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Fundamentals 18A. Bass clef: old (and new) notation bass clef

John Ericson
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Number 18 on the list of fundamentals in the Douglas Hill book, which I have used to guide this series, to my mind involves multiple topics deserving of separate articles. For the present series we will start with bass clef and the horn player.

Bass clef?

First, I’ll share a personal story. When in high school I first had to play pieces with bass clef in the horn parts, and I was so confused. I could not read bass clef. Well, I could laboriously figure it out, but then I thought it was in C like a trombone part and had to be transposed further, which was not right. Finally I learned — probably as a freshman in college! — how to read it, and that the pitches were in F or D or whatever the horn part was in.

Old notation? New?

One fun fact in the wacky world of horn playing is that we have not one but two ways that bass clef is notated in horn parts.

Traditionally the notes are written an octave lower than we play. By the early 20th century things began to shift, and composers wrote with the horn parts in the correct octave. Although some composers still used old notation, including, famously, Shostakovich.

Then in high horn parts you often gets notes in bass clef that don’t really need to be. If in doubt, check the 2nd and 4th parts; if they have notes that are too low to play it is almost certainly old notation in your part too.

Why?

The perineal question is why have two different notation systems for bass clef in horn parts? There is an answer to this question, and it has to do with score notation of horn parts in the Classical period. The “problem” it solves (for the composer) is that of putting two horns on the same line of a score when low notes are involved in only one horn part. This article tries to make more sense of the topic:

Music to study

I always suggest the Neuling etudes as the best place to learn old notation well as an advanced student of the horn. Work out six or eight Neuling etudes and you will never ever have trouble reading old notation again.

When the series returns the topics include sight-reading, key signatures, and more.

Continue reading the Fundamentals Series

My Mellophonium Mood

John Ericson
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This 2008 article, very slightly updated here, originally appeared in the Horn Articles Online website 

One thing I became very interested in during the summer of 2007 when I began a project of looking at the mellophone was “classic” jazz Mellophonium playing from the late 50s and early 60s by Don Elliott and also the Stan Kenton Orchestra, one 1962 Kenton recording being Mellophonium Moods, which inspired the title of this article. I had always liked jazz, and I had actually been generally aware of the Mellophone as a jazz instrument for a long time as my high school library had a copy of the Leonard Feather jazz dictionary and I had noticed a couple of mellophone players in it.

What really intrigued me the most as I looked into it more was Don Elliott and his sound on this almost forgotten instrument, which slotted in sonically somewhere between a Flugelhorn and horn, a bit like valve trombone and similar to descant horn in ways–but unique. I especially liked what I heard from Don Elliott on the CD release The Paul Desmond Quintet/Quartet, perhaps his best recording. It became a bit of a quest to try to figure out how exactly he produced that sound, as it really is unique and effective in the context. It was not at all the sound I associated with modern marching mellophone.

After a few weeks of trying every variation I could find for mouthpieces on modern marching mellophones and only getting close to “the sound” I came to the conclusion that I better find an actual Mellophonium, an instrument I had never had in my hands, and figure this out once and for all.

What is a “Mellophonium?”

The Mellophonium was an instrument developed by Conn in the late 1950s for use in marching bands. Pitched in F alto (like a modern mellophone) the 16E has a unique, almost iconic form, and was manufactured by Conn for over twenty years. Thanks to eBay I am now the proud owner of this fairly late example that left the factory in 1976.

The mouthpiece question

The first order of business was to try to figure out if I could get the sound and articulation quality I was looking for to happen. And I believe I got very close right away with a Bach 6 mellophone mouthpiece. It has good focus to the sound but is not overly bright or dark, with a good crisp articulation quality.

It should be noted that this instrument is the last “true” mellophone, as it was designed to take a standard, “classic” mellophone mouthpiece. A modern mellophone mouthpiece with a trumpet shank will not fit this instrument; the 16E was made for a mouthpiece that uses a smaller, cornet-style shank like the Bach 6.

I should mention that a cornet mouthpiece will also work but it really is not a good choice. Does not have “the sound” and the intonation is worse. This instrument was clearly designed to use a mouthpiece with a larger cup volume and a wider inner diameter, which was what Don Elliott always used and the Kenton players used early on. Initially they utilized the stock Conn mouthpiece, which was similar to the Bach. Ultimately the section settled on something different, as revealed by former Kenton Mellophonium player Tony Scodwell in an interview in the Middle Horn Leader site.

