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

Concluding for now the summer series of video podcasts are the topics of testing horns and mouthpieces and developing a new line of mouthpieces with guest Derek Wright.

One thing many horn players are looking for and genuinely need is a better mouthpiece. Derek received his DMA as my student at Arizona State, but has been working these past few years for Houghton horns. One thing he had the opportunity to do at Houghton Horns is be instrumental in the development of their new line of mouthpieces, which personally I feel are a great product. In particular the one piece stainless steel models are revolutionary at the price point. As described in their website,

The entire line was designed by Mark Houghton and Derek Wright, and manufactured by Dave Houser. All are made of surgical-grade stainless steel, and come in 3 different models which are available in a variety of configurations. The intent was to create a line of mouthpieces that addressed the needs of real-world players by combining proven design concepts with the latest in technology and materials. Ultimately, the emphasis was on balance, focusing on the versatility and functionality that most modern players require. Between the three models, any horn player–high or low, orchestral or commercial, solo or section–should be capable of finding a Houghton mouthpiece that provides a sense of comfort and identity.

In the first video we also speak about mouthpieces generally, in particular getting to the topics of different inner diameters and stainless steel. The second video is on a closely related topic, that of trying mouthpieces and horns. The conversation includes a number of insights on mistakes people often make when upgrading or looking to upgrade their equipment, valuable tips for horn players of all levels!

And I should mention that for the Houghton H3 mouthpiece I was instrumental in encouraging the design, as explained in this article. Thanks again to Derek Wright for joining us and sharing his perspectives on these two important topics, and for even more video podcasts check here on YouTube.

Update 2017: These episodes are also now on available as Podcasts on iTunes.

Triple horns and mouthpieces are the topics of two conversations with Gabriel Kovach, Principal Horn of the Phoenix Symphony. Lots of people dream of designing their own horns and mouthpieces, and he has had the opportunity to do so, committing a lot of time and energy into development of new models of both, as we read in his current Phoenix Symphony bio,

Recently Mr. Kovach has begun the exciting process of developing his own line of French Horn mouthpieces, through master craftsman David Houser at Houser Mouthpieces. And, after the culmination of a 2-year project, a newly designed Triple Horn with master horn builder Jim Patterson at Patterson Hornworks. It is this combination that Mr. Kovach uses on stage and in concert.

Back in 2013 we featured a print interview with Kovach on designing the triple horn with Patterson (here), but our podcast conversation here sheds more light on the thinking behind everything and the actual process.

Following development of that design he worked with Houser to develop a mouthpiece to better compliment the triple horn he had developed. Our conversation ranges out from there into a variety of mouthpiece related topics.

Thanks again to Gabe Kovach for these enlightening conversations, and for even more episodes of the Horn Notes Video Podcast check here on YouTube.

UPDATE 2017: These have now also been posted to iTunes; see http://hornnotes.libsyn.com/ for more information on this and other episodes of the Horn Notes Podcast.

Dr. Peter Iltis and MRI horn videos are the topic of three new episodes of the Horn Notes Video Podcast. Iltis in recent years has been principal investigator for some very exciting MRI studies of horn playing, which are now part of a growing series on YouTube, and he is Professor of Kinesiology and Horn at Gordon College.

As a first comment, this is a topic that any serious teacher really can’t ignore, MRI videos allow clear insights into technical issues of the horn that have never before been available. For these conversations I had a number of topics I wished to explore which I believe will be of wide interest to horn teachers and players.

Part I of the conversation touches first on the topic of mouthpiece pressure but focuses on the “four points of resistance” proposed by Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing. According to Farkas there are two points that are more or less fixed:

• The horn and mouthpiece (taken together) and
• lip aperture

And two points of resistance that are controllable:

• the base of the tongue (back where you say K), and
• the voice box or Larynx

How many did he get right?

Part II continues into the topic of tonguing, first looking at legato and then at tonguing itself of all types. This episode contains information that will certainly be new for many horn teachers and players.

Part III concludes the conversation, looking at the topics of range, jaw position, dynamics, trills, and more.

At the end of the third video Dr. Iltis looks ahead to the future of this project. Presently he is laying groundwork for what is proposed to be called the International MRI Horn Repository Project. They are in the process of securing funding, and many angles for further research are being explored.

As this research goes forward be sure to follow their YouTube channel!

One topic I skipped over for time in this conversation was breathing. Many published descriptions of the process are very flawed. For more on this topic check his videos, but if you prefer to read you are in luck, as his article in the February, 2013 issue of The Horn Call, “The Physiology of Breathing: Setting the Record Straight” provides what you need to know!

As just hinted at, there were a number of topics we did not get to in our conversations, and I look forward to speaking with him again in the future.  Thanks again to Peter Iltis for joining me for this series of podcasts, and be sure to check YouTube for more episodes of the Horn Notes Video Podcast.

UPDATE 2017: These have now also been posted to iTunes; see http://hornnotes.libsyn.com/ for more information on this and other episodes of the Horn Notes Podcast.

