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Mailbag: Can I use a Single F to Practice Natural Horn?

John Ericson
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A question I have been asked a number of times is along the general lines of can I use a single F horn to practice natural horn? Or, alternately, can I have the valves removed from a single F and use that as a natural horn?

The answer is yes, but with some major qualifications:

  • A bottom of the line instrument such as the typical single F horn will never play much better than the way a bottom of the line instrument plays.
  • Why? The tapers are generally not ideal, if it looks like a horn it is shipped out! These are not instruments intended for serious musical performance, they are cheap and expendable. That is why I am not wild about single F horns in general, it puts the beginner at a disadvantage. But I digress…
  • And most importantly, the bell of the typical modern single F horn is really too big for hand stopping. A classic mellophone bell is actually much closer in size to that of the typical natural horn. The horn below I actually made, with the help of Richard Seraphinoff, as a Doctoral student using a mellophone bell. But it is a much more involved project than removing the valves from a single F horn.

Back to the question of using a single F horn, on the plus side, it is lighter than your double horn and you lose even more weight if you have the valve section removed. Less weight does help somewhat with the feel of the instrument.

Again, a single F horn can get you started but at some point you will want to get to an instrument that is more authentic in design. Topics covered in my recent publication, Playing Natural Horn Today.

On Testing a New or Used French Horn

John Ericson
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One topic that comes up often is that of testing new and used horns, a good topic and one I have not written about in any depth.

J-G-B2Before I get to my thoughts though, there is a two part article by Bruce Hembd on the topic in Horn Matters, it starts here and is well worth a look as well.

Over years of trying horns at shows and with students, I have a few things I check, more or less in this order.

How does it look? Some horns are better built than others. An expensive horn should give all appearance of being built very well in terms of fit and finish. If it is expensive you should not see obvious things wrong.

Pick it up and look more. How does it feel in the hands? Even before you play one note, it should feel balanced and ergonomic. The valve throws should be easy and quick — especially so if it is an expensive horn.

MP-std-shankThe next step is put your mouthpiece in. I usually carry a couple, one with a standard shank and one with a European shank. Look at the fit. There is a typical and correct distance it should fit. If it does not fit correctly the horn won’t play at peak for you.

How does it play? You will want to play something right away but the first stop needs to be a quick and basic check of tuning. I have some basics on this topic in the article “Putting the Slides Right.” The critical factors at this point are understanding what the slides do on the horn in your hands and how to balance the F and Bb sides. If they are not in tune with each other with the valve slides at some roughly accurate place all the rest of your testing to come is to a point a waste of time.

Willson-Geyer-300Then actually play the horn. Test slurs and articulations with some trills and some loud short notes in the middle register and then get to some critical notes. Testing horns at workshops it seems a lot of people play a lot of high C’s, but actually they should be testing high Bb. This tends to be the one critical note (more on this topic here), especially on Geyer style horns. If a horn does not have a high Bb, you may be able to help it if you love everything else or it is a great deal or whatever, but on the whole you are probably better to just walk away. Also if the low range does not speak well, you will just get frustrated playing the horn over time, walk away.

If you are at a show and can AB test a number of horns another thing interesting to try is play some slurred scales or slurred passages and observe the relative level of “clicks in valve changes.” More on the topic here, it is an element that is actually pretty easy to objectively observe in this context, some horns will be ultra smooth but many are not.

Finally, you need to try the sound out in a big room and get some good ears listening to it. How does it really sound? Would it work in a large orchestra or is it a bit under powered? Etc. You can get some sense of this if you focus your attention on the sound out in the room instead of the sound right at the bell.

patterson-customAnd I did not mention the topic of “how it feels” yet. This is the one thing that really will depend on where you are coming from. If you have been playing a lower end student horn a long time then almost any professional horn will sound and feel great, some better than others of course. But I will say that when I was playing my big Paxman 25A that I would try horns at shows and basically every horn to a point felt stuffy. Now that I am not playing it regularly and purchased a Geyer style horn, lots of Geyer style horns feel great to me. So do keep that in mind, what any pro tells you will be colored by how a horn feels in relation to their own primary instrument.

It is a difficult quest, the search for a great horn. And you certainly need one! Good luck!

[UPDATE: See this article for another tip on what to test when trying a horn or mouthpiece.]

On the dangers of practicing too much

Bruce Hembd
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Araya - Siegfried

Sometimes too much is – well duh! – too much
Looking back at my student years, I think that I might have been an over-practicer. I was perhaps a little too obsessed with perfection.

As a result – duh! – my chops generally did not feel right or perform well, most of the time. Fortunately I have since learned to be wary of idealized perfection, and how it causes more harm than good.

