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

I recall a point in my Doctoral studies, I was taking a pedagogy class led by a trumpet player, and he used the term “flow studies” as though everyone knew exactly what he meant. One of his key points was that we should all be assembling “flow folders” for our practice.

Reality was that I was somewhat stumped by the term. I remember thinking at the time that it had something to do with melodic etudes, and I had plenty of them in standard materials. For me, even today, when I use the term “flow” in relation to any horn playing I hear, it is almost always about the flow of time. Either it flows at a steady pace or there is a change of flow felt in an accelerando or ritardando. Any other thing that breaks the musical flow, such as extra time taken at a breath when this disrupts the flow, is bad.

Over time though I realized that for trumpet players flow studies were a broad category and were certainly considered by many to be the most essential type of thing to study. One blurb I found states that flow studies are studies “designed to help trumpet players learn to effectively use their air flow to achieve smoothness and enhanced musicality.”

So what I’ve been doing in recent weeks in the coronavirus practice routine is look at classic trumpet flow studies. Some of the most essential flow studies are found in the venerable Clarke book, Technical Studies for the Cornet. I’ve been looking at that (I’ve never previously done anything other than the first two studies) and I’ve also been looking at another classic trumpet publication, Twenty-Seven Groups of Exercises for Cornet and Trumpet by Earl Irons, and also a more recent publication, The Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method, book, 1.

In the big picture I think there are two main benefits. For the chops these studies are like long tones with smooth air flow. And for the fingers they are exercises in scale patterns so that those become effortless.

The issue is that trumpet flow studies don’t always translate to horn well for several reasons. The main ones being the phrases can run too long and they go too high. I find myself shortening exercise and putting them in different ranges. It is OK to change things! It’s all good practice.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are a number of what could be considered to be flow studies in The Brass Gym, if you would rather stick to horn publications, check out the horn version of this for some great flow studies.

Besides the topic of practice spaces addressed in the previous article (here), there is also the question of what and how to practice with a disrupted practice (and life!) schedule, such as now in our current world situation. I have my own experiences to share that are more extensive than the average pro, hopefully helpful in this challenging time.

First, we drop back to when I was a grad student. I had a summer where I unfortunately got mono right at the beginning of the summer. It was right after playing some big concerts including principal on Tchaik 5 and Beethoven 7 with the IU Philharmonic in France (!), and I was planning to study in Aspen.

Coming back from France I was beginning to wipe out physically, and when I got back to Kansas I was out of commission. With also an additional issue, I was allergic to one of the initial medications prescribed. I had to scrap my summer plans.

As I got better what I had to do was make projects for myself.

Stepping back a second, much of our average horn practice is driven by upcoming performances and lesson materials. When you have essentially no performances or lessons, but are motivated to improve, you need to create some structure. For me at that time excerpts were a big part of it, listening to works, digging in deeper. I believe I made good progress that summer, even though I was practicing on my own (and playing weekly parks concerts in the city band) with no outside direction. It can be done!

This experience is also part of why I am such a believer in three practice sessions spaced out in a day, three total hours. Make this all you do for a few weeks, and your chops will feel great! More on this type of practice plan here:

• Practice and perform effectively with the “three session a day” plan

The second big experience of this in my life was more recent. I have shared previously in this site; my son is handicapped and lives with us (detailed more in a series of articles starts here).

In short, he was doing great until age 19, after that, it became clear that I needed to be home in the evenings due to his anxiety and behavior issues. It is a sacrifice I feel fortunate that I can make, but it has created a long-term practice challenge. One thing that is good, he is routine driven, and part of his daily routine is I practice after his bath. Because of that, I practice every night, but then the challenge is practice what? I do not tend to have many concerts on the books now, so it ends up I create various projects for myself. Right now, I am working on editing some etudes I have composed (an updated and expanded version of my Modern Preparatory Etudes), that is the main project. In recent months I personally I have done things like

• spend a lot of time in Gallay on natural horn
• work on Kling and Mueller etudes I never worked on with any teacher
• explore the Bach cello suites

The result for me these few years, practicing these things, has been interesting, in that I feel I am playing as well or better than I have ever played. My chops are in a good place.

For current horn students your teacher should guide your list, but I think every teacher would say you should do things including

• working on fundamentals such as in a good warmup routine
• listen to and work on solos that are new to you, and
• listen to and work on orchestral works that are essential to our rep

Finally, you will probably find you can cover a lot more music than normal with no ensembles going on. Keep going into new materials and directions — do not limit yourself.

Effective practice is a new challenge in a challenging time. It will take some refocusing, but, if you can create some projects to give you goals to work toward, with practice spaced out in a day, you will certainly make good progress in your playing. Make it your goal to come out of this a better player than before.

With the present coronavirus situation, many horn players are suddenly finding they need to practice in less than optimal spaces, as in spaces where other people will be perhaps very bothered by the noise.

This is something every horn player has navigated over many years. As a student I was lucky, I practiced (a lot!) at my parents’ house, and then in practice rooms at schools. After that, I entered the real world.

In my first apartment, I practiced often with a mute and a pillow; I did not own a proper practice mute. The other tactic I took was one I heard attributed to the great Barry Tuckwell. Supposedly, when touring, he would practice with the TV on loud on cartoons. This actually works; all the noise from the cartoon helps mask the horn practice sounds.

As a young professional hornist in Nashville, my first season there I did virtually all of my practice in a walk in closet. VERY dead space, but cuts the sound down to your neighbors greatly.

Then, when our kids were little, quite regularly my evening practice was with this Yamaha silent brass. I got it used and inexpensively, the previous owner was older and felt it caused too much back pressure. I find that aspect OK, the only big issue is that over time you may find it hard to find your normal pitch center. When using it I liked to aim for shorter sessions of relatively intense practice of technical things, rather than tonal studies.

A final suggestion I heard from a student today, that works surprisingly well in a pinch, is practice without your bell on if it is a screw bell horn. Put your hand in as normal, to keep the pitch centered – and it will be quieter.

There is also the question of what and how to practice with a disrupted practice (and life!) schedule. I’ll have more on that soon (more here!), I have my own experiences to share that are more extensive than the average pro.