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Pro tips as you get back into ensemble rehearsals

John Ericson
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With the beginning of ensemble rehearsals after the long break for COVID, it is great time to revisit some of the challenges for horn players. [NOTE: Episode 48 of the Horn Notes Podcast expands on the topics below, and more.]

A great place to start is this quotation from Verne Reynolds on preparing for a first rehearsal. I have quoted this before in Horn Matters, but hidden somewhat in a longer post related to performance anxiety. His comments (found in The Horn Handbook) could be read a couple different ways, but are a good starting point in looking again at large ensemble rehearsals.

Our performance at the first rehearsal for a concert reflects the thoroughness of preparation. The first rehearsal also sets the psychological framework for the remaining rehearsals and concerts. If we do not have a good first rehearsal of the Beethoven Seventh Symphony for example, we are left with a wound that probably will not heal completely before the concert. This wound becomes a scar that can affect future performances. For the Beethoven Seventh Symphony, horn players, before the first rehearsal, must have worked out the dotted rhythm, soft high attacks, loud high attacks, A-horn transposition and intonation, breathing places in the loud passages, and the endurance necessary to do all of this. To arrive at a rehearsal with doubts about any of these components is the first step toward a long battle with performance nerves. Conversely, confidence is the manifestation of the expectation of playing well. A bad first rehearsal cannot lead to a justifiable expectation of playing well at the second rehearsal. Better to be thoroughly prepared at the first rehearsal. This thoroughness is the link to the practice room.

There is one particularly positive comment in the quote – “confidence is the manifestation of the expectation of playing well.” Which leads me to a few pro tips to ponder freshly as you start into rehearsals again.

Prepare before the first rehearsal

One is a point stated by Reynolds, that one job you have is to practice and have your music prepared before the first rehearsal. With a reminder that some skills take time to develop, and if you do not for example practice double-tonguing, when it comes up on a work you need to perform, you will not be able to play it like you should.

Metronomes are really great tools

To other more specific things, practice your music with a metronome, get it all up to tempo and all the notes worked out. It might also be worth playing along with a recording some of the key passages to be sure you have the correct flow of time.

Practice with real volumes

Another item is that you must practice playing the appropriate spots with volume. Playing and sounding confident! This may be difficult after your COVID era personal practice mostly at low volumes. It helps you somewhat that you don’t need to feel confident to sound confident, but you must sound like you are playing like you mean it, playing in time, on top of the beat, confidently.

Crisp notes when needed!

Related to that, the short notes must be short and crisp. I hammer away on this in lessons with my students because you need to play short and crisp at appropriate times, or the perception from the conductor is that you are dragging. Play on top of the beat. Do not drag! Conductors, speaking generally, think horns drag.

Follow the conductor

Do not follow what you hear — follow what you see. This can be a huge challenge at first, as our tendency is to play with what we hear. Unfortunately, in your large ensemble rehearsal you may not be able to hear very well from where you are. This means you need to add two things to help your focus.

  1. Practice following what you see and stay on top of that beat. If you follow what you hear there is a ripple effect across all that distance, you will end up feeling very insecure and behind what is actually happening. (This is why conductors always want you looking up).
  2. This will sound like bad advice, but tap your foot with the beat. This helps you stay on top of the visual beat better.

Tuning tips

Another large topic to revisit is who do you tune to? The horns have to — must! — tune to the woodwinds. Inside the horn section, you all need to tune to the first horn, with some attention also to the principal woodwinds. The first horn needs to tune carefully to the principal oboe and clarinet. If the horns are in tune with each other and the woodwinds this helps everyone. You provide a core of sound that is central to the entire orchestra and intonation. You must be in tune with yourself and in tune with the horn section.

Related to that, do not tune to the strings at all — they need to tune to you! — and only tune to the brass (mainly the principal trumpet) when necessary. I know that band directors tell you to tune to the bottom voices, but my professional experience is that you must tune primarily to the principal woodwind players. FYI, the string section will be sharp. Do not let it throw you off.