At this point we were thinking “There’s got to be something better.” …. So at that point I started looking around for better mouthpieces.

Basically, we were all trumpet players at that time (until Dave Horton joined the section–he was a French horn player). I had been playing Schilke trumpets and I knew “Ren” pretty well and I went in to see him. He suggested a “Farkas” cup with our trumpet rims and a shaved down flugel backbore. It’s a funny mouthpiece, but it works really well.

Internally the instrument is a bit different than a modern marching mellophone. As noted, the receiver of the mouthpiece is smaller so it starts a bit smaller but grows to a larger bore, as through the valves it is a full half inch! The throat of the bell is also a bit bigger than that of a King 1120 mellophone.

The intonation is not great but fairly manageable actually, as there is a good bit of flexibility of pitch to the horn. Part of the problem is the valve slides are too long; I had to cut them down. The second slide is about 1/4 inch too long and the first and third slides are about 1/2 inch too long.

On any mouthpiece the high range is, well, not very good. Anything above a written G at the top of the staff is pretty difficult to play and has an unstable quality. But at least the top F is stable on any mouthpiece, as on some mellophones it is not.

As I tried mouthpiece options I found that I could play into the high range with improved stability on my normal Laskey 80G horn mouthpiece (18mm inner diameter) with an adapter. Sound wise it is surprisingly close to the Bach 6 and it retains the focus and articulations; the cup volume and bore are similar. It is interesting to note that Dwight Carver is known to have used a horn mouthpiece on the Mellophonium in the Stan Kenton Orchestra early on and that the Laskey is similar to the Farkas cup mentioned by Scodwell as being used later in the history of the section.

Performing on the Mellophonium

This testing was all well and good as I developed my publication A Mello Catechism, available through Horn Notes Edition. However, in early 2008 I did something that I never expected that I would do; I played the classic jazz tune Misty on Mellophonium in front of a large audience!

This was not something I saw coming but I welcomed. What I performed was a version of Misty slightly re-arranged for brass band (thank you Michelle Kalo) with the Salt River Brass Band. It was a lot of fun. Intonation was a bit of a struggle but the one memory that I can’t shake of the performance was this, the sensation felt while playing it that if I put down the right fingerings I was not going to miss any notes. Mellophonium must be around 30% easier to play accurately than horn. I have never before on a horn solo felt confident to this same level about accuracy; it is not a feeling horn players I think sense often at all. The recording of the performance may be heard at the end of episode 44 of The MelloCast, a podcast for middle brass players.

Is it over? I am not switching over to Mellophonium full time (!!!) but I do hope to play it again at some point, especially if possible the actual original arrangement of Misty with a jazz band. If you are looking for a soloist for a group out there I am available!

I did in fact play Misty again at the 2009 IHS Symposium in Illinois, an experience I describe further here. 

Fundamentals 17. Transpositions

John Ericson
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Lightning quiz: What is the most popular page in the entire Horn Matters website? That article is by Bruce Hembd on the topic of transposition, with a link to his PDF chart of how to transpose by interval. It has certainly saved many rehearsals and concerts by now. That article is here:

Fundamentals 17. Transpositions: E-flat, E, D, C, G, B-flat basso, C alto, A-flat, F-sharp, D-flat (approximate order of use)

Returning to our series after a bit of break, I shortened the title this time. The full prompt (above) from the list of fundamentals in the Douglas Hill book (which I have followed for this series), is quite a mouthful — and transposition is quite an important topic.

More than one way to do transpositions

In the modern, USA context that I teach and play horn in, almost universally people transpose by interval as described in the Hembd article. However, there is a classic book you may have heard of, The Art of French Horn Playing, that encourages transposition by clef. Maybe this was popular back in the day, I don’t know. But I don’t think very many people do this these days.

As to transposing by interval, the downside is that, at least initially, you are looking at and playing “imaginary” notes some interval away from the printed notes. Fortunately, after you begin to get the skill down it actually (believe it or not!) becomes a fairly automatic process. Let’s say your are in D, you see a C, and play an A. Simple.

(By the way, our world is in F, if you are a non-horn player reading this article to help a hornist. We think of all transpositions as being to F, our home key).