Famed musician Roger Bobo remarks:

Our embouchures; that meeting place where the moving air meets the lips (embouchure is a verb), is made up of blood and muscle and like all the other parts of the body, it can easily be overworked and stressed.

Like a ballet dancer, who’s body is trained to be facile and fluid, our embouchures need that same fluidity and if, by over training, the embouchure becomes more like the rigid and stiff musculature of a body builder lifting weights, this stiffness in brass instrument performance simply translates a sounding bad.

The similarities of playing a brass instrument to the voice are many. Singers, however, cannot practice long hours like some brass players are tempted to do; they have the advantage of pain, which tells them it’s time to stop, the larynx just won’t allow the voice to let enthusiasm rule over reason.

Read more.

[Extracted from a “Random Monday” post, 2021, JE]

Hornist Motivations: Bucket Lists, etc.

John Ericson
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A post yesterday on the Hornisten der Berliner Philharmoniker Facebook page brought to mind a point worth making about motivations for horn players. The specific post was a short video of a third horn excerpt from Gurrelieder by Schoenberg. This is a work that has long been on my bucket list. Gurrelieder, for those unaware, is a HUGE romantic work with ten horn parts (horns 7-10 doubling on Wagner tuba), written before he switched to his more famous 12 tone style. I have it on LP (!) and periodically get it out, imagining what it would be like to perform the work. I am doubting the Phoenix Symphony will perform the work, but who knows? If it comes up, I will be there on stage if possible!

According to Merriam-Webster online “bucket list” is a surprisingly new phrase (from 2006!), defined as “a list of things that one has not done before but wants to do before dying.”

SW-Konzertstuck-2012

Back before there were bucket lists I know as a student there were many things I hoped to do and God has been good, I have had opportunities to do a lot of them, in particular performing and teaching horn on a high level. For example I was able to perform the Konzertstuck twice in 2012 with great sections! That not only hit a bucket list item but went far beyond.

In terms of orchestral music I have played every Mahler Symphony except No. 8, which is on that bucket list with Gurrelieder. These may both fall in the category of big works I would like to play that I may never have a good chance at in Arizona. Also high on that list is playing a Wagner opera in the pit, and due to schedule issues I had to turn down playing Flying Dutchman in a few weeks! But that is the way it goes, and I do know that Horn Matters co-author Bruce Hembd is in the section.

And then there is a special category of bucket list works, things I would LOVE to play again. Bruckner 8 is certainly on top of that list, especially if performed with a great orchestra in a great hall. And things I would love to DO again, such as again experience a mastering lab, mastering a solo recording of my own again. That is certainly on the bucket list. And I would like to build another natural horn, etc.

There are many things I hope to do and also to do again. Recitals tend to be built around those same parameters for me. Some works are played because I want to do them again, and others are done because they interest me for various reasons.

I wish I could do more period instrument performance out here in Arizona, and it was highly interesting to me that Mozart 1 on my recital this year was received very positively. I will have more natural horn on the program next year. The motivations on my end are a genuine interest in exploring how things would have sounded when the first performances occurred, and I was glad to see that listeners seemed especially interested in that same general thought.

And looking wider, the websites and publications I have produced are motivated by similar things. I try to see the opportunities I have and ways I can impact things positively.

What is on the bucket list after Horn Matters? There are things on my mind but I won’t tip my hand too far right now. I have some things I want to play on horn to be sure and very much enjoy teaching as well. I even seriously toy with ideas of building a double horn. If nothing else I am a steady worker, and I look forward to what the coming years hold in all areas.

To close, the Berlin Philharmonic Hornists Facebook page is by far the most “liked” horn page on Facebook, they just passed 12,000 fans! Check them out if you use Facebook.

TPTV: Thomas Jostlein on Jacobs

John Ericson
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Another installment of TPTV came out this week, this time featuring hornist Thomas Jostlein. His name has been on our minds here at Arizona State as we are playing his Campbell Fanfare on a concert next week. A former member of the New York Philharmonic among others, the description of the video is as follows:

Jostlein-snipSt. Louis Symphony hornist, Thomas Jostlein, describes lessons with Arnold Jacobs. Jacobs encouraged Jostlein to sing more in the mind, as well as to utilize his air more fully and efficiently. He also discussed his studies with Jacobs protégé, Roger Rocco and the increased emphasis on singing in the mind while playing. Brass players must have pitch in the mind as well as tone color, not just color, or else the body is confused, Rocco told him. Imagination and imitation helped lead the topic of listening to recordings intimately and then using them as a source of imitation. Also, recording one’s practice and then listening to the playback later was encouraged rather than listening (and analyzing) while playing. Discussion about building phrases one note at a time and the importance of being a being a motor nerve musician rather than a receptor never musician rounded out the interview.