Match volumes

I mentioned earlier a topic of sounding confident. This involves playing dynamics! Which means matching the trumpets and trombones in the loud passages with them. Practice playing too loud, or what you think is too loud, with plenty of edge, it might be about right for the actual context in a large hall. Horns do not tend to project well; you can and should dare to be a bit aggressive with the dynamics. This is a challenge after the year of COVID, but you must overcome it. If the conductor never tells you that you are too loud, take that as a sign that maybe you could play a bit louder.

Don’t sound “woofy”

I also mentioned earlier the topic of short articulations. There is much music, especially in the lower voices, where you need to play the articulations shorter and with more “front” on the notes. Woofy articulations will not cut it. You may need to tongue further forward in the mouth.

Watch the conductor

A final item to expand on is this. Watch the conductor! Conductors have a lot more faith in you if you look at them. They perceive you to be more on top of their beat and “with them” musically. This however is very difficult if you do not know your music well. You need to know your music well enough to look up often. This all goes back to your job is to learn individual parts as well as you possibly can. Memorize the exposed and easily audible passages. Play your part with a confident sound. The conductor will stop worrying about the horns, and will find other sections to put their attention on.

On the topic of phrasing

John Ericson
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As we come back from over a year of spotty, Covid era practice, one thing I have observed is a lack of dynamics and phrasing.

Of my own students, I’m seeing great improvement after only a couple lessons, and I am hugely enjoying the return to all in-person lessons. But for those of you not studying, or studying with a teacher who has not commented on dynamics and phrasing yet, this is really an important topic.

What has happened is, even if you have been practicing, likely you have practiced at maybe MF and below for a LONG time. You need to really work to wake up your ability to play dynamics, as this is a prerequisite to playing phrases that other people can hear. Loud louds, soft softs!

Backing up a step, you also have to realize as a player that you may be imagining great phrases — but other people simply can’t hear them, as you are in reality playing everything at about the same dynamic.

Also, I should mention that Farkas wrote a whole book on the topic, The Art of Musicianship. It is well worth reviewing for inspiration at this point in time; for a brief look see my article, “Hornmasters: Farkas on Musical Phrasing.”

With the creation of my new personal website, I’ve been working to document and organize more my own teaching method. I recently updated the list (here) to include phrasing. It is a topic that can sort of sneak by a horn teacher, but is absolutely a very important topic. As of now my text there reads,

Phrasing
• A first step involves control of all dynamic levels
• Beyond that, a simple system (“picking flowers”) can be applied to almost any piece of music

The “picking flowers” system is very simple relative to those I have heard some teachers advocate for. One notable system is based on the Tabuteau system of phrasing by the numbers. Which may work great for some (a quick search pulled up an entire DMA horn dissertation on the topic!) but I’m just not into so much mental effort.** The picking flowers system is from a woodwind quintet coach I had years ago at Aspen, bassoonist Ryohei Nakagawa. In short, the “flower” was the high point of an individual phrase, and you would use your pencil as a substitute and actually “pick the flower” (pencil) to feel that point even more deeply. The result is a natural, vocal phrasing.

I mark the high point with a * symbol, as seen in the musical example (the second one in the worksheet photo). I have had students who called these “Ericson flowers.” It might be worth me putting together a video to describe it more completely. But to get a good result it is a simple combination of control of dynamics and highlighting the natural peaks and valleys of phrases.

For our studio class a first project this semester is to listen to different recordings of the beginning of the Franz Strauss Nocturno and document the exact phrasing, as in the worksheet. You will hear different things from different artists, but also will hear many similarities as to the peak moments. No artist, for example will treat the first four bars as a series of one-bar phrases! But a student, without thinking, might just do that, as might someone with an overly complicated system of phrasing.

The whole topic is a big one, and it certainly separates real artists from people who just play the notes. Coming out of Covid, the reminder being that playing the notes is just a starting point. Now that you are back to real horn playing, you need to hit a level beyond that, and it involves phrasing and many other musical choices on a high level. Good luck!

**Also, the suggested phrasings in the dissertation puzzle me greatly. They seem choppy and mechanical to me, not natural like a fine vocalist would spin out. To understand my own system further, listen to some final vocalists, listening to the phrase shapes. You will hear their typical two or four bar phrase shapes and how the “flowers” fit in as a representation of the peak moments.