When I taught for a year in Taiwan some years ago I was interested that my students used a system of transposition involving solfeggio. I could not describe it to you now other than it certainly worked and might actually have been a better approach.

Learn transpositions with Kopprasch?

My own teachers did this and it is one way to do it, but in my own teaching I tend to work on transposition with solos and excerpts. Real music.

I actually considered publishing a book for transpositions that was based on relatively simple natural horn music, which is what you have to actually play most of the time in reality — especially for the average player out at a church gig or in a community orchestra.

Tip for all transpositions: Figure out the key signature

A brief, useful tip would be that you will find it helpful, at least initially, to figure out the key signature.

For example, if you are playing horn in D, the music is in the written key of C. The key signature for horn in F will move by the same interval as the transposition, so go down a minor third and the the (imaginary) key signature will be A. With the key signature in mind you will be more likely to play the correct notes (E is C#, etc.).

Pro tip for horn in E: Think in sharps, not flats

Many students come up with a plan for horn in E that involves putting flats in front of everything. While technically that plan does work, I would propose that you are better off thinking of a written C as a B (and G as F-sharp), with a mental key signature of sharps rather than flats.

It really does get easier

To close, seriously, it really does get easier with practice, and becomes a fairly automatic process. Trust me!

When the series returns I think I may need to break topic 18 in the Hill list into multiple articles! More on that in a few weeks.

Keep reading the Fundamentals Series

Broken links? UPDATE: Horn Articles Online is not online

John Ericson
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It has come to my attention that within Horn Matters all links to materials in my original Horn Articles Online site (online since 1998 and hosted in my ASU faculty website since 2001) are presently broken. This includes over a dozen PDFs which were frequently accessed, and impacts hundreds of links from Horn Matters. (UPDATE 4/2025: The primary PDF links have been fixed). 

As of this writing (March 20, 2025) I don’t know if this can be resolved or if that site has reached an end point. I personally can still reach the old site, but only if logged into my ASU account. It can’t be viewed by the general public.

I’ll be working to resolve the issues, and relocating the PDFs off the ASU site, as time allows. Sorry for the inconvenience to Horn Matters readers.

UPDATE: (3/24/2025) I have now learned that on Feb. 21 my faculty website “was moved behind the Single Sign On for ASU requiring anyone looking to access this to sign into an ASU account.” If there was any warning of this highly significant transition, I missed it.

What that means right now is that while current ASU students can still reach the materials in Horn Articles Online, the general public can’t — and all the links to the site are effectively dead. In Horn Matters there are many hundreds of links to pages, images, and PDFs in the former Horn Articles Online site to update. This will certainly take months to sort out, time I don’t have to spare right now.

As to Horn Articles Online content, some fraction will migrate either to Horn Matters or my personal website, again as time allows. I unfortunately won’t be able to bring it all back.

Asking patience of Horn Matters readers as I work to transition content.

UPDATE 4/1/2025. No April Fools joke, today the PDF links were restored from the main PDF links page. Within the site overall there are still many hundreds of broken links, but the PDFs are at least all back online and now hosted within the Horn Matters site.

That being said, the project to fix all the broken links and missing images in Horn Matters is daunting, and I do have a full time job, with two Doctoral students graduating this semester, etc. It will be May before I make much headway toward fixes and have time to post new articles as well.

Sabbatical horn update: improved details

John Ericson
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Back in the spring of 2021 I was on sabbatical from Arizona State, and, as reported here in Horn Matters, my project involved horn building. One of the three main projects was rebuilding a vintage Mirafone single horn into an older, Schmidt-inspired design, one that could also be set up in F or G. The horn as it existed in 2021 is described in more detail here.

It came out well, but there were some details that bothered me, and the E on the top space was rather unstable. Consulting with Rick Seraphinoff later, he suggested a leadpipe change might help (as I had used the original Mirafone pipe). Besides that, there were a couple bracing things I didn’t like and also the slide tube ends were “plain.”

Also, I more recently got inspired by a Kruspe single horn, described further here. I realized that I could bring my Mirafone project horn to a very similar design, and it gave me a clear model on how to rework the bracing.

Updates

Which brings us to March of 2025. This fall I got back into working on this horn, tore it down partially and made/bent a new leadpipe using a Seraphinoff blank.

