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What was the first French horn you owned?

John Ericson
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This past week the parents of a young student I teach decided it was time to think about buying her a horn. The dad asked about Craigslist, and I was like, I know things come up sometimes, but have me try whatever you find to be sure it is a decent horn.

One brand I had mentioned to him to watch for was Holton, and wouldn’t you know it that very afternoon a listing for a 20 or so year old H177 came up. They set a time the next morning to try it, only a 15 minute drive from our home.

The horn was immaculate. It had been used by the seller’s mother, who had played it in community bands and such. Frankly it looked very nearly brand new, and it played just like it was supposed to. They bought it for her for a very fair price.

Then, on leaving, something unexpected — I actually became overcome with emotion. My parents bought me a Holton H177 back in the fall of 1977 when I was a junior in high school (prior to that I had played a school 6D and then an 8D). I’m sure my band director helped them get two of the Holtons sent up from Wichita Band Instrument, and I picked the horn out between them. I believe it was considered to be my Christmas present. I used it into my junior year of college, but sold it years ago. I also had not played on one for years (the H179 is much more common), and the memories of my parents, the excitement of that first horn, all the music I made on it, it all briefly tapped into some deep emotions. That horn started me on my journey to where I am today.

Thinking about all of that, and that I’m probably not alone in my thoughts on that first horn, led me to put up a Twitter survey. 85 responses is not real scientific, but it did confirm something I had suspected, a lot of people started out with a Holton as their first personally owned horn, even more than had Conn horns as their first. Holton had that Farkas endorsement and it was a relatively compact instrument suited to younger players. With a water key! So many people playing them as their first personally owned horn is a lot of why it is still on the market, even in the face of so many other options at better price points.

And to any lucky reader that got a horn for Christmas, enjoy it! Welcome to your horn playing adventure.

Comparing inner diameters of rims by the grip diameter

John Ericson
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A question I get pretty often is why one rim of the same inner diameter may feel larger or smaller than another marked to be of the same size.

Part of the issue is that mouthpiece makers are measuring a point on a curve, and one maker will likely have a slightly different concept of for example 18MM than another maker solely based on what point they are measuring to.

For years what I have found to be the more reliable way to tell if a rim has the same “feel” is to use a dime and directly compare how it sits on the rim when held upright, looking at where the letters of “United States of America” touch the rim. I learned this technique from a very handy publication, French Horn Mouthpieces: Material and Design published by Lawson Brass Instruments, where this illustration may be found. I have two versions of this pamphlet, one with a copyright date of 1990 and an older edition with no copyright date, from the late 1980s. Grip diameter is described in the section on “Selecting a Mouthpiece.”

The grip diameter can be determined if one uses a dime on edge to compare inside dimensions between mouthpieces. (See sketch).
When sighting along the edge of the rim, the position of the U and A, in the phrase “United States of America” can be compared between mouthpieces. The bottom edges of U and A just show in a .695” inside diameter rim.

This is an important dimension, as it is a good idea to reduce the number of variables you are changing when working with trying mouthpieces. If you have a rim you basically like, you would want to look for a new rim with essentially the same grip diameter and also what Lawson refers to as face shape, which is the relative roundness or flatness of the rim as it meets your face. You can and should experiment with different cups, inner diameters, and face shapes, but just not all at the same time, be systematic.

Give a dime a try! This technique really works. Adding to the above only to mention that the rim finish also impacts your perception of size, a slipperier rim will seem to be larger than one that stays more set on the embouchure.

On the initial setup of the embouchure, and other thoughts on the warmup

John Ericson
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Of my recent publications the warmup book has sold the best (more info on the book here). Teaching this fall a side point came up, and I realized it is one that I’ve never addressed in Horn Matters.

That side topic is that of the initial setup on the lips and getting started with the playing day. William C. Robinson in An Illustrated Advanced Method for French Horn Playing (Bloomington: Wind Music, 1971) opens the book with an extended section on initially setting up the mouthpiece placement on the lips. I’m told he did not emphasize this in later teaching, but the photos there are an interesting documentation of how he in 1971 focused carefully on his initial setup. His photos also show that he is thinking deeper about this than found in the general, related discussion that I had posted in a prior Hornmasters series article.

