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

We now turn to some shorter quotations, several of which are very useful ideas.

Self care is part of it

Harry Berv in A Creative Approach to the French Horn notes that accuracy relates at least in part to physical conditioning and the condition of the player.

The physical condition of the player can also detract from the quality of his playing—something he often is ready to blame on the instrument, while, in fact, it may be the result of poor diet, not enough rest, insufficient exercise, or any other shortcoming of his total physical condition. No matter how great the mouthpiece is a note can be missed by a faulty attack, and you cannot always blame it on the horn or the mouthpiece.

A very important suggestion

William R. Brophy in his Technical Studies for Solving Special Problems on the Horn suggests having a set, inhale, play “rhythmic routine” for setting up an attack to improve accuracy. This is to say, how you approach attacks is very important to accuracy, and you need to have a consistent rhythm in how you setup and play a note, in one motion with no hesitation.

Have a mental image of what you need to play

David Bushhouse feels that mental preparation in terms of having the sound image clear before you play is the critical element for accuracy in Practical Hints on Playing the French Horn.

Accuracy during the passage is influenced by many factors, but mental preparation is the most important. Young players do not easily transfer the visual image on the paper to an auditory, or sound, image in the brain. All too often the player will play the correct fingerings, but the brain, hearing another note, will direct the lip to play an incorrect note. It is very helpful to think through an exercise before playing it, taking note of leaps and skips….

I’d like to expand this idea briefly to say that you do need to hear in your mind how the note sounds and feel how it is going to feel when you play it. This skill is built up by repetition, and is essential to playing the horn on a high level.

An analogy to playing darts

Farquharson Cousins in On Playing the Horn has a different visualization for improving accuracy.

Our aim should be to mould our embouchure to the notes as closely as possible. In other words, the player should try to feel the note before he plays it, almost as though he were leaning up against it. In analogy, the closer the dart player gets to the board the more likely he is to hit the bull’s-eye. In private practice a lot of entries ‘come off’ which may not do so under the pressure of public performance just for want of this closeness.

Thick rims can be an issue

Cousins also notes clearly that in terms of accuracy “A too large or too thick-rimmed mouthpiece is perhaps our worst enemy.” Thinner rims are considered to promote accuracy and sensitivity, but may impact your ability to play with good endurance.

Sing or hum the note

For a final thought for today, Frøydis Ree Wekre in Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well notes that for accuracy “Sing or hum the note before you play,” and that “Doing some daily solfège is excellent for accuracy and for memorizing.”

And be kind to yourself

Reality is there are even more ways to work on accuracy. I could come up with another dozen easily. But in the end, you do need to be kind to yourself. Don’t create brutal schemes, don’t punish yourself. Take a deep breath, rest, come back at it again later when you miss things. Repetition when fresh will help the most.

In the next installment of this series we will examine the topic of perfection.

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Some accuracy issues are related to outside forces…

Conductors are part of the problem

All horn players recognize that conductors are a part of the accuracy problem. Gunther Schuller in Horn Technique addresses the topic of accuracy in his section of notes for composers and conductors as follows.

As for conductors, they are well advised to look the other way when a passage includes some delicately placed high notes. If the horn player ‘muffs’ a note, he is at least as sorry as the conductor: he has a lot more at stake. A look of surprise, disdain, or distemper on the conductor’s part will do very little to alleviate the situation. High notes are always a treacherous matter, and if a man misses one occasionally, the conductor should not take it as a personal affront. This is all too often the case, because some conductors have the quaint notion that the modern double-horn player need only to push down his thumb (Bb) valve, and out pop a series of perfect high notes. This actually happened to me quite a few years ago at the Metropolitan with a world-famous ‘maestro’. A few minutes of thought about the position of those notes in the harmonic series (even on the B flat horn) would have revealed to this conductor how eminently silly his remark was.

Ouch! But have to love that quotation, we can all relate.

The big miss and the “goof”

Fred Fox points to a mental side of accuracy in Essentials of Brass Playing.

The muscles of the embouchure do not change from minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day. If a series of notes are played well and then missed when replayed, the muscles of the embouchure cannot be blamed since they certainly were identical in both playings (assuming no fatigue factor). We must then conclude that the mind which directs the muscles wandered. The mind became careless in its orders! The concentration on precision was lacking.

