A topic I think about every year when I hear college auditions is that of the “missing articulations.” Often it is a function of what things your teachers emphasized and what you are able to do.
To be more specific, the missing articulations are typically either the very short or the very long articulations. Or — maybe both! Typically good students can do at least one of these.
The reasons they are missing are varied. Some teachers do not seem to have the ability to teach articulations. My guess is that their lessons are more like coaching. While maybe inspirational and helpful, it does not hide from me that your teacher let you down a bit in relation to these skills.
Then again, some students do not understand why their teachers are so hard-core about learning these very short and very long articulations. If they are trying to teach these to you it is because you are not doing them well enough. I do realize that there may be issues specific to individuals (not everyone tongues the same way, has the same physiology in their mouth, or can achieve exactly the same results).
The very short articulations I think are more recognized as an essential skill by teachers who have lots of orchestral experience, especially in good halls. In a good hall, if you do not play things crisp enough, it can all sound muddy. Kopprasch played very short is the traditional method to learn this articulation type.
The very long articulations to my mind have more to do with solo playing, especially things like the runs in the first movements of Mozart concertos. These should not sound like Kopprasch! You have to learn to use the tongue and the air very lightly, to imitate the sound a string player makes in the comparable orchestral tutti sections of these concertos. Do not use too much air!
The point of application being, the impressive player can do both! Very short and very long articulations are both essential skills, and if you are getting feedback that either or both could be better, take it seriously, fixing this skill could be the key to reaching the next level as a player.
Standard issue brass playing advice – for practically any problem! – is to use “more air.” For some brass teachers (especially low brass), breathing is practically a religion, and “more air” the central creed. Is it good advice?
I have wondered that question for many years. On a recent one of his YouTube live videos Derek Wright of Houghton Horns brought up this topic as an aside, and, on thinking about it more, he is correct. Some players use too much air, which causes sound to suffer in several ways.
Too much air???
Stepping back for a second, those that have read a lot of my writings on brass playing will note that over years I have become more and more questioning of standard brass playing advice. But the fact is we do have to look at these things critically, there is no “Bible” of brass or horn playing, and each player is an individual. Sometimes a counterintuitive approach is what is needed when there are problems to solve.
Also, with each player being an individual, you also have to think about how each person will have their own take on any instruction they hear. “Use more air” is going to mean different things to different people. Some will take that instruction much more literally than intended.
Remember Goldilocks
There is a point where it is too much air, and the suggestion to use “more air” is only causing problems.
Think of it this way. More air, to many people, means “push harder.” When you push harder, what do you then have to do? Resist the air, most likely with your embouchure and probably also your throat. That tight embouchure system then translates into a tight sound. The most difficult aspect of this issue is that the level of air pressure feels completely normal to you, you may have always played like this since you started in band. But the result is that your lips and throat are just too tight for optimal horn playing at a high level.
Of course, you may have received advice to relax your face and throat, but you actually can’t do that unless you use less air pressure.
Which is where Goldilocks fits in, with her choices of chairs, porridge, and beds. Don’t use too much air, or too little. There is a “just right” that will give you the right results.
An aside on tonguing, which is also impacted by excess air pressure
There is another issue impacted by too much air, and that is the production of fast, short articulations, and lighter articulations in general. You just have too much air bottled up and pressurized in your system to produce the needed articulations. A less pressurized air system will certainly help your ability to tongue quickly and lightly.
How do you find the correct amount of air?
There is a balance between the air pressure you generate and the embouchure. Loud or soft, there is an element of relaxed control in the embouchure. Too much air pressure can throw the balance off in the entire system.
Most good horn players find that place of balance in air quantity on their own. That is part of why the topic is so rarely discussed.
One of the best ways to find that point of relaxed control is with exercises that include breath attacks. Especially if you have trouble doing breath attacks it is well worth working on them, and observing the level of pressurization of the air. What you may find is that for the breath attacks, you use less air under less pressure, and finding a new balance in your playing closer to that of the breath attack will solve problems.
Still in doubt?
Try this. Try intentionally to use too much air. You will feel how you have to hold the air back with extra tension in your throat and embouchure and how this also creates difficulty in tonguing. For things to not be too tense and work correctly, you have to use Goldilocks air.
Just because a piece of advice is repeated endlessly does not mean it is helpful for you
Brass players can and do develop chop problems. When those problems come, the go-to advice is tried and true conventional wisdom, such as “use more air.” But do realize that this advice, while perhaps valuable for some and even for you at some point in time, may not be valuable for you at the point when you face chop problems. In other words, conventional wisdom can be a trap. Solving problems often involves thinking out of the box.
Finally, going back to my earlier disclaimer, I know the advice to consider using less air is counter to much — even most! –brass teaching. But the longer I teach I can see some beloved mantras of brass teaching cause more problems than they solve. Especially with mouthpiece pressure and air, don’t try to use too much or too little. What you need to search for is “just right,” driven by your individual playing. Above all, when you are getting the better sound, you are on track to the solutions.