What I realized on reflecting on Robinson is that I have a way I really (REALLY) like to start my playing day, and it is either the first exercise in the short routine that begins my warmup publication or the first exercise that begins the mello warmup also found in that same book. I had not thought of it in these terms, but starting that way sets up my face a certain way. If I start with either of those exercises, even with a very short warmup I feel pretty ready to go – although I’d rather warmup for more like 20 minutes.

As that was among topics on my mind, it is one of the central topics in my most recent podcast, Horn Notes 38: Understanding warmup publications and more. Follow the link or look for it on Spotify, etc. This may be the only episode for a little while, but as always the older episodes are new until you hear them, check out any of them of interest to you, and thank you for listening. With a specific suggestion, if you are interested in podcasts that look at the warmup, I’ve done three prior episodes that will be of interest:

Another perspective on performance anxiety

John Ericson
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I do not normally read articles in law websites, but recently I saw a link to an interesting recent article on the website of the ABA Journal, a publication of the American Bar Association. What made it especially interesting to me was how it looks at the topic of anxiety from a bit different angle than the sports competition angle we usually encounter in music.

Performance anxiety is, of course, a topic that is not limited to music or sports. Poor performance has different consequences in different situations. In sports, you lose the game or match. In music, you have a less good performance. In legal contexts, people can end up in jail or losing lots of money! There is pressure on lawyers to perform well in court, to give their best service to clients.

The article I found is “No magical cure for anxiety, but with persistence, you can train your mind to relax” by Jeena Cho. Within the article there are three main points:

  • Anxiety is subjective
  • Anxiety is a set of thoughts and physiological responses
  • Change the focus to let go of anxiety

Working backwards in the points, a primary suggestion for changing focus was to do a grounding exercise. Several are presented, but it occurs to me in music that is one of the reasons focusing on breathing when you perform is a great idea. It ends up being a type of grounding exercise, taking your focus away from thinking about the performance situation.

As to the physiological responses, one prime tactic is to focus on relaxing the body, this will impact your thoughts and the anxiety situation.

The first point of the article is the most interesting to me, that anxiety is subjective, and specifically this point, “the mind is hardwired toward imagining the worst-case scenario, the so-called negativity bias.” Negativity bias is an interesting concept, there are many resources online related to this topic and it certainly colors our anxiety as horn performers. Continuing in the article,

The next time you are feeling anxious, take a step back and look at the thoughts that are triggering the anxiety. Chances are, you are only rehearsing the direst outcome, overlooking the best-case scenario or even more neutral outcomes.

It’s helpful to see that someone else in your exact situation may experience a different level of anxiety or even no anxiety. It’s subjective. In fact, you could also be experiencing this dreaded event with a different level of anxiety under a different set of circumstances. Perhaps you are more anxious because you recently received an unfavorable review at work or because you’re sleep-deprived.

The reason why this is important to recognize is that it puts the feelings of anxiety more within your control. You may have little or no control over the outcome of the event, but you can begin to see that you do have control over your own response. Rather than focus on trying to fix the uncontrollable or the unknowable, you can take a gentler stance toward yourself and focus on changing your response by relaxing the anxious mind.

It is our nature, due to negativity bias, for our thoughts to focus on the worst possible outcomes. This is of course not where our thoughts should be.

Sometimes you do actually get that worst piece of news, but speaking generally nothing we do as horn players is actually life and death. Still, it is easy for thoughts to turn to the worst outcomes. Those thoughts might potentially push you to practice harder, but training your mind to relax is essential to overcoming negative thoughts in performance. If more traditional sources such as The Inner Game of Tennis are not working for you, there are many resources out there in unexpected places, such as a law website, to consider.

A brief look at Erwin Miersch, and tuning the double horn

John Ericson
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I believe many Horn Matters readers will recognize the name of Erwin Miersch (1886-1969), as he wrote a set of Melodious Studies for French Horn that are still in print (Carl Fischer) and are fairly widely used with intermediate horn students. Yet, who exactly was Erwin Miersch?

