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

Playing loud involves not just air but letting the air pass through the lips freely. As with the topic of soft playing, there are a combination of factors to balance, and you want it all to happen naturally. And as with the advice seen on soft playing, some of it below is helpful and some of it is more obscure in meaning.

The secret: relax the lips

Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing gave this advice.

The secret of fortissimo is in relaxing the lips so that for any given note, they are doing much less work than ordinarily. This comparative relaxation will permit the formation of a large lip opening when the huge amounts of air necessary for a fortissimo are forced through…. This carries out to the extreme the theory advanced earlier in this book that any note equals the total of embouchure tension plus air pressure, and that when one is increased the other must be lessened.

Visualize that you are in a large space

In The Art of Brass Playing Farkas in the following gets at the topic of playing louder, with orchestral dynamics. He suggests visualizing that you are playing in a larger space.

There is a certain spirit to correct blowing, as I have tried to indicate, and sometimes a bit of imagination helps to capture the spirit. The average player spends many hours a week practicing in some little, low ceiling, ten-foot square studio. No wonder he forgets to play in a full, expansive manner! I often shut my eyes while practicing in such a room and imagine that I am playing solo in a big auditorium … accompanied by an orchestra comprising one hundred fine musicians, each producing a big, beautiful tone. Then the need for a projecting, resonant tone is the most graphically realized, and, as a consequence, I play my instrument in a much more singing manner. It might seem much too loud in my little studio, but I realize that performing in the studio is not my ultimate goal and so continue to imagine my concert-hall surroundings and play accordingly.

Practicing at a “blasting” volume is helpful

Milan Yancich includes several loud exercises in his section of warm-up routines in A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing. In one he notes that warming up at full volume

…is intended to develop strength and power of tone. I suggest almost blasting volume with attention to bigness and fullness of tone, each day playing louder and fuller than the previous day. What eventually happens is that the performer loses his propensity to blast harshly and begins to think in terms of a big, broad tone.

Aperture control, again

In A Creative Approach to the French Horn Harry Berv points to the need for to aperture control when playing at volume, when he notes “In very loud passages the aperture is large and air is blown through the lips with great intensity.”

Re-evaluate your dynamics in relation to your performing situation

Barry Tuckwell in Horn has an interesting tip on dynamics and the soloist, noting “A soloist must re-evaluate his conception of dynamics and must adopt a new musical approach, for now he is leading not only the conductor but the entire orchestra.”

Practice playing fortissimo every day

Frøydis Ree Wekre in Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well notes that

Practising fortissimo is hard on your environment and on yourself. Find times and places where you do not bother too many people, but do get some real loud playing in daily.

She lists the purposes of loud practice, which besides dynamic control include building strength and endurance, accuracy, support, and “Explosiveness of breath” and “Explosiveness of lip-action.”

Keep the lips relaxed

Relaxation is a key concept for loud playing for Douglas Hill in Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance.

To play loudly you must allow the aperture to relax as it becomes larger, while the airflow increases in both size and speed. Though the sound of a loud horn is very powerful and bold, you must not get misled into believing that this muscular sound requires a great deal of body tension. It only requires a greater volume of air and an aperture that is relaxed and open enough to respond. (Let the horn be the loudspeaker; that is why it is attached to your face.)

What I suggest is…

I feel a key to loud and soft playing is learning to control perfect long tones (roughly 8 counts long) with a perfect cresc. and dim. from nothing to very loud and back to nothing, keeping exactly on pitch, the dim. being a perfect mirror of the cresc. I have done this in a very easy middle range every day for years and years (two versions of this are in my warmup book), it is central to how I begin my warmup. If you can do this, it opens a musical world up to you.

Continue Reading in Hornmasters Series

Any fine horn player or teacher is concerned with the development and control of the full range of orchestral horn dynamics. The quotes below provide ideas on how to improve this that range from the very practical to the somewhat obscure; in them look for threads of ideas and things you can apply to your own playing.

The aperture control model

For Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing the key for producing a controlled soft dynamic was his concept of the aperture.

When working to develop a fine pianissimo, remember that the very small amount of air going through the lips makes the size of the lip opening of critical importance. If the opening is too large, the weak air-stream gets through without the friction necessary to produce vibration. If too small, it can completely clamp off the weak air-stream. Experiment to get this opening exactly the correct size and tension. There will be no doubt in one’s mind when it is just right, as the softest pianissimo will then seem to float out of the horn without effort.

It was all about applying the concepts already stated involving the points of resistance and the embouchure. Farkas does add this caution.

Players continually experiment with instruments, mouthpieces and methods to enlarge the tone, and then revel in the fact that they have such a big tone. All this they do while conductors the world over gnash their teeth and frantically wave the brass down! A big tone is a wonderful gift to have. Revel in it if you wish, but please, not at the expense of your pianissimo.