Sabbatical Extra: Comparisons of the finished horns, and a video

John Ericson
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During and immediately following my sabbatical semester from ASU I completed four major horn rebuilding projects, documented in this series of articles on Horn Matters. All of them are nominally single F horns following 19th century designs, and as such all of them can be set up (if desired) in other keys.

Over the summer my practice has been centered around making comparisons between the horns, exploring their individual qualities, and as the summer ends it is a good point for me to review and compare.

What did I expect?

I’m not sure what I expected to find when I went into this project. My Doctoral dissertation was deeply related to valved horns in 19th century Germany, and to be able to experience these horn designs deeply has been very interesting from both an historically informed performance angle and a horn design angle.

I was hoping at least that they would show me something about the music of the 19th century, and also that they would provide some interesting practice in the Sabbatical/pandemic year. Which they certainly did.

The obvious first thing I found was how each horn was unique, with different strengths and weaknesses. I don’t know why but I expected them to be more consistent, but then again, each one has a different design. The following sections provide some specifics.

Large bore? Small bore?

Nominally all four horns are about the same bore size and bell size. But of the four one “feels” bigger, more on that in a bit.

Tuning

Most of the horns are noticeably flat (if you look for it!) on the harmonic that is E on the bottom line and the E on the top space. This ends up speaking to the authenticity of the designs, this is common on period horns and not really a negative. Everything else is pretty solid and even that flat harmonic you don’t notice that much.

Tone

Here I think is where I’m finding my winners, after finally playing them a bit in a better acoustic than my home. The Gumpert model horn and the Schmidt inspired horn (with the Mirafone bell) are the best sounding horns, with the Schmidt feeling slightly freer blowing (“bigger”) than the Gumpert. The Geyer is nearly as good, and I think only held back by the valves not being as tight as the other horns. Finally, the Yamaha conversion, as of now, it has a dull tone and I can’t really tell you why — but I’ll be working on it more, as it plays well really, just sounds dull in comparison.

And a video conclusion

I could go on and on, but I did produce a video which reviews the builds and you can hear how they sound in a variety of brief selections.

Future plans

As of now I’m not switching to any of these, I’m focusing on modern horn again, but I do find them to add interest to my warmup and practice.

In the bigger picture I have quite a number of ideas to explore! I’m hoping to devote at least part of a day every week (after it cools off again) to working on horn projects of various types. But for now, on to horn teaching and playing as the primary focus.

Return to beginning of Sabbatical Series

The time to work on your breathing is now

John Ericson
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One consequence of the pandemic has been practice has not been great, for a while. A consequence of that is our breathing has certainly become less than optimal.

In my own case, I also started some physical therapy and it is clear my body, due to horn playing, is not very balanced. The most surprising thing related that was that I hardly use my right lung! This must be common in horn playing, as our left side tends to be up (due to holding the horn) and the right side is down (also due to holding the horn!). Related to that, I barely raise my right shoulder. I think I’m raising it, but reality is it is not going up much at all due to deep habits.

What is interesting here also is that these are the sort of thing I would probably notice in a student, but you don’t notice them in yourself as easily.

How about you? This is an excellent time to work on breathing, Very likely you will get the most out of doing this by yourself, unless. you can do it with a group outdoors. Don’t assume your breathing is OK, as it probably is not as good as you think.

As to how to practice, The Breathing Gym Daily Workouts is an excellent resource. This is a DVD product that you buy, but some content is on YouTube. Search for it there.

Congratulations IHS! And looking toward the next 50

John Ericson
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A milestone that has passed is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Horn Society. Congratulations! While it was founded at the 1970 International Horn Workshop, the first workshop fully hosted by the IHS was in 1971, so it is a fitting time to look back at 50+ years of the IHS.

Why do we have an IHS?

The initial purpose of the IHS – and a central purpose today – was to put on an annual horn workshop (aka the International Horn Symposium). As then IHS president Douglas Hill wrote in the October 1979 issue of The Horn Call, the International Horn Society grew out of an existing event, the Annual Horn Workshop, which was first held in 1969.