As a performer, he was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra horn section, having also performed in the Detroit Symphony and the Boston Symphony. A resource online includes a very intense list of all the orchestral players that were ever in major orchestras in the USA, part of the stokowski.org website. In his case, the list of Cleveland Orchestra musicians is here, where we learn that he was a member of the orchestra from 1924-1926 and again from 1936-1951, serving as Fourth horn, having also been a member of the Detroit Symphony (1926-1935) and the Boston Symphony (1913-1919).

The other key career detail I can add is he was a Gumpert (“Gumbert”, more here) student at the Leipzig Conservatory – other graduates of that studio who made a mark in the USA and who have names students of the horn would recognize today include Anton Horner and Max Pottag.

For me personally the name of Miersch came up recently because one of my predecessors at ASU, Ralph Lockwood, brought by a copy of a pamphlet by Miersch on Tuning the Reynolds Double French Horn. It must date to the 1950s, and in it Miersch is described as being a “Retired member of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.”

As to the pamphlet, after noting, “Achieving good intonation is to a great extent dependent on the lips and embouchure of the performer,” the key point made is that “The open tones on the F and Bb Horn should be tuned first. They should be brought into pitch with each other before undertaking the more difficult step of adjusting the valve slides.”

From there he discusses hand position and the importance of a consistent hand position, and finally there is a tuning chart for the valve slides. “This tuning chart for the Reynolds Double Horn has been thoroughly tested and should be your guide. A slight adjustment of the slides may be necessary to meet your personal needs.”

The chart is interesting, most every slide is a bit different and every slide is pulled out somewhat. As it states, “The following chart has been made with proper hand position and is the result of extensive tests with the stroboscope at concert pitch 440.”

Beyond tuning, I have found it interesting to look at the etudes again thinking of his background and career, and hope that readers might also give them a fresh look.

Where to find accompaniments for the Bordogni Vocalises?

John Ericson
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I recently put out my version of the first 21 Bordogni Vocalises in a second edition (available worldwide from Amazon!), and the beginning of two of those versions (low treble and low bass clef) are featured exercises in my Low Horn Boot Camp publication (also in a second edition). A question came in, where can we find accompaniments to these for performance?

In the case of my version, there is a really easy answer: IMSLP. The Gumbert edition (of the first 24 of these) that was the basis of my edition (of the first 21) is for voice and piano, with a nice, simple accompaniment. It may be accessed from this page. Not only that, but the accompaniment as published is in the correct key for performance with the following versions:

  • Standard treble clef – on trumpet reading the music in C
  • Low treble clef – on horn in F
  • Standard bass clef – on trombone or Euphonium
  • Low bass clef – on horn in F
  • Extra-low bass clef – on bass trombone or tuba

The others of my versions, on other instruments, will require the pianist to transpose for the IMSLP accompaniment to work.

Of course, you may be reading this article as part of a search looking for accompaniments to use with the Rochut (“trombone”) version instead of my edition. I’m not sure there is a free option that matches exactly, but the Gumbert will work with many of the studies in this version. But be aware, Rochut uses a different key scheme so some are not in the same key in Gumbert as in the standard Rochut version, and also Rochut alters the order of the studies so you may need to hunt a bit.

In any case, I have no intention to publish an accompaniment, with the actual Gumbert edition so easily available. Make use of it! I need to make more use of this in my own teaching, low treble clef is a favorite of mine on horn.

For more on all of my versions visit the Bordogni page in the Horn Notes Edition website.

UPDATE: And I should have noted (thank you out there for the Facebook comment) that there is a SmartMusic version of the Bordogni as well, multiple versions actually, keyed to different pitch levels in the Benny Sluchin version. Pick really any of them and you can make them work, using the transpose feature in SmartMusic. Their trombone version matches the pitch level of the Gumbert edition. I’ll start using this in my office, it opens up the studies in a new way.

