here. 

It has been said that the Viennese players continue to use an instrument that is a bridge instrument between the natural horn and the modern horn. It certainly occupies a unique space in modern orchestral playing, and is central to the sound of The Vienna Philharmonic.

19th century single horns are quirky

All instruments of this type generally (single horns with crooks of any type) are quirky in ways that we would not accept on a modern horn. You will have some issues to work around, “rolls” on some notes and intonation issues on others, touchy accuracy, and you will need to find solutions to really use them for performance.

Besides putting arrows in my music to remind me which direction to push intonation when needed, I know I also tried the trick (attributed to Dennis Brain) of putting a matchstick across a side of the first valve slide. I hoped it would help upper range articulations, but it did not really help anything.

But something I put in the bell did I think help a bit. Basically, at a horn workshop (the IHS symposium at UNT) I had purchased an item that was at the time marketed as the Tuning Sleeve. It was for a marching mellophone, and visually looked like a small version of the cork end of a stop mute. Placed in the bell of a Mellophone I thought it very much stabilized the high range. Essentially the theory is that it corrects for the hand not being in the bell. On a double horn it was not as usable as your fingertips will tend to hit the device. Instead, I found a rubber plumbing fitting (like a big O ring) and had that in the bell for the recording. I felt it did something for the G at the top of the staff, but it still was a problem note. As a natural horn in F the note was and is fine on that horn, but with the valve section added onto the instrument it was not nearly as stable. Knowing that, if you listen to the recording you can begin to hear how I tongued that note very lightly, babying the note. Careful mouthpiece choice helped too; I used a copy of a period mouthpiece on the recording to improve the higher range attacks.

What about putting a wire inside your Vienna horn?

Anyway, this brings me to the topic of today. In the most recent (May, 2022) issue of The Horn Call there is an article by Kulmer, Dorfmayr, and Nuzzo on the Vienna horn, “Vienna Calling.” I’d like to focus in on one specific part of the article, the section of “Tips for the Wiener Horn.” The section begins,

Wire. A trick commonly used on the Wiener Horn is to insert a wire in the tube, just a normal electric wire you can buy in any electrical equipment shop. The reason for this is to adjust the note f” [written F at the top of the staff], which is played by pressing the 1st valve on the Wiener Horn, making it much more centered. This trick, although used by many players, is usually not supported by manufacturers. The fun fact is that it not only fixes the precision of f”, but inexplicably, the sound of the whole instrument is just better. The theory is that the wire helps the soundwave float (or floating knots). As weird as it sounds, but also the fact that the wire is harder, softer, with or without the internal metallic part has a big influence. It is also likely that the induced physical change is actually minimal, yet enough to give the player a better feeling of playing, leading to a better sound.

Looking closer at the Vienna horn

For some months I’ve had borrowed the Pizka/Haagston Vienna horn seen in the photos of this article. Periodically I’ll get it out and play it, it is a very interesting horn. There was a time I took it in to demonstrate for my students, and they were excited about it in concept, but were disappointed when they heard it compared to other horns. That same day I took in a vintage Halari natural horn — they had low expectations for it, but they loved it after hearing it.

Still, the article inspired me to get the horn out again. The thing I like the most about this particular Vienna horn is the ability to play it very aggressively and at high volume. My other single F horns, they top out much sooner into an overly raw, overblown tone, more like a natural horn would when blown that hard. I credit this to the rather thick, heavy bell with the wide garland; it is much heavier than any comparable F horn (or natural horn) I have. I suspect it is also heavier than the average Vienna horn, but I have no way to compare with multiple instruments.

Those magical Vienna valves

These valves have a unique double piston design that always grabs the visual attention. Two small piston valves move, ganged together, on each valve – there are six valves on the horn, working in pairs. The result is the valve action from the players’ side is very smooth when you change notes. On a rotary valve horn, there will be notes somewhere that you notice the valve moving, it makes a pop or click that you feel and can be heard. On a Geyer style instrument, for example, that note is E at the bottom of the staff to F, played on the F horn. On the Bb side, the interval will be as smooth as can be, but on the F, there likely will be a bit of a click felt in the airstream.

While the smoothness is a plus, on the other hand, I can totally see why we use rotary valves today. Vienna valves have a very heavy action and there is a lot of weight in general in the valve section area. I would much rather play anything technical on a rotary valve F horn over a Vienna horn. For a tangible example, I can play the venerable Clarke Second Study at least 25% faster on a rotary valve horn over a horn with Vienna valves.

A maker’s eye

Returning to the quote from the article, I tend to look at any horn as a reflection on the maker. A competent horn maker builds a horn so that so far as they can it has no major playing issues. You paid them the money for the horn with the idea that it played well and did not need any modifications. If you feel that you need to immediately resort to pieces of wire or matchsticks to fix playing issues, you need a new horn. Something was not made right, there is some flaw in the design, likely beyond what might be fixed with simple repairs or a cleaning.

In the specific case of this Pizka/Haagston horn, I just don’t feel the top F as built is that much more difficult than say the F# or G that are on the same harmonic. If anything, the F# is the worst of the three notes – but all are manageable and similar in feel.

Trying a wire in a Vienna horn

Still, as the authors tell us that the wire trick is “commonly used” on the Wiener horn, I had to try it. Which leads to the obvious question, what kind of wire??? Wire comes in many gauges and types. Something could have been lost in translation, but it is described as “normal electric wire.” My guess is it is the wire that would be used to wire a house, split down to use one component wire (as the three-wire bundle would obviously be too large to fit in the tube). I chose a four-inch section of the black wire for my tests (as it would have the darker tone…).

As the trick is specifically for the f”, I started with the wire in the first valve slide. Maybe it is more stable with the wire? But the note was not that bad to begin with. Playing it with that setup I then began to notice how the lower range first valve notes gained a stuffy, resistant feeling.

How about putting a wire in a horn with a bad f”?

My favorite horn from my sabbatical project was the one I built with the Mirafone bell. (more here). As nice as it is, the F at the top line has quite a roll. And of course you play that note a lot. What if I tried a wire?

Placing that same black wire in the first valve slide … you know what? It was better! Up to then I was inclined to think the whole wire thing was a mind game only, but if you are using period instruments, consider it an option, it did something positive for sure.

How about bad notes on a double horn?

I have mentioned this in prior writings; there is a bad high Bb issue on some double horns. Test the note before buying! If there is no stable high Bb, walk away. Something, somewhere in the horn, is not right. A bad joint hidden inside, a blob of solder, a brace in the wrong place. Something is wrong. Matchsticks and alternate fingerings may be helpful, even a wire maybe, but the actual solution for a horn you intend to play all the time is obtaining a horn that does not have these issues to begin with.

To conclude…

The Vienna horn still is a great topic and one that has fascinated a lot of players. How much longer will they hold out in Vienna? Who knows, but hear them while you can and if you have the chance try a Vienna horn, do it! It has a unique feel and sound.

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