It seems necessary to briefly discuss our relationship to the Annual International Horn Workshops. The tradition of such an event began in Tallahassee, Florida before there was an International Horn Society. It was from the strong feelings of fellowship experienced at the early workshops that the foundation of a society such as ours grew. So, in contrast to the relationships found between other instrumental societies and their workshops, we, the I.H.S., are a product rather than a parent of the Annual Horn Workshop tradition.

This year, with the challenges of COVID, their 53rd symposium is online. It should be in person next year, but no announcements have been made. Traditionally they formally announce the next symposium at the business meeting at the current symposium, so be watching for an announcement on their website or social media.

And a journal

The other initial benefit to the horn world in general was the creation of their journal, The Horn Call. The first issue was put out in February of 1971. At a time with no Internet, this publication was hugely important, and was one of the main reasons to join. It quickly became the leading place for horn news and scholarship, and I’ve enjoyed reading it and seeing my own writings in it for many years.

Fast forward to a time of challenges

And here we are in 2021. The world is much different than it was back in 1971.

Before I comment more, I should clearly disclose that I served two terms on the Advisory Council and have received their Harold Meek and Punto awards. I am positive about the IHS as an organization, but at this point I’m basically an informed outside observer.

Also, I realize that there are many fans of the IHS out there that could take any perceived negative commentary wrongly. What follows are not intended as criticisms, but rather as observations. I see a number of challenges that a new generation of leadership will need to address.

Challenge: Less reason to join

Back in 1970s for sure if you wanted any horn news or information you needed to be in the IHS. I joined as a high school senior in 1979, and that was my biggest motivation. In fact, within Horn Matters there is a series of seven articles on my first issue of The Horn Call (well worth a read!); it and the issues that followed were a hugely influential to me as a horn student.

Today, the journal is better than ever and provides a wonderful service to the horn playing world.

But then again, where are you reading this article right now? You have many alternatives to IHS publications, including sites like Horn Matters, an explosion of content on Instagram and YouTube, and Facebook groups such as Horn People (which has many more members than the IHS itself).

The big issue here for the IHS is a younger generation is not going to turn first to The Horn Call. The first source to search is Google, and as a result the average hornist has less reason to join.

Challenge: An online world

Of course, the IHS website is an online resource for members, with members only content serving as an additional incentive to join.

I say this as gently as I can — the website could use some updating. For example, I personally cut over 200 articles from Horn Matters this summer and updated hundreds more. I hope some editorial process like that is happening at the IHS Online. More disclosure, some years ago I managed the IHS site. When I visit now, I am always noticing content that has been hardly altered in 20 years. And it is OK content, but not all content is timeless, and things need freshened up.

I also say this very gently, but really, the IHS approach to the entire online world is not what it could be. I know this area is difficult for an established professional society, but I really hope they make more of an effort on this.

A related aside I am reminded of occurred at the international symposium at Western Illinois University in 2009. One of the featured artists was Annamia Larsson (Eriksson). When she came out to perform there was such a buzz of excitement in the audience from about half the audience! And the other half what looking around wondering what they had missed. What they missed was her viral video! Which currently has over 2,000,000 views, the one below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MkMdlfl8Hg

The same divide exists today, but probably even larger than then. There are hornists that are highly followed on Instagram, artists that a large group of younger horn players would find to be a very exciting choice as a featured guest at a workshop, but an older player would not even know who they are. The IHS needs to embrace the players that are making their way forward in the field, go beyond the horns of the past. The same old “stars” really should not be featured repeatedly at events.

Challenge: Financial

At one point not too long ago, I was researching the financial condition of the IHS for a possible Horn Matters article. They put public statements on their financial condition in The Horn Call and in their website, although as of this writing (summer 2021) the most recent one posted there is from 2019. In any case, I eventually decided it was not my place to do an expose on this topic, but to my eye their financial condition was not great. Interested readers can research it further, this is all public info.

From a general horn public perspective, I think what we should be watching for is how they address this challenge, as it impacts all their programs.

Going back to the topic of their upcoming 2021 symposium being online, two other recent events of a comparable nature were online and were free (the Kendall Betts Horn Camp and the Rafael Mendez Brass Institute), and I suspect did pretty well financially, due to donations. It is a different model, as the upcoming IHS event costs $ to attend. Hopefully they still do well, but they need your support.