I feel that there are two types of cracked notes. The big miss where as much as a third above or below comes out, and the close miss, something less than an intentional grace note. The big miss is really not excusable, and I call that a “goof!” It is as bad as aiming at the bull’s-eye of a target and missing the whole target. When that occurs it should not be condoned by the player. He should tell himself there is no excuse for a bad miss or “goof.” …if the “goof” is accepted as part of the inconsistencies of the instrument then the player will probably never rise above that….

There is no such thing as turning the quality of one’s playing off and on! Eternal vigilance!

Anticipate what is coming

In the addendum to Essentials of Brass Playing Fox also advocates for being set to play just before you need to play. “Setting in advance will greatly increase the accuracy of attacks on high notes or anywhere else on the instrument.”

Fox explains this idea further with the “note cluster” principle.

Producing notes on a brass instrument is a complex process. There is a tendancy [sic] to worry about each note as it is produced….

On the piano one can play a two octave arpeggio, and if the fingers are set over each note, the same set of notes can be played simultaneously—as a cluster. Similarly, the embouchure should be so poised that it can play any note of a given passage at the snap of a finger. What I have done with my students is to tell them to sustain a note and, at the same time, have ready the note one octave above. I warn them that I plan to cue them unexpectedly and that they are to play the top note instantaneously. Invariably the octave is played flawlessly on cue, it is ready. The whole embouchure seems more in balance when the whole phrase is mentally anticipated.

When the series returns we will have a number of shorter quotes related to accuracy.

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With this topic we get to one that we all care about a lot, accuracy. Who does not want to play more accurately? And who does not want to have tips to offer their students about how to play more accurately? Virtually every book on the horn has some thoughts in it that relate to accuracy. I have personally worked some on a book draft related to accuracy, as there are at least 1,000 ways to miss notes on the horn.

Why do we miss notes?

The question I would ask as we start into this part of the Hornmasters series is that of why do we miss notes?

Conductors it seems to me often think the reason you miss notes is you are either not that good or you are nervous or not focused enough. But I can assure any conductor reading this, I can be completely relaxed and focused and still miss notes.

As to why we miss notes, as players and teachers we tend to gravitate toward certain reasons. On a high level, we are not missing notes because we can’t hear them. I tend to think in my own case that I am mostly missing because my chops are not set quite right. Other fine players I have known have focused on the tonguing being just right, or on the air as being the culprit that sends notes flying in the wrong directions if not managed just right.

As a related aside, I was cleaning and came across a print out of a 2001 article on CNN.com, “Philip Myers, French hornist: ‘Practice attacks.'” From the article:

I practice attacks — the beginnings of notes — every day. See, the casualty rate among brass players is extremely high: You have a lot of people who are able to play for ten years, and then they “lose their lip,” as it’s sometimes called — they lose their ability to play. I’d say 90 percent of that would be tied to problems making attacks: players get afraid to make them. I can’t tell you how many horn players I’ve talked to over the years who have said, “If I can just get that first note out, then I’m alright after that” — and they’re not talking about hitting the right note, they’re talking about beginning it successfully, cleanly. It’s very audible when that effort is a failure.

In this quote Myers speaks clearly on the topic of accuracy. It is essential!

How to teach accuracy to a student

Turning to the pedagogical side of this topic, there are different ways of managing this as a teacher. Some seem to take it as their personal mission to point out every mistake clearly, as though you did not notice them. Other teachers take a much more hands off and encouraging approach to accuracy, as they know the average, perfectionist horn player already has the inner critic going pretty well and knows what they missed.

It is a tough topic. As we read in this series try to read inside the texts a bit to see where the author is coming from, if they have specific technical things that they feel impact accuracy the most for students and also, if you can, try to guess why they think they miss notes. As certainly every horn player does miss notes.

The “penalty method” and first note accuracy

To kick things off, first up is Philip Farkas. For Farkas as presented in The Art of French Horn Playing the embouchure was a major key to accuracy. He also presents other tactics toward developing accuracy.

One of these tactics is the “penalty method.” He used it to avoid becoming careless, and it involved striving for perfect repetitions of a piece that was in progress. The penalty for a miss was “to go back and do it again, after continuing to the end!” Practice and will-power was the answer.