The guest for two new episodes is Dr. Heidi Lucas, horn professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, with conversations on the topics of trios for horn, tuba, and piano and also The Big Book of Sight Reading Duets, which she edited recently for Mountain Peak Music.

To the duets first, what she did was edit a horn version of a publication by trombonist David Vining. Besides putting it in good keys for horn, some of the duets have suggested transpositions and use is also made of bass clef to facilitate better reading there too. And there are great tips on sight reading from Vining. All in all it is a nice, innovative publication that can be used to train sight reading in a new way.

For a bit more reading on the topic, refer to this article on 7 tactics to improve sight reading.

The second podcast has to do with trios for horn, tuba, and piano. She has been very active with her trio Eastern Standard, commissioning and recording several new works. The conversation turns to her suggestions of the five best works for this combination and is a great resource for anyone interested in the combination.

As always, these and more video podcasts may be accessed here on YouTube

UPDATE 2017: These have now also been posted to iTunes; see http://hornnotes.libsyn.com/ for more information on this and other episodes of the Horn Notes Podcast.

The topic is published horn warmup routines and the guest is Dr. Alex Manners for two episodes of the Horn Notes Video Podcast.

Alex recently completed his DMA at Arizona State, with his research project on the topic “An Annotated Guide to Published Horn Warmup Routines, 1940-2015.” The entire project may be read here in the ASU Digital Repository. As he notes in the paper itself, the choice of 1940 is not arbitrary, as there are actually no published horn warmup routines prior to that date.

It is a great topic that every horn player could stand to think about and review periodically. The podcast is in two parts and focuses on 8 of the 38 publications examined in his study. Part I is on the earlier publications, featuring routines by Farkas, Schuller, Singer, and Standley:

And part II is on more recent warmup publications, featuring routines by Teuber, Wekre, Hesse, and Epstein:

The entire Doctoral project has coverage of 38 published routines. For more on Alex, check out his website here, and thank you Alex for sharing.

Finally, to the big question you may be asking now, how did horn players warm-up before 1940? It seems so essential, you could ponder this question all day, but it seems to me if you look at say the Duvernoy Méthode pour le Cor (1802) the general idea way back then was probably just to noodle around on short exercises until you felt ready to go. I included a section of these very exercises in my natural horn book.

As always, yet more episodes of the Horn Notes Video Podcast may be found here on YouTube.

UPDATE 2017: These have now also been posted to iTunes; see http://hornnotes.libsyn.com/ for more information on this and other episodes of the Horn Notes Podcast.

The guest for two episodes of the Horn Notes Video Podcast is James Boldin. Horn professor at the University of Louisana at Monroe, the first episode focuses on his publication Solo Duet Training for Horns. From the publiser website:  

These duets are a unique and creative way to learn seven of the most popular horn solos. Solo Duet Training can be used to help students learn style and technique, as recreational musical diversions, or even as additions to recitals if an accompanist is unavailable. The duets include Villanelle by Dukas, Reverie by Glazunov, Concerto K. 447 (Horn in F and E-flat) by Mozart, Morceau de Concert and Romance by Saint-Saens, Nocturno by F. Strauss, and Concerto (Horn in F and D) by Telemann.

Continuing the conversation, our second topic was brass trios. Boldin has performed with a very active brass trio for nearly ten years and I have performed with brass trios as well, including making a CD, Table for Three, described here.  Our conversation among other topics includes selecting the best six brass trio works for trumpet, horn, and trombone.

These video podcasts are also a first for me technically, as they were recorded via Skype. For yet more episodes of the video podcast check my YouTube channel here.

I won’t be to the IHS event this summer and I am sure a lot of readers won’t make it either. I have presented at these events a number of times, and would offer these two brief podcasts as glimpses of what you might see at a horn symposium.

First up is a very concise version of an actual presentation I gave at the 2011 International Horn Symposium in San Francisco, which is also described in this article.  As noted there,  the session description as submitted was as follows:

While all serious students of the horn have heard recordings by the legendary horn soloist Dennis Brain, most listeners have never heard horns very much like the horns he performed on live in a room. This session in a lecture-recital format will focus in on the equipment he used during his performing career.

A longer format version of this, an article with plenty of footnotes, was published in the February, 2016 issue of The Horn Call.

Another topic I have presented about several times at workshops is the Wagner tuba. At one event I had some pushback from a European player, they felt that playing the Wagner tuba was a religious experience and it should only be used to play actual orchestral works such as The Ring or Bruckner symphonies (after I had demonstrated playing a duet in the style of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass!). This second video podcast pushes back at that with another miniature presentation, “Fun with the Chinese Wagner Tuba.”

The review of the Chinese Wagner tuba I reference in the video may be found here.

Both of these podcasts and many more can be accessed here on YouTube, and always be watching for more episodes.

UPDATE: The Wagner tuba book is now available (2018) in an updated edition.