Where is the next one?

Looking ahead, it will be very interesting to see what they have planned for a 2022 symposium. Traditionally they have the event alternating between USA and international locations.

At some point I would think they might consider having the international workshop every other year, as some other comparable societies do. But with the annual workshop so engrained in the IHS culture that may be a while in the future.

Closing on a positive note

It has been very exciting to see a few “real” workshops and summer festivals begin to occur this summer, coming out of the pandemic. I know in my own position at ASU we have been officially told to expect to be teaching in person this fall. I’m excited for the post-pandemic world and the horn. I believe we could have a strong uptick in the demand for live music, there is an inherent visceral impact that people have missed. By extension I’m hopeful that also leads to an uptick in interest in the horn – an uptick that helps us all, launching the IHS well into their second 50 years.

Review update: Horn Playing from the Inside Out, Third Edition eBook

John Ericson
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New for 2021 is an updated version of Horn Playing from the Inside Out by Eli Epstein. While we don’t often do reviews, this is a book we have followed closely here at Horn Matters, Epstein has much original to say. Also, with each edition he has updated the text significantly toward presentation of a physiologically accurate brass pedagogy.

Our original review
Third Edition review

The major update to the book is the embedded videos. This is a wonderful upgrade and makes this an absolutely unique product in the horn world. And it is priced right at $9.99 a copy!

The newly updated eBook version may be purchased here.

Expanding briefly on the prior reviews, one thing (among many) he does is take on some popular pedagogical takes and gently lay out issues with those takes. One great example (from page 24) is the following, where he takes on the idea that a “trout face” will help low range production.

If horn students aren’t specifically taught how to play in the low register, they sometimes come up with unusual ways to configure their lips to produce low notes. A frequent aberration is the “frown” or “trout” embouchure, in which the corners of the mouth curve downward. Players who use the trout embouchure are on the right track, since it’s easy to think that bending down those corners would make the oral cavity larger. Unfortunately, the jaw actually raises up when we bend the corners down.

Epstein has posted a video (below) that describes the new version of the book further. Bravo to Epstein on this updated edition!

Sabbatical Extra: A Yamaha Conversion Horn, and Revisiting the Ascending Third Valve, part 2

John Ericson
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During my sabbatical semester from Arizona State I looked briefly at one of the horns I had worked on, how I could set it up as ascending third valve, and posted some brief impressions.

Immediately after the end of the sabbatical (spring semester of 2021) I was still working in the shop almost as much, as I had one more horn project horn started, that I now realize I have not yet described properly here (although briefly mentioned in this post)

A Yamaha conversion horn?

The idea with this one was to use an older design Yamaha single F and convert it to take crooks. At the time of the earlier post it was not done, and the photo there is with the crook of my Gumpert horn. I still had crooks to make specific to this horn, and I made two, one for F and one for G. (In the future I may also make an Eb crook, I have parts set aside, but it is too hot to work in the shop now).

Crooks?

The crooks seen here are from a Chinese natural horn, significantly modified. I knew going in that they had some major problem. On taking them apart I could see they both had no venturi! The first 2 inches or so, hidden under the visible tubing, were absolutely an acoustical nightmare. So what I did, having several random (and damaged) King single horn pipes on hand, was cut the end of those leadpipes off to mate perfectly with the end of the Chinese crooks. The result was that they both exceeded expectations, especially so the G crook (the F crook having a bit less good intonation).

The crooks are lacquered, as is the horn. I have not removed it at this point, I may later. About 90% of lacquer is present.

Ascending third valve?

What I could then do with the G crook and the G horn first valve slide I made earlier in the year was set this horn up as ascending third valve, a system popular in France back in the day. The setup on my horn involves stringing the third valve to rotate backwards. The horn stands in F, but has a G crook with air going through the third valve slide to lower the basic horn to F. Thus, when you push down the third valve, it shortens the horn by a whole step.

I have mostly had it set up in this manner for the past two months, and I must say this might be the most fun horn of the sabbatical horns to play.

How does it compare?

A first question is how does it compare to before modification? Yamaha single F horns are not bad, but with the modifications it plays more freely and has a more colorful tone.