The other tactic has to do with developing first note accuracy. He wrote that

There is nothing more disheartening than to break the first note of a passage, as one then feels that he has “ruined” the passage before he has fairly started. And yet this first note seems to be the one most often missed. There is good reason for this, as it is usually the most difficult note of the passage, psychologically speaking. Once under way, a certain momentum seems to carry us along; but that first note, coming in “cold,” seems to be the difficult one much too often. Frequently, in the classics, there is just one isolated solo note to hit, high and pianissimo, and this can cause about as much mental anguish to the anxious horn player as an elaborate solo.

Farkas presents a classic exercise of fairly random pitches to work on first note accuracy. One goal he states is to attempt to “hear the notes and intervals before each attack.” This is a major key to accuracy, to which Farkas adds

…but particularly for the purpose of this exercise, try to “taste” each note. Every note has a distinct muscular setting, almost a “flavor” of its own. It is this distinction in taste and feel, almost instinctive, that we wish to develop for each note on the horn.

[And see this article for a few more thoughts on this quotation.]

He also suggests combining the two tactics, that each note missed in the accuracy exercise be repeated three times as a penalty for missing.

Mouthpiece buzzing

As a practical aid to develop accuracy Farkas also suggested mouthpiece buzzing in The Art of Brass Playing.

Another simple test of one’s accuracy of pitch production is made by buzzing on the mouthpiece alone. After missing an attack on the horn, take the mouthpiece off the instrument and try to buzz the note just missed. It is usually a shock to hear how far off pitch you actually were, and yet the instrument had been expected to cooperate somehow with this out-of-tune attack…. When this lip buzzing accuracy-of-pitch is developed to a high degree, several improvements will take place in one’s playing. In the first place, the hoped for clean attack now becomes a reality. But there are additional benefits—better intonation, better accuracy and better tone quality. …concerning accuracy, a broken note is just a note that is too far out of tune….

In fact, if you can’t play it on the mouthpiece, you can’t play it on the instrument.

While buzzing has applications toward accuracy, it is also a topic in and of itself with many applications in horn teaching and playing.

When we return to the topic of accuracy a number of other approaches and tactics will be examined.

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To close this series on mouthpiece pressure we have notes from four more recent sources. As in parts I and II, there are some different takes on the topic to sort out.

A deeper reason to not use excessive pressure

David Kaslow does not favor excessive mouthpiece pressure in Living Dangerously with the Horn, as he sees it at least in part as a means to induce courage.

Among these inappropriate efforts to gain courage is the use of excessive mouthpiece pressure. Although inordinate mouthpiece pressure does help, in the short term, to reduce unevenness in horn tone and to play notes in the high register, it also reduces the ability of the lips to vibrate and restricts the blood supply to the lips, thus inhibiting the tone and hastening fatigue by increasing lactic acid build-up in the lip tissue. Perhaps more undesirable is the failure to address problems of tone and range which could—with application—be solved.

A method to find the correct level of mouthpiece pressure

Verne Reynolds in The Horn Handbook goes deeper into the issue of pressure and gives a method to use to find the correct amount of pressure.

The warm-up long tones provide an opportunity to investigate how mouthpiece pressure relates to intonation, range, tone quality, and volume. Too little pressure as a way of life results in a small, dull, unfocused tone quality, a middle register only, and minimum embouchure strength and endurance. Too much pressure produces a hard, bright sound, a choked-off high register, and little endurance on notes above the staff….

Excessive pressure often is the result of the young player’s attempts to play the high register before the embouchure is strong enough to do so. For a player at age thirteen, it might take three or four years to develop this strength properly….

The relaxed long tones, played in the middle register for the daily warm-up, must not be done without specific purposes in mind. One day each week might be devoted to experimenting with pressure. The extremes of too much or too little pressure are easily identified, as described above. We should remind ourselves occasionally of how these extremes feel and what they produce. We should then work away from these extremes to find the amount of pressure that produces a centered, ringing tone quality, since it is beauty of sound that suffers most from errant pressure. By applying small amounts of more or less pressure during long tones, we can accumulate a fund of information concerning the effects of pressure, for good or evil, on each note, each volume level, each register. This approach takes time and thought, as all practice should. Teachers can be very helpful through their observations on the effects of pressure, but only the player can find the right amount. Each player can evolve a very personal understanding of this important matter, rather than having a stern method imposed from without.