Brief review: Accompanied Kopprasch, piano accompaniments for Kopprasch etudes

John Ericson
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The latest product in the Millennium Kopprasch series from Jeffrey Agrell is one that I think will have wide appeal, Accompanied Kopprasch.

In Volume I what Agrell has done is create simple accompaniments for the first 34 of the Kopprasch etudes, mirroring the content of book one of the most common editions. To my knowledge this is a first and a really welcome addition. Two major points:

  1. These are simple accompaniments, on the level that most horn studios have someone in it that plays piano well enough to play these, making them much more viable for performance in a studio class or even on a recital, and,
  2. They will change how you view Kopprasch.

With the recent passing of Myron Bloom this is as good a time as any to expand on that second point. I was not a Bloom student, but I was the only horn Graduate Assistant/Assistant Instructor at IU for three years during my Doctoral studies with Michael Hatfield, I’m very familiar with his teaching. Bloom had a very (VERY!) definite way he wanted Kopprasch to be played. As a pedagogical tool, there is a place for this type of use of Kopprasch for teaching, and for that clarity in teaching. Bloom was not alone in this either, many a teacher has treated Kopprasch as a set of mechanical exercises, ones geared especially toward learning a particular type of short articulation and a very literal control of dynamics. I am certain that Bloom spent many lessons on just the first two beats of Kopprasch 10 looking for perfection of articulation in just those two beats.

Again, this is a valid (if “old school”) approach to using and playing the venerable Kopprasch etudes. But, if you approach playing these now with piano in that same manner, you will be frustrated. Playing with piano requires — even enforces — a more musical approach and concept to playing these etudes. The piano, besides providing a pitch reference, creates an entirely different mood and will completely change your thinking about what Kopprasch is or could be. And this is a good thing.

I should also mention that, as with the other publications in this series, it is neatly printed and bound, and a huge bargain at only $14.99. From the USA the link to purchase on Amazon is here, and from other countries search your Amazon site, these are available worldwide.

Horn technique book back, in a second edition

John Ericson
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Back in 2011 I compiled a collection titled Ultimate Horn Technique. This book was a hybrid publication, presenting a variety of materials carefully selected (“rescued”) from the classic horn method books of Gallay, Gumpert, Kling, Meifred, and Schantl. These materials filled an important niche in my teaching and were meant to work not only toward scale technique and intonation but also included exercises for multiple tonguing and transposition.

It sold well in that version, if memory serves there were at least four printings done, but with increased printing costs as one motive, and a desire to revise the contents, in 2016 I split the key materials from Ultimate Horn Technique into three PDF publications:

  • Horn Scales and Technique Exercises – focused on just the scale and arpeggio exercises from Gallay, Kling, and Meifred, four to six exercises in every major and minor key
  • 35 Melodic Etudes – expanded the selection of etudes from Meifred and Schantl
  • 38 Intonation Duets for Horns – a set of scale-based intonation duets from Gumpert and Kling

For this second edition of Horn Scales and Technique Exercises, just released and available worldwide in Kindle and print formats, I have brought two of the above back together. The front half of this edition contains the scale and arpeggio exercises, and the second half the intonation duets. In my version of both, the music is only lightly edited in comparison to the original.

This is a practical collection of inventive scale and arpeggio exercises to develop technique and intonation, suited for intermediate to advanced horn students and amateurs, which will help in forming a foundation of great technique.

The original Ultimate Horn Technique sold for $30 a copy! This new edition sells in print for $11.99 and in a Kindle version for $5.99, and again is available worldwide. Check out this very useful publication! Available from Horn Notes Edition, The links below are to the USA Amazon site, for other countries search in your Amazon site.

Print version — Kindle version

Bumps, clicks, bubbles, and other nuisances of horn playing

John Ericson
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I have Gunther Schuller to thank. Before his visit to ASU in 2004, although I intuitively knew some setups were stiffer in the slots between notes – “bumps” that impacted trills especially – I had not thought about the situation and topic nearly as deeply as he had (and the mouthpiece I used was relatively smooth, more on that in a moment).