I’ll have a separate post on overall comparisons of the four sabbatical project horns soon, but this one certainly has the best high range articulations and overall playing comfort of the set, when set up as ascending third valve.

I’m also entertained in my summer practice working with the alternate fingerings provided by this setup. Any high note that can involve the third valve in a fingering is very enhanced compared to a standard single F.

On the other hand, there is no fingering for Eb below the staff, and you can’t produce any notes lower than low A, which limits what music you can play. Those notes come up a lot! I’d like to make a better F crook for the horn at some point in the future, I even made the bending jig before I had to shut down the shop for the summer.

A pilot project

Another part of making this specific horn was that I was looking at it as a possible product — to make more of these at some future point. I think it has the potential to work very well as a crooked standard single F, I would just need a better crook taper to use as a starting point for the front end of the horn.

There are some specific design things unique to this conversion that I won’t share here, but I took things I learned from all the other sabbatical horns to get it to the point it is at right now. I believe it is a type of horn many would enjoy having the opportunity to play on. A topic for a future post as well.

UPDATE 2025: I actually as of now have reduced this horn to parts — but another of the project horns I do still use as ascending third valve, which I explain more clearly in this article. 

Continue to conclusion of the Sabbatical series

UPDATE 2026: Continue to this article to see how I reworked and upgraded this Yamaha conversion horn. 

Using drones to improve warmup and practice of etudes and excerpts

John Ericson
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As we come out of this year of not great practice it is very important to have drones be part of your daily practice regimen. Using drones to improve your warmup and practice of etudes and excerpts is the topic of Episode 47 of the Hornnotes Podcast (direct link here), and the topic is also worth a look here in Horn Matters as well, with a bit of bonus content at the end of this post.

Warmup

In the podcast three specific examples are given. The first one is this exercise from my warmup publication (The French Horn Warmup Collection), simply titled “Exercise with Drones.”

This type of exercise early in your playing day is very important to do, as a central point is that you may find you need to reset how you play things. You may find that, while things feel OK without the tuner, with it you sag in the low range, or go sharp up high, or nothing seems in tune, etc. The drone provides a neutral frame of reference so that you can get yourself into the right groove.

Also, use normal fingerings! While often teachers recommend F horn in the warmup, in this case use your most standard fingering and focus on intonation.

[This also assumes your instrument is in tune with itself! I address that topic in the warmup publication as well.]

Etudes

Next on the podcast I play an etude from Rangesongs for Horn by Rose French. This summer I have come back to this publication and I’m finding many exercises that work well in it with a drone. Etudes also being much more fun to play than arpeggios!

Excerpts

The last work I look at in the podcast is the opening solo of the Brahms second piano concerto. This is but one example of an excerpt that can be very profitably practiced with a drone.

I cover all of this in more detail in the podcast.

Bonus

For anyone looking to study this topic more deeply, I think it very interesting that many of the methods for the natural horn have what could be called etudes with drones, where an instrument such as a cello was to perform a very simple accompaniment line. At one point I thought about developing an etude publication of this type, but I did not see much actual use for it in my teaching — as today we can turn on a drone from our phone or elsewhere virtually any time. We don’t need to rely on a friend to play actual drones. Make use of the advantages of modern technology and practice with drones.

A new personal website — is it also time for you?

John Ericson
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A new personal website — is it also time for you?

For me this summer was the time to build one. Although I had one of the first personal horn websites out there — 1998! — it was always part of my Horn Articles Online site and was very dated. It was time to go big!

Before getting to the specifics, building the new personal website was a great thought process in itself. Even though it is not an easy task, very likely the results will be an encouragement to you, and will bring new focus to your goals for the coming year.

My personal site is at johnericsonhorn.com The site is WordPress, with a number of pages of content and a small blog. Which leads to three main topics for readers.

The first topic is that of the choice of platform. I chose WordPress as I’m very familiar with it (Horn Matters is WordPress), but I know it intimidates some people. Really, you have many options for the actual platform, ask around and see what others say. To be honest the hardest single task in WordPress is finding a template that you like, after that it is not much harder than typing a series of documents.