Backing up a step, the starting point horn was a 1960s Mirafone. When I obtained it, it was a classic “parts horn,” it was missing key parts of the valves. My idea was to use a Yamaha valve section and redesign the body to represent a horn from the early 20th century. I used what was the original Mirafone Eb slide to be the new main slide (the F slide became the G slide), and rebuilt the body to follow photos of instruments with this type of looped main slide.

The underlying Mirafone horn was well built. The bell is of the “hand hammered” type with a V insert, and it has that beautiful nickel silver garland. With other nice details, such as the thumb ring and beautifully made braces.

Details

There were some details I was not happy with though. One key missing detail from my rebuild was that the slide tube ends were plain.

Modern horns normally have slide ends that are rolled out from the tubing itself, although this Yamaha valve section had plain tube ends. But older horns typically have turned pieces which were soldered on. The Mirafone had those turned details, nicely done. But their build quality was a bit too good, as they would not come off. They were made as a tight press fit and then soldered on. I finally figured out a way of cutting the original Mirafone slides ends from the inside (with a jeweler’s saw) so that I could heat and crimp the slide slightly, enough to release the nice turnings. They really help the horn have a classic look.

This final view from the back shows several more details. First, there is the new leadpipe. In my original rebuilding the horn was rather sharp and needed a long slide pull, and with additional calculations I figured that I should make it as long as possible with the blank. Turns out I made it a little too long and had to cut down the main slide slightly. But that helped the overall look, the proportions of the horn are better, and this length of pipe fit the horn body well.

There are two final key details that I’d like to point out, both of which will require zooming in on the photo to see. One is that there is now an angled brace from a first valve slide up to the main slide. This is done in the manner seen on the Kruspe horn mentioned earlier, and hopefully has improved how the horn plays. The look is much better than what I did originally at least. The other detail I’d like to highlight is something Mirafone did originally — look closely at the brace on the bell. Mirafone made it in the shape of a heart, a nice touch that should be seen more often.

How does it play?

It does play better than before for sure, and has a very nice, rich sound. In particular the poor E at the top of the staff is better, but on the other hand, the slot for it is really narrow. That said, I like the slurs and intonation is quite consistent. It’s fun to play, too (horn playing can be fun!). All the work was certainly worth it.

With this all said, this sabbatical horn is now officially done. I have no further updates planned, and it was a great project. On to the next one.

Fundamentals 16. Muted horn: tonal control, responses, projection, noiseless manipulation of mute

John Ericson
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Mutes?!? It is very interesting to me that Douglas Hill included in his list of fundamentals (found in his Collected Thoughts book) a special place for muted horn.

Is it hard? Did it used to be?

I tend personally to think of muted playing as being easy. Anyone disagree? On horn I don’t think of it being any special challenge – at least now.

I think where it came in as a fundamental to study more was with a generation of horn teacher older than me and before that. Right now, we are at such a golden age for buying horn mutes. When I was in college in the 1980s, it was a bit different world. Unless you were OK with a Stone Lined mute, you had very few options you could easily buy. There were some great mutes out there (Rittich, for example, which is what most mute makers copy today), but it was not like you could go online and buy one from a dealer like you can now.

But I’ll add here also, for any of your friends that play a different brass instrument, especially trumpet, they probably have a complex about playing muted (and they own at least six mutes). My theory why we as horn players don’t have that same complex is that we normally have a hand in the bell and it doesn’t feel that different — if you have any decent, modern mute in your bell.

What makes a bad horn mute?

To my mind a bad horn mute has a poor low range and it may generally feel unstable. If yours is like that, try some other mute. It’s not that hard to find a good mute today.

Tunable?

One great feature of the better horn mutes is they are tunable. You need this feature, as the way you use your hand in the bell will differ somewhat from other players, and your bell size will also impact pitch level of the mute. You should be able to play your mute with no concern of it being out of tune.

Balance in ensemble

Once you have a mute that plays well and easily at pitch, the other factor to think about, which you may need to consider seriously, is balance in ensemble.

Speaking generally, if you have a similar mute to other horn players in your section, you will balance well with them in orchestra or band. Some are louder and softer, brighter and darker. You may need to experiment to match in your section better.