Maybe it is good my teachers did not talk about this topic, you don’t want to overthink everything. Schuller, however, had words to describe what he heard and had fantastic ears. As I wrote then in my original blog (the full post is here),

Prof. Schuller is … very concerned about “bubbles” (attacks with sort of a mini-frack on the beginning), “clicks” (the bump in slurs), and having the ultimate, even tone quality with great control down to the softest possible dynamic. He presented clearly a very high standard for students to work to achieve in these areas.

“Bubbles” (his term) are a big concern for him, probably his biggest concern. Most players are not even aware of the somewhat uneven quality of attacks as they are just not really listening to them closely. We get used to how we sound. Open your ears! The cause of “bubbles” can be several things but in my opinion it boils down to two items. One is choice of mouthpiece and horn; some mouthpieces in particular will by nature produce an attack with a bubble. This is however compounded by choice of syllable for the articulation.

Thanks to Schuller, I’ve been puzzling about this for 15 years. I’ve written about it a few times here in Horn Matters, especially with regard to clicks but also with regard to playing natural horn. See in particular,

All of these articles relate to things on my mind the last few weeks.

Let’s start with bumps. I think of bumps being what you feel when playing passages that go across notes on the harmonic series, where there is no change of a valve. Clicks are closely related, and while I associate them with valve changes, part of the issue is again the harmonic series. Either one will impact your accuracy if the horn is too stiff or too loose. Good makers balance these elements carefully.

What causes clicks and bumps are several different design elements, including the tapers of instrument, the bracing pattern, the valve section and the rotation of the valves, mouthpiece fit, and the mouthpiece itself.

In my own case, I had settled on a Houghton H-1 mouthpiece in brass as the favorite mouthpiece on my Patterson Geyer. I had noticed very slight variations among all the examples of the H-1 I’ve had, and then got a new one that intrigued me. It measured identically to my favorite except that the bore was #14 instead of being just under #14. What Intrigued me specifically was it was smoother in the clicks and bumps. Playing it for students confirmed though that this one had a slightly duller (“darker”) sound, they preferred the slightly more colorful sound of the favorite H-1.

So with that thought let me suggest two links to articles in the blog of horn maker Jacob Medlin, articles I had not noted until working recently on Horn Matters updates:

Horn sounds are hard to describe, but the best tones have some color and complexity. From the first article linked, this is a key section:

“Bright” and “dark” as descriptors of sound quality are useless in my opinion.

I encourage the horn playing community to reject these and choose more descriptive terms, especially when talking with horn builders or resellers. I have noticed, in talking with clients, that the two terms have very loaded meanings and are more often used to differentiate between the Geyer and Kruspe schools of thought than anything actually sound related. In fact, many people’s usage of “bright” and “dark” are reversed from one another.

As I was trying things I got back out an old favorite, Osmun copies of my favorite example of the mouthpiece I mention far too often in Horn Matters, the Conn 5BN. The mouthpiece wheel of doom is real, you will keep going back to where you started. The 5BN is deeper and a bit less colorful sounding, but is a good bit smoother in the clicks and bumps, enough so to toy with maybe switching back …. It does tend to tell me why I used it so long, as elements of it feel great even if a little more foggy feeling overall.

There are two more things to mention that are parts of my personal puzzle with this right now. One of them is this coming week I’m performing with my Arizona State brass colleagues at the Musical Instrument Museum. Besides playing in a brass quintet again seriously for the first time since I joined the faculty at ASU in 2001 (Joe Burgstaller is our new trumpet professor, it is a new era for brass chamber music at ASU, there has not been a faculty brass quintet at ASU since 1985!), I’m playing on the program the second movement of Mozart 3 on natural horn. This led to another big round of mouthpiece and horn trials, settling on the big Seraphinoff natural horn and a Moosewood LGC mouthpiece, which was the best for, you guessed it, clicks, bumps, and bubbles. Mozart 3:2 is a great movement for testing all of these things. Certain deeper mouthpieces are better in relation to bumps, and on natural horn a cup with a bit of a double cup shape is a good idea on my natural horns.