More than one place I have heard or seen this general principle referred to as the Goldilocks principle. Neither too much nor too little pressure; aim for just right.

More on anchoring pressure on the lower lip, and on being patient with your range development

To close, two shorter quotes. First up is Randy Gardner in Mastering the Horn’s Low Register:

Many people are taught to anchor their mouthpiece into the bottom lip and lighten pressure on the top lip when playing in the high register. This is essential in the upper tessitura to ensure that the top lip remains free to vibrate.

And finally Douglas Hill in Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance:

When young students try too hard for too long to force out higher and higher notes before their mid-range is strong, the tensions form, the mouthpiece pressure increases, the lips must overflex to protect themselves, the sound pinches off, and it becomes obvious that these notes are out of reach. That feeling of desperation then becomes the high range paradigm for those students. Such a scenario is common, unfortunately, and the undoing takes more time and energy than the doing would if the student had been patient in the beginning.

The big picture, made clearer by a study of trumpet players

In short, looking at the big picture of all of this, some mouthpiece pressure is certainly appropriate. Speaking personally, my embouchure formation with my somewhat heavy lips seems to require more mouthpiece pressure than that seen in some of the descriptions above, which seem to me at least to be more suited to a different general setup than I use.

Cousins may sound somewhat out of the mainstream, but actually I suspect a lot of fine players use similar, heavier pressure without being aware of it or admitting it in print.  The 1986 study of trumpet players by Joe Barbenel, John Booth Davies, and Patrick Kenny, “Science proves musical myths wrong,” published in New Scientist, April 3, 1986 (article linked at end of this post) is an interesting case study on that point. From the article,

From these experiments, we can make several guarded statements. First, it is simply not true that professional players of the highest calibre use low levels of force on the mouthpiece. We could not differentiate amateur players from professionals in terms of the amount of force they used to perform a given task. Secondly, skilled players were no better than other groups at ranking photographs of players for the amount of force the subjects were using on the mouthpiece. The experts appeared to base their judgments of force on the general appearance of effort rather than on any specific cues. When asked to judge between different players, experts could not reliably tell who used the most force and who used the least.

In short, the study showed that many fine professionals used much more mouthpiece pressure than the researchers expected. Where you actually fit in the spectrum of mouthpiece pressure will become clear as you above all listen for the very best sound.

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Continuing our look at mouthpiece pressure, as time passes we can see authors react to the approaches of part I.

Lips are tough

Farquharson Cousins expresses a quite different approach to pressure in On Playing the Horn. Mouthpiece pressure is part of what creates the “Embouchure-Seal” or the “temporary welding” of the mouthpiece to the lips. Continuing this thought,

Lips are tough, and with training can support almost effortlessly whatever pressures are consistent with their development. There must be no confusion about this. Imagine a wheelbarrow being edged by a mini-car, then the mini-car by a lorry, and the lorry by a locomotive. In each case pressures are brought to bear without much effort on the part of the stronger party. A mouthpiece made of metal could crush any human tissue if allowed to do so, but if the player develops the muscles in his lips, reasonable pressure can not only be harmless but can improve the efficiency of the ‘Embouchure-Seal’, the only condition being, as already emphasized, that pressure is relative to muscle support. The stronger the lip muscles, the greater the pressure that can be exerted, and the firmer the contact between mouthpiece and lip.

Basically his teaching is that if the muscles are strong you can counter whatever mouthpiece pressure is needed and get the best result.

A certain amount of pressure is necessary

Frøydis Ree Wekre throws more light on the mouthpiece pressure topic in Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well, with extended comments. This whole section of this publication is well worth a read, but for our purposes a few highlights must suffice. To begin,

Some pressure is necessary; that is to say, there needs to be some contact between the mouthpiece and the lips while playing. There are currently many different ideas and theories concerning pressure. In my opinion, the main question is how much or how little pressure is necessary in the various musical contexts.

The expression “non-press embouchure” has been used earlier in this century, especially in the United States, but also in Scandinavia….