However, in brass quintet, you might want to reconsider your preferred mute choice. A standard, “orchestral” mute sound from a horn player won’t match a muted trumpet or trombone very well. In my own case, in brass quintet, I used to use my Stone Lined mute instead of the higher dollar one, as the tone color better matched the sound of a trombone mute.

Mute in the trunk of your car

Finally, I always mention that you should keep a Stone Lined mute in the back of your car, just in case you forget your preferred mute at a gig. Better to have a mute than have no mute at all!

Update: For a podcast on the topic of this and the previous two fundamentals see Episode 64 of the Horn Notes Podcast (direct link, but find it anywhere you get podcasts).

When the series continues, the topic is a major fundamental for horn, transpositions.

Continue in the Fundamentals series.

Fundamentals 15. Stopped horn: tonal control, responses, projection, F and B-flat fingerings

John Ericson
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Continuing our series on fundamentals (using, as prompts, the list of fundamentals found on pages 92-93 of the Douglas Hill book of Collected Thoughts), is stopped horn a fundamental? Certainly!

The three rules

Well over 20 years ago I posted an article about this in Horn Articles Online, “Understanding Stopped and Muted Horn and Right-Hand Position.” There I wrote the following, very central to the topic of playing stopped horn:

Stopped notes are an effect unique to the horn. The basic rule often given for fingering stopped notes on the horn is to finger the note a half step below the note you want to play, close the bell tightly with the right hand, and play only on the F horn for intonation.

As you slowly close the hand in the bell the pitch will get lower. However, once the bell is TIGHTLY closed, the pitch will rise or appear to rise by approximately a half step. This is not actually what is happening acoustically (interested music educators should read the discussion in Scott Whitener, A Complete Guide to Brass, third edition, page 57) but a practical way to think of it as a performer or educator is that you are effectively shortening the horn by “cutting off” the end of the bell with the hand. It should be noted though, again, that this is not what is actually happening acoustically–actually you are lowering the next higher harmonic to a half step above the harmonic you are playing–but the result is the same as in the suggested, practical method.

Reading it now, the angle I took in that was certainly more aimed at a music educator. But the three basic rules are there; tightly close the bell, finger a half step lower, and use only F horn fingerings. This will work well with a stop mute and for a fair percentage of horn players.

But there is an issue of hand size and your bell, which might lead you to look at alternate fingerings to get pitch under control.

B-flat horn fingerings? Flat harmonics?

Turning back to the old Horn Articles Online article (which is no longer online),

If you play stopped horn on the F side of the double horn pitch will generally be close to being in tune, raised ½ step above the open notes. If you play stopped on the B-flat horn though, many notes will be nearly 3/4 of a step higher–in other words, badly out of tune. Some naturally flat fingerings are however quite usable on the B-flat side of the double horn; experimentation is very much in order when in doubt.

Here’s where I give away a secret for the Saint-Saens Morceau and other works

For smaller hands and bigger bells, stopped notes are likely to be rather sharp. Good teaching involves problem solving, and at some point early in my years at ASU I came up with the idea of using the harmonic that would be a flat B-flat as the basis of fingerings. The year the Women’s Brass Conference was at ASU I gave a presentation about it as well.

Backing up a step, another way to say this is this. Instead of playing a B-natural in the staff with the standard B-flat F horn fingering (first valve), instead play it open which is a quarter step low. For some players it is just magically in tune, totally solves the intonation issue. Try this:

They are strange looking fingerings but all based on the flat B-flat harmonic and will likely be much better in tune for many players. There are many stopped passages right in this same range that can benefit from taking this approach.

The other very useful flat high harmonic, for Gliere and other works

Besides the “flat Bb” harmonic just described, the other really useful harmonic is high A fingered T0. It is flat enough to solve some higher range stopped issues. Here’s a couple versions of how to play the end of the second movement of the Gliere with that harmonic.

Stopped notes in Mahler, etc.

This is one of my favorite horn memes. Mahler did love some stopped horn! It needs to be really loud.

For this type of excerpt, you won’t find proper balance in ensemble unless you use a stop mute, likely at more or less your maximum volume. On paper it looks like it should cut through the texture, but reality is it won’t.

Final questions to ask: Is it loud, or is it soft? Present, or distant?