Which brings me to the final topic: bubbles. I don’t ever use this term myself, but in lessons I’m constantly thinking about and working on articulations with students. I think of the topic more in terms of articulation shapes, that the front and back of the note have a nice knife edge of sound if required rather than a fuzzy quality. You would think it is just about tonguing, and for sure that is a big element as you need to articulate differently to get different effects and at different volumes and in different ranges. But surprisingly often it is also clearly an equipment thing. All of these things relate to articulations:

  • Mouthpiece shank size/fit
  • The mouthpiece overall (bore/cup/material)
  • The horn (leadpipe taper, other tapers, materials, bracing, etc.)
  • The rim shape
  • The rim inner diameter

The good news is many of these things can be adjusted, especially if you have the rims and mouthpieces to do it—and I try to have that collection with good options for students to try.

These few years I’ve really appreciated that we have some of the very best mouthpieces ever made on the market, and also some of the best horns. If you are noticing the clicks, bumps, and bubbles more now than before, blame Gunther not me, and get to looking as there likely is something out there that would help.

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

John Ericson
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Every year in my teaching the topic of how to practice effectively and maintain good chops for performances comes up with students. The tactic I suggest to horn students is to structure the playing day around an idea that you want to have three solid playing sessions in an ideal day.

Looking back on my Horn matters writings, I was thinking surely I must have written about this? Actually I have not, other than a few basics of the idea laid out in this article, buried far at the end of a long article, with my Orchestra 101 book also touching lightly on the topic, in relation to auditions, and also my warmup book.

I believe I end up talking to most every student about this at some point, and the talk has become better organized over years of teaching. The essential idea is that an ideal horn playing day is structured in three sessions. A session can be any of these

  • An hour of practice
  • A horn lesson
  • A rehearsal (up to 2.5 hours)
  • A concert (up to 2.5 hours)

So for example, if you had a large ensemble rehearsal and a concert you would only plan to practice an hour in the part of the day that had no rehearsal or concert, but if you had no rehearsals or concerts you could practice three hours — an hour in the morning, an hour in the afternoon, and an hour in the evening.

Before expanding on each type of playing session, there is one other critical thing to note. Warm up before each session! For me personally, as of now, I aim for 20 minutes of warmup as the beginning of the first session and 10-15 as the warmup portion of any following session. The goal is to warm up, play seriously, and then rest three times a day, with a warm-down at the end of each session being a good idea too. The playing times include,

Practice. Sessions should not be over an hour, and they should be spread out in the day. A two hour practice session is too much, especially if it is right before or after another session.

A lesson. Don’t do a lesson right after or before another session if you can help it, and don’t do it at a time when you can’t warm up.

Rehearsal. These vary in intensity of course, but a 2.5 hour orchestra rehearsal or an hour of brass quintet is certainly equal to an hour of practice.

Concert. A concert hits your chops much the same as the rehearsal if not harder. Any solid concert eliminates a practice session.

The big issue I’m wanting to address here is that students hear that they should get in three hours of practice a day. The basic idea is correct as presented by Farkas about spacing your practice out in a day, but three hours of actual practice won’t work well any day that you have rehearsals or concerts. I came around to a system like this when I was a student, I’m not recalling any teacher specifically suggesting it to me in fact, I just came to realize that there are days where I needed to intentionally limit practice to have good chops for rehearsals, lessons, and concerts. So some days you won’t practice at all! And that is OK.

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What about days that, due to circumstances not completely in your control, you have an especially heavy day? The next day you pay for it – and to recover from it you should play no more than two sessions the following day. If you see that extra heavy day coming it would also be a good idea to take a light day before. Of course, life won’t always cooperate, but if you can keep horn playing confined generally to a three session a day ideal it will pay off with better, more consistent chops.

Related to the above, it is not a bad idea to plan in a day every week that is lighter, with only one hour of practice. There has to be time to recover. The occasional day off is also a good idea for your chops.

A final note to teachers out there, I must add that I find playing little by little all day teaching lessons to be a bit hard on the chops. My chops feel the best on days where my only playing is practice, rehearsals, or performances. Especially on days where you have performances, it may pay off to limit your playing when teaching lessons.

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