It is worth mentioning also that the Campbell Fanfare is published by Faust Music and is a gem in the horn ensemble repertoire. A video of Jostlein conducting the work may be found here.  The TPTV interview is below (direct link here).

The Ultimate “Best Schools for Horn Study” Article

John Ericson
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The question always comes up about what are the best schools for horn study. I have taken a stab at answering this question a number of times in varying formats:

And I would be remiss if I did not mention this closely related article by Bruce Hembd, with his very practical viewpoint:

I would point to two major factors as to why some schools are considered better than others:

  • The ability of a school or teacher (or both) to attract good students and
  • The ability of the teacher to work effectively with students toward their individual goals

No artist/teacher is perfect. I have my opinions and tip my hand a bit in the articles above. Somewhere in those articles a point is made along the lines of some of the famous teachers and programs are overrated. But that being said, how a specific teacher and school works out for you is ultimately very individual.

One thing you will realize over time is there are at an extreme two types of good teachers, those that focus on being inspirational and those that are very nuts and bolts oriented. Many are in the middle somewhere. To get a personal perspective on this topic in the end you will need to talk to a trusted mentor or two and get straight answers from them.

To close and for full disclosure, I teach at the college level full time and certainly welcome prospective students to check out Arizona State as they consider their options. And yes, we have some solid scholarship dollars and with two horn TA positions we almost always have a horn TA opening on the graduate side.

TPTV: Clevenger on Jacobs

John Ericson
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An ongoing series of YouTube videos is TubaPeopleTV. Hosted and created by Michael Grose of the University of Oregon, this week the new episode is an interview with horn legend Dale Clevenger on his memories of Arnold Jacobs. Jacobs and Clevenger are both icons of the brass world, making for a doubly interesting topic. From the description to the video,

Clevenger-Jacobs-snipBrass legend, Dale Clevenger shares his memories of working with Arnold Jacobs in the Chicago Symphony. He talks about what he learned from Jake and what Jake brought to the CSO. Clevenger also recounts what it was like for him when he started with the orchestra fitting in between Herseth and Jacobs. Clevenger describes the unique quality of Jacobs’ immediate tone and its projection. Additionally, Mr. Clevenger chats about various recording companies and some of the recordings he was a part of with the CSO.

The full interview is below. (Direct link here). And check out the TubaPeopleTV YouTube channel for more.

On Choosing the Right Natural Horn and Mouthpiece

John Ericson
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This year on my annual recital one work will again be on natural horn. Between my personal instruments and Arizona State I have access to three different natural horns. The work I am performing is in D and those three instruments can be crooked in D at least eight different ways. On top of that I have dozens of mouthpieces that could possibly make sense to use. How do I sort it out?

For me when I am looking at one work on natural horn on an otherwise modern horn recital I tend in the end to focus on articulations on just a few key notes. In my case, the most important key note is the written g at the top of the staff.

Why this note? Because it can have a very pronounced “roll” on some of the horn setups, and it is a critical note for the work in question, Mozart Concerto No. 1, which I am performing with the “alternate” second movement. (For more on that concerto in general see this article.)

Of the horns, the big Seraphinoff horn was my choice in 2010. However, this year with the horn in D it had the worst roll on the top g.

Part of the game and fun of this is searching out the mouthpiece as that also impacts the target note. Thus, as I write this I am right on the fence between these combinations: the McCracken owned by ASU with a Stork M-8 mouthpiece, and the horn in this photo, the horn I made from a vintage French mellophone when I was a Doctoral student with the help of Richard Seraphinoff. It I am playing presently with a mouthpiece recently acquired that is a Moosewood #8 bore. I would give the McCracken the slight edge now but I am more comfortable on the Moosewood mouthpiece – which does not work as well on the McCracken due to some magic of the combination of horn and mouthpiece.

This discussion actually totally relates to testing horns and mouthpieces in general. You end up picking a few target notes or phrases of music and testing them across your options. It is the only way to keep sane with the variety of options in front of you.

Putting natural horn on this recital has been fun — it is fun to practice (and to learn the “alternate” movement–read more about it in this article) and I believe it will also be an enjoyable part of the variety of the concert for the audience.

Finally, among my recent publications I have out a natural horn method that in spite of the rather focused and small market there must be for publications on the natural horn has been selling fairly steadily (thank you!). For more on this book [as of 2018 in a second edition in print and Kindle formats] and a brief video see Playing Natural Horn Today, a new method for natural horn.