All stopped notes are not created equally. Some need to be very loud and with as much bite as possible, but many need to be very soft and distant, like an echo. Use your good judgement to put them in the right place. With a final tip being, for solo works on a recital especially, it is really difficult to gauge if it is loud enough or not, this is something you have to check with another set of ears in a dress rehearsal or sound check.

When the series returns the topic is a related one, muted horn.

Continue reading the Fundamentals series.

Fundamentals 14. Lip trills: fluency, control at all dynamics, knowledge of all fingerings, also lip tremolos

John Ericson
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Lip trills are a must for any hornist playing on the level to perform a Mozart concerto movement.

Spoiler alert: Lip trills are easier on the natural horn

Before getting to the topic of how to work on lip trills, it is important to note that, speaking very generally lip trills are easier to play on the natural horn. Especially so on one that is reasonably authentic with a mouthpiece of a design that is plausible for the 19th century or before. Why? A period instrument is less “slotty,” more flexible. Lip trills are very idiomatic for the instrument of the time of Mozart, and are more of a challenge for us on modern horns today.

For those that teach: Don’t project your issues on your students

There is a quote in the Douglas Hill book (which is the source of our list of fundamentals driving this series) in the chapter on teaching, related to his teacher demonstrating a trill (page 67). It is an important point to consider:

My first teacher … kept his attitudes about the difficulties of the horn to himself. While in high school, I was learning a Mozart concerto and needed to know how to play a lip trill. He demonstrated one with very little fanfare, and I returned the next week performing lip trills with ease, which is the only way they can be produced.

PSA: Use a fingering that will work for whole step trills

The main thing is to understand the harmonic series enough to find a fingering where both notes of your whole step trill can be played on the same fingering.

What about half step trills?

Those are always fingered! Yay!

I’m not a fan of the “Kopprasch” exercise

Honestly, I think trills are over taught. It may be a function of how lessons work. Something comes up, teacher assigns exercises, etc.

One of the main exercises we have all tried is the one in the Kopprasch book. I don’t think it is a very good exercise, it ties you up in knots. Instead, you are better off with a different approach

Cross train to build the skill

The most effective way to learn trills is by working on fast lip flexibility exercises. I have some favorites I give to students, there are good ones in The Brass Gym, etc. But overall, you are best not practicing trills but to instead practice fast flexibility studies. This also may be getting at why Hill mentions lip tremolos; those end up being really fast flexibility studies, and set you up for playing trills.

When the series returns the topic is another favorite, stopped horn

Continue reading Fundamentals series

Vienna Horns, part III: Their musical world and more

John Ericson
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A year ago, I started a short series of posts related to the Vienna horn, which was left incomplete. This final article of the series focuses on the topic of where the Vienna horn fits in the musical world of the 19th century and what materials you might use for practice today.

Composers and the Vienna horn

When writing a work, composers have the sound of the various instruments in mind, and especially so the instruments used at the time by the players in their area.

The key thing is that Austrian players have used horns with Vienna valves from the time of adoption of valved horns in the middle of the nineteenth century — and some leading players continue today. Going back a step, however, that same general type of sound has been maintained since the time of Beethoven and before on the natural horn, as early Vienna horns would have been made with the same bell profiles and tapers as the natural horns in use at the time.

Thus, the music associated with any composer associated with Vienna in the 19th century would be highly appropriate to perform on a Vienna horn. This would include especially the music of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler.

Of course, there are many recordings of works of this type performed on Vienna horn, and you can play anything on a Vienna horn if you wish. The video below, as of this writing, having close to 3 million views:

Backing up a step, what about Strauss, etc.?

Well yes, for sure there is a long history of Viennese performances of works of Strauss, Wagner, etc. Pretty much anything from the 19th century is well suited to the Vienna horn.

For a great idea of how to approach works on the Vienna horn, please see this series on Horn Matters by guest author Nicholas Smith:

Any study materials highly suited to the Vienna horn?

From my context here in the USA, as an enthusiast of vintage single horns, I feel anything by Schantl is a very appropriate study material to use. Mentioned also in part II of this series, Josef Schantl (1842-1902) was Principal Horn of the Imperial and Royal Court Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic, and has also been credited with founding the Vienna Waldhornverein. Among many significant performances he performed on the premieres of Brahms second and third symphonies, and also the third and eighth symphonies of Bruckner.