However, it is more or less accepted today that a certain amount of pressure is necessary to produce not only the notes, but a good sound as well. The following questions remain:

• How much or how little pressure is really necessary?
• How should this pressure be distributed between the lips?
• Should the pressure be constant, or can it be varied according to the register and what dynamic one is playing?
• Can the speed of the air influence the amount of pressure necessary?

A look at the very low pressure approach

Wekre continues to tell about the type of low pressure practice advocated by the great German hornist Peter Damm. Key to this practice is a “non-pressure device” (more on this in a moment) that he used daily “and with which he can actually play quite well.”

The device is placed between the mouthpiece and the horn and is set in motion by means of a spring as soon as excess pressure is applied. The air then leaks out the side of the device instead of going through the horn. As a result of working with this device, the lips’ delicate center muscles (that part inside the mouthpiece ring) are forced to become better developed. The theory is that the stronger these muscles in the middle of the vibrating center become, the less mouthpiece pressure is needed. The pressure can be “saved” for the highest notes in the extreme high register. In this way endurance is increased.

Wekre does not come down firmly for this theory but she does note that pressure must be varied, because “when it is applied to the same place over a long period of time” circulation will be impaired, the muscles overloaded, and there is a danger of permanent paralysis! Yikes! She continues,

I occasionally use and recommend a fairly solid pressure on the lower lip, but at the same time, in my experience, the upper lip should be as free as possible. It should be free to adjust the size and shape of the aperture, which is the opening in the center of the lips through which air is directed. The pressure on the lower lip varies according to the desired register, sound, articulation, and dynamic.

This is quite a different approach than that presented by Cousins.

Mouthpiece angle, and pressure differences between the lips

Another important topic for Wekre is that of the angle of the mouthpiece to the face. Looking at the big picture,

Some ‘anchor’ the mouthpiece on the upper lip. The leadpipe is almost horizontal, and the mouthpiece is at a ninety degree angle to the lips.

Others ‘anchor’ the mouthpiece onto the lower lip; the angle is smaller, and the horn is held nearer to the upper body.

A third variant bases the angle on the pivot system. In the low register the pressure is concentrated on the upper lip (the horn is raised with the arms); while in the high range, the pressure is concentrated on the lower lip (the horn is then held nearer to the body).

“I personally recommend the second alternative described here” Wekre notes, “as long as there is no serious dental problem.” She feels that individual physiologies will be the ultimate deciding factor toward finding a personal leadpipe angle but that “The pressure on the lower lip can be quite solid, for example for pianissimo, staccato, and precise attacks, and especially from the middle register on down.”

A bit more on that spring loaded pressure training device

She also notes that if you practice with the spring-loaded pressure device already mentioned to adjust the tuning of your instrument to compensate and that

This is an invaluable tool for research and building muscles. It is recommended and used by Peter Damm, among others. It is, however, IMPORTANT to be aware that this way of playing, as with buzzing and playing on the mouthpiece, is NOT identical to normal horn playing, and anything can be overdone…

A lot of food for thought is found in the above quotes, as clearly there are some divergent opinions out there. Worth noting now, mention was made twice above to a spring loaded accessory device that you can use to learn to play with less pressure. I am not a fan of this device, I think it trains you, honestly, to use artificially light pressure and can lead to playing problems rather than fixing them. But if you want to know a bit more about the device, read this article.

We will conclude this look at mouthpiece pressure with even more quotations on the topic.

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While the topic was addressed in other chapters of the book, Farkas felt it to be important enough to emphasize that he expanded his thoughts on mouthpiece pressure into a dedicated chapter in The Art of French Horn Playing.

The case for using neither too much or too little mouthpiece pressure

Those familiar with his writings on the topic know Farkas was against mouthpiece pressure and had a lot to say on the topic. Or at least we tend to think he was against mouthpiece pressure, but actually one central point to his chapter that many miss is that there is an amount of pressure that is too much and an amount that is too little.

Notice that I have always carefully referred to heavy or excessive pressure. This is done to emphasize the fact that some pressure is normal. From time to time we hear of some marvelous player who uses “absolutely no pressure”. I have investigated a few of these cases and found that these players actually can play with almost no visible pressure, but when doing so they sound far from marvelous. Invariably, when they are asked for a big tone and a full volume, they immediately resort to moderate, normal pressure….