Second topic is that of pages. The “pages” are the content accessed from the ribbon across the top. For me this was the most interesting part of the process, dividing the content and building those areas. To see that I had more than a dozen publications, to see the series of videos ready to play under the Recordings tab, it was time to lay it out in this way. Also, I would highlight the Teaching tab, I had never laid it out like this and I hope former, current, and future students see my thinking.

Final topic is the small blog. While Horn Matters is based on blog content by myself and Bruce Hembd, as I was also editing older content in Horn Matters I could see a number of articles that I thought were interesting with good content, but low traffic. So I have moved over a dozen older articles of this personal blog content to the small blog, check it out for I think some good reading and insights into my teaching and playing.

Also, I should mention you don’t need to have a blog as part of your site. While it is a feature of many WordPress templates, some don’t require you to have one, such as the one I chose for my Horn Notes Edition website.

Back to the original topic to close, is it time for you to build a personal website? It is surprising how many people of the horn world don’t have one at all. Yes it is time! Especially this slow summer of 2021, you should get this element of your online profile set now rather than later.

Revisiting an Old Huttl Horn

John Ericson
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Revisiting an Old Huttl Horn

Back more than ten years ago I posted a short article an interesting old Huttl horn. It was one obtained from a former teacher and dates to the early 20th century. As I say in the earlier article, I always felt the instrument had some potential, it has a very nice gusseted, hand-hammered bell, but nevertheless did not play well. Previous owner had it out as display item, as did I.

But I prefer playable horns. For years my thinking was the big problem was the leaky valves, and early in my sabbatical I thought about going big and replacing the valve section. But looking at it more with new eyes after the sabbatical project, the horn had evidence of a lot of repairs over the years. As with the Geyer single horn project horn, repairs had been hidden somewhat with a fresh coat of lacquer. In the case of this Huttl, there were things like braces sitting on braces, and especially there was a big and highly suspect patch about 3” down the leadpipe. I think it had been broken off or intentionally cut to achieve a repair. To test if this was the big issue, I tried the horn with different leadpipes, and the horn clearly perked up with a change of leadpipe. So the big issue was that patch area.

The unusual design of this horn is part of the charm of the instrument, but that design also makes for a very unusual leadpipe design, with bends on multiple planes. Looking over parts on hand, what made the most sense was to take about 10” of a King single horn leadpipe (that tested well on the horn) and bend it to mate up with existing leadpipe. Those first inches are the most important tapers of the horn. I got it all cut well, and then, no good deed goes unpunished! I tried to work some dents out of the remaining Huttl pipe and a crack opened up. So, I also had to patch that. And the brace on the main slide was missing, I replaced that as well.

Just before it got really hot here, I got it all together and cleaned up. I was going to ultrasonic clean the valves, but then made a discovery — they are hollow valves! Valves are normally made from solid brass stock, but these were instead assembled from brass tubing and shapes. They are very light weight, and have some suspect cracks — so I did not want to submerge them to clean them. Fortunately they were pretty clean to begin with, but they are worn, so much that I’m able to use light bearing and linkage oil instead of valve or rotor oil as the primary oil — which works surprisingly well.

There was an existing patch at the edge of the bell that was loose, and in testing the horn it created a buzzing noise on certain notes, so that patch was also given some extra attention.

Bottom line is the horn plays! I am pleased, nice intonation and a nice high range. I’m really interested to get all of the recent project horns in a good room and compare the tone qualities. I suspect this one will do well.

This is my last horn project for a while. It is too hot to do any real work in my shop, as overnight lows are in the area of 80 or higher. It will be well into the fall before I do more horn building, but it has been quite an interesting project and change of pace.

Finally, I should mention what I did not do on this horn. It should be clear from the photos, I did not try to fix everything. A horn this old, you start trying to fix things that are not broken to the point of being an acoustic problem and you will open up cracks and create problems, a lesson learned with the leadpipe work. It has a number of dents that I don’t intend to work on ever, the danger of cracks is very real. I might take off the lacquer at some future point to improve the look (it should come off easily), but for now I’ll leave it like it is.

To be honest, I’d be interested in someday making another horn following this design from modern parts. I suspect a horn of this type has potential to be a fine playing horn. For now though I’m enjoying having it in the rotation of vintage single F horns I’m using for my warmup and summer practice.

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