More importantly for us today, he had a series of study materials (published posthumously) that are highly suited to the Vienna horn. His Große theortisch-praktische Horn-Schule was published in four volumes in 1903. Probably the best-known portion today in the USA is volume III, which was reprinted in 1941 in abridged form as Preparatory Melodies to Solo Work, edited by Max P. Pottag. Some players also make much use of what was published as volume II and has been reprinted as the Grand Theoretical and Practical Method for the Valve Horn (by Wind Music). I also enjoy playing from his volume IV, which was reprinted by Wind Music as Kopprasch, 90 Etudes — a vastly different Kopprasch edition than the one people typically use, breathing new life into these venerable etudes.

At least that is what I’ve begun playing Vienna horn lately. Over the holiday break I do plan to play it more, with a goal of getting more used to the higher resistance of the instrument I have available to me (compared to my Germanic rotary valve single horns). Looking forward to some classic horn sounds in my practice.

BONUS: How do Vienna valves work?

I was interested to see a drawing from my dissertation recently pass through Instagram, seen here (and also found online in this article). When I was putting together my dissertation, I could not find a drawing that showed what I wanted exactly, and I leaned on my experience in a junior high drafting class (!!) to put this drawing together. I think it still pretty clearly shows how the double pistons of a Vienna valve work. The lasting interest in Vienna horns shows the success of the design, one that every horn player can aspire to at least briefly experience the classic sound and feel of this iconic instrument.

Return to the beginning of the Vienna Horn series

Fundamentals 13. Concentration: ability to mentally focus for long periods

John Ericson
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Concentration is not a topic touched on directly by many horn teachers. However, the ability to focus is a key fundamental for effective practice and successful performances, highly worthy of inclusion as number 13 on the list of fundamentals put together by Douglas Hill and presented in his Collected Thoughts book.

Are we are “wired” differently?

Looking at the French horn world generally first, the ability to concentrate is an interesting topic.

There are probably personality types that are attracted to the horn. One thing I’ve observed is that good horn players are different than the average person or even average brass player. How so? It’s like we have a personality flaw, we could have done something easier than play horn, but here we are. Doing something that is hard, day after day, enjoying on some level the challenge, but also on some other level somewhat beat down by the challenge.

Thinking of myself, I know that in some situations I personally can really dial it in and concentrate, and in other situations my mind seemingly goes all over the place. Probably that is part of the human condition, with different people having differing abilities in terms of concentration. Fortunately, when I’m playing horn I know I have a very strong ability to concentrate.

The importance of taking mental breaks

Before getting directly to concentration, there is a tactic you should consider – the tactic of not counting long rests.

What? Yes, this sounds risky. But you can’t concentrate constantly in every piece on every concert, you’ll burn yourself out.

In many pieces, especially orchestral, there are long sections of rest that end at easily recognizable structural points. Don’t count those long rests, just be aware of when the next structural point is and start counting again then. Write in extra cues if it helps. With a little practice this tactic is not nearly as risky as it sounds, and your brain will appreciate the break.

Building your ability to concentrate

Which brings me back to our main topic; how do you build up your ability to concentrate? Looking around online, I see mostly very generic advice. Although, if you are eating badly, not sleeping enough, etc. you have plenty of reasons to not be able to concentrate very well. Keeping healthy routines will help.

I’d suggest strongly that if you want to build up your ability to concentrate, look into sports psychology resources. There are tactics to bring your focus into the exact present moment, not on what just happened or what you hope to do shortly. I know personally I found tactics presented in The Inner Game of Tennis (a classic book on sports psychology) to be helpful with building my concentration and focus before auditions and for general performance.

One thing I often mention to students is at one point, while not that into baseball, I picked up a couple books on the psychology of pitching. Professional baseball pitchers in particular, they have to concentrate at an extremely high level in a high stress, high distraction environment. Lots of money rides on their ability to focus and perform at their peak! A whole industry exists around pitching and also around all sorts of other professional sports activities. The materials you can find on these topics are often very focused and practical, and can be easily translated to horn.

If you have never read The Inner Game of Tennis, more thoughts on this publication may be found here. A highly recommended read!

Episode 63 of the Horn Notes Podcast looks at the topics of Accuracy, Endurance, and Concentration. Download it where you get podcasts, or listen online at this link. 

When we continue the topic will be a fun one: lip trills.

Continue reading the Fundamentals series

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