So far as I know the only element that he regretted in his lengthy discussion of the topic was including a photo of himself playing a horn placed on a shelf in an “exercise devised to lighten pressure.” While he clearly advocates for moderate to light pressure, I can attest that in later years he stated publicly in master classes that he regretted the insertion of that photo. Too many players were trying to play with that kind of very light pressure which in the above quote he specifically wanted students to avoid. He certainly wanted players to use enough pressure to support the embouchure properly.

Don’t use too little pressure

Farkas returns to the topic of mouthpiece pressure near the beginning of the first chapter of The Art of Brass Playing. Perhaps in relationship to the discussion of the topic in his earlier book Farkas again shows some concern that players not use too little pressure.

Another function of the lips which, strangely enough, is often overlooked by brass players, is our need to “attach” ourselves to the instrument so that the air-column is hermetically sealed or completely air-tight at the point of contact between lips and mouthpiece. In this respect the lips must act not only as the coupler, but must also become a sort of built in “washer”. Too often one can stand near a brass player while he is playing and become aware of the sizzling sound of escaping air which attests to the unsuccessful use of the embouchure for this purpose of sealing the lips to the instrument. Luckily, …when one uses the embouchure correctly in all its aspects, this problem of sealing the lips perfectly to the mouthpiece solves itself.

Lateral pressure?

Mouthpiece pressure is a topic that turns up again at length in The Art of Brass Playing. To cite one final quote, Farkas encourages readers to avoid a type of pressure that he calls “lateral pressure.”

We usually think of pressure as a push directly in line with the mouthpiece, which exerts its force backward against the teeth with only the unfortunate lips to act as a cushion. But pressure, of course, can exert itself in any direction, and many players have a habit of pushing the mouthpiece laterally—at a right-angle to the direction of the mouthpipe.

This force could be to either side, or up, or down. …the practice of forcing the mouthpiece upward toward the nose can be observed in a large number of players. Usually, most of these players apply very little lateral pressure in the lower and middle register, but apply more and more upward push as they ascend…. Evidence of this can be seen by the lessening distance between the top of the mouthpiece and the botom of the nose.

Mouthpiece pressure will vary depending on your dynamic

Quite a different take on mouthpiece pressure may be found in Essentials of Brass Playing by Fred Fox. He notes that in relation to dynamics that mouthpiece pressure will vary for any given pitch.

As you blow louder the lip has a larger vibration, just as a harp string has a larger vibration when it is plucked forcefully than when it is plucked softly. As you get louder on a sustained note, the mouthpiece pressure must be eased to accommodate the larger vibration of the lips. This must happen or the lips will be unable to vibrate freely with the larger vibration and the note will begin to sound constricted or forced. Conversely, as you get softer the mouthpiece pressure becomes firmer. Think of pushing the mouthpiece away with the lips as needed when getting louder.

How to judge the right amount of pressure? Play a crescendo on a note in the middle register of your instrument and relieve the mouthpiece pressure excessively. The note will sound like it is sagging, as though the bottom has dropped out of it. Play the note again, but this time increase the mouthpiece pressure as you get louder. The note will sound tighter or choked very quickly. Once these extremes have been experienced, listen for them and adjust the sound on any crescendo-diminuendo.

Too little pressure = thin sound

Fox is not an advocate of what he calls the “pure buzz system.” He observes that when the high range is played with too little pressure the sound is too thin.

It places too much of a work load on the lips, and they get too hard. I am suggesting the principle of minimum pressure in the middle register and adding mouthpiece pressure in the high register, thus allowing the lips and mouthpiece to share the burden more equally. A happy partnership should be achieved in the upper register of not too much lip effort or too much mouthpiece pressure. This, to me, is the desired goal.

The case for moderation

Harry Berv is in favor of moderately light mouthpiece pressure in A Creative Approach to the French Horn. In his chapter he highlights these two points. “The hornist, no longer how long he has been playing, should only show a slight mark on the lips if his mouthpiece pressure is correct” and, after an exercise to avoid excessive mouthpiece pressure, “When going to high notes, do not be concerned if they do respond easily at this pressure. You will see that after much practice the mouthpiece pressure will be moderately light and the lips will respond more easily since the blood can circulate freely.”

Mouthpiece pressure is a big topic on which we have just scratched the surface. More soon in Part II.

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