Mailbag: On Oral Cavity Shape and Pitch Level

John Ericson
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Recently on the Horn People group a question was posted that related to pitch centering, and what it was getting at I believe was the question of how could pitch level be different between different players playing on the same horn? It is a good question and a ways down into the thread (it had gotten sidetracked by then) I posted my brief response:

This may have been mentioned above but going back to the original question the answer has to do with oral cavity shape variables (including the throat but also tongue position) and also the cup volume of the mouthpiece.

To the other answers given, yes, it can have something to do with your embouchure and how you center the pitch. But that centering location is also driven by your oral cavity shape. The results being:

  • High on pitch—too closed, tongue too high, throat too closed; sound has harsh edge.
  • Low on pitch—the opposite, too low tongue, often “toe” or “taw” in all ranges instead of moving naturally to “tee” ascending; sound has dull quality.

I would point readers who are interested to dig into this more to two articles in Horn Matters.

Fox

The second article above contains this quote from Fred Fox:

The throat must be open at all times when playing. The sound should have a constant flowing, singing quality. This can only be accomplished if the throat remains open. A tight throat creates a bottleneck in the vibrating column of air from the lips down to the chest cavity…. This bottleneck can be heard in the sound just as surely as it would be heard if there were a large dent on one of the pipes of the brass instrument. Removing the dent opens the sound. Learning how to keep the throat open opens the sound just as effectively.

If this is a topic you need to dig into you might want to track down and check the Fred Fox book for more. The most relevant quotes on the topic, believe it or not, are not actually on Horn Matters. My hope is always that you the reader will seek the original sources out.

Problems with the approach to the oral cavity are not uncommon and students tend to just be used to how they sound without knowing it is maybe the biggest problem they have. I think another bottom line is many teachers either don’t understand the topic or are afraid to address it. It is one of those elephants in the room they try to talk around. They may also adopt the solution of trying to only accept students who have great natural talent who have no issues at all in this area.

I have more on this whole topic in this article

and could say more but will leave it there. It is a topic area I will address further in my “big book.” Which is a reason I have not been posting as much on Horn Matters lately, but seeing topics such as this in the Horn People group reminds me yet again of topics I need to be sure to not be afraid to address clearly.

Tone Down the Electronics to Focus

John Ericson
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A blog I follow by a former student (from when I was on the summer faculty of the Brevard Music Center) is Zen and the Art of Horn Playing.  She keeps her identity hidden on the site itself [see UPDATE], so I won’t reveal her full name here, but she recently posted a very nice article on the topic of “Finding your Focus.” Click through to read the full article, but I particularly wanted to highlight the first point (of four) in the article. Which reads,

1. Turn off the TV/Phone/Computer/Tablet/E-reader.

Yes. All of those little (or not so little) devices have an on/off switch. Use it. Many of us fall into the comfortable trap of watching TV while we practice. Warm up routines are almost perfectly built for distraction, especially if it is a routine that one has used for years. We get to a point where we go through the motions simply because that’s the way we’ve always done things. It’s so easy to turn on the baseball game, the DVR, or Netflix to help pass the time while we go through those motions. Then we finish our warm up and we’re in the middle of a movie or TV show. Rather than turn off the TV we decide to leave it running while we “practice” our solos, etudes, or excerpts. Instantly, our attention is divided. How are you supposed to actually pay attention to your breathing when you’re more concerned with how the Cardinals/Pirates game is going (go Cards!)? The answer is, you can’t. Our minds are not designed to be able to concentrate fully on two different activities at once. The moment you try to multi-task, your attention is divided in half for each activity. Not only did you just play through a piece without actually fixing anything, but you still have no idea what is going on in the game anyway. Turn off the electronics and give your practicing a fighting chance.

television_horn2-1Electronic devices are impacting the way we focus on “analog” activities such as practice, especially I feel handheld devices. E-Mail and texts arrive at any moment, creating distractions that seem to require your immediate attention.

Extending it out, at a concert or rehearsal or in a master class or teaching, the phone really has to wait. You will not focus on the moment the same way if it is on and in your hands. I am reluctant to use a tuner or metronome app in a phone for this reason as well, as you will see texts come in and such, which will impact the quality and focus of your practice session.

Of course, reading this article, you must be a user of electronics. I think E-books and such are the future for sure. But don’t let electronics impact your focus negatively when you play (or teach) the horn.

UPDATE: The author is Julia Balseiro! She has added her full name to the site, the main page for which may be accessed here.  Another article I would recommend is Lessons I Wish I had Learned (and Listened to) Earlier in My Career.

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