Till is one of those essential excerpts we all learn, and it has a correct interpretation. One person who got the correct interpretation directly from a source that knew how it was meant to be played was Philip Farkas.
He was told how to play it as a young first horn player by Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony and student of Richard Strauss. This quote from Philip Farkas & His Horn by Nancy Jordan Fako lays it out very well:
Stock was very kind to Phil, often calling him in to discuss how certain passages should be played so that Phil would not be embarrassed at rehearsals. In March 1937, during Phil’s first season, they were to play Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel. Stock had studied composition and conducting with Strauss and had first conducted Till under Strauss’ tutelage. In one of their meetings, Stock explained to Phil exactly how Strauss had intended the horn call to be played. After Stock’s death, the Chicago Symphony once again did Till Eulenspiegel, this time with the Viennese conductor Karl Böhm. Böhm was amazed and delighted at Phil’s interpretation of the call, telling him that he was the only horn player who played it correctly. Phil related to Böhm his discussion of Till with Stock, which brought an immediate laugh from the maestro, who had been in the same conducting class with Frederick Stock when Richard Strauss had explained how he wanted the horn call to be played.
Wow! But unfortunately the book leaves the topic there, it does not reveal the correct interpretation. However, Farkas students know some version of the story, which he fortunately also related directly in a session at the 1989 Southwest Horn Workshop, held at ASU where I am horn professor. A session that was recorded on video.
The short version of what the correct interpretation is involves the initial tempo being derived from the introduction (not too fast!), the experimental nature of the accelerando (like you are composing it as you play it), and maintaining the full tempo after you achieve it (a bit sooner than marked in the part).
For more on how to play Till from Farkas, in his own words, check out Episode 50 of The Horn Notes Podcast, available on iTunes, Spotify, etc., or at the link below.
At one time Kruspe style double horns (especially the Conn 8D) were a dominant horn type among professional hornists in the USA. That market has dramatically shifted in recent years to Geyer style horns. In relation to that, a question came up at the end of a recent live stream by Derek Wright of Houghton horns (below) — can the Kruspe come back?
None of us can predict the future, but I think they could come back — but not the large, nickel silver horns. I would agree with Derek on this, I think a medium bell Kruspe style horn in brass could come back, or at least has potential to come back if made at a professional level of quality.
Why are they out of fashion?
Several things have conspired to make the large nickel silver horn not as marketable today. Derek brings up several points in his livestream, including what sounds best in more recently constructed concert halls and also that people hear with their eyes. For sure, a big nickel silver horn looks like it might sound different than anything else.
I would add a couple more issues to the list.
One is that in an audition the horn player with the best sound will be the one with more “life” in the sound, a more “complex” tone. In auditions, people are heard back to back in exactly the same setup in a concert hall. A big NS horn can have a duller tone. At an extreme, some of the older players had what could be called a “woofy” tone. That is not a job-winning tone today.
The other big issue is that not very many real, professional level big nickel silver horns have been made since Conn moved from the Elkhart plant in 1968. Which is to say that most of the large NS horns out there now are to varying degrees student model horns. Even a great older horn with rebuilt valves and such is still an old horn, not a horn that a many pros would want to use.
What about a Kruspe style horn with a medium bell in brass?
Returning to Derek, he also mentions that actual Kruspe horns (made by the firm Kruspe!) from the 30s and 40s typically have medium bells. I have seen older Kruspe horns made closer to WWI that had HUGE bell throats, but my own post-war brass Kruspe, described further in this post, certainly has a medium bell. Not only that, it has a hand-hammered bell; only a tiny fraction of Kruspe style horns out there now have a bell of this quality level.
Stepping back a second, a Kruspe style horn could always have been made of brass with the typical tubing profiles of a Geyer style horn. However, more typically they are not, they are made with larger throated bells. The use of nickel silver can give the large bell a bit more life in the tone, but that is something that could also be achieved by using a smaller throated bell to begin with.
As to my own “Kruspe Kruspe,”I finally have had a chance to play a rehearsal with the horn. I like the sound of the brass medium bell; I believe it could blend with a Geyer section. In addition, it “feels” somewhere between a Geyer and a big nickel silver horn, which is a comfortable place.
To close, I will officially predict that the Kruspe style horn could come back, but only if a few players made an effort to seek and use ones constructed in brass with a high quality medium bell and other elements typical of a professional level instrument. I am personally interested to explore that angle — who knows, my next horn modification projects could be working toward capturing the best qualities of my vintage brass Kruspe, but with modern parts.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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he very short articulations I think are more recognized as an essential skill by teachers who have lots of orchestral experience, especially in good halls. In a good hall, if you do not play things crisp enough, it can all sound muddy. Kopprasch played very short is the traditional method to learn this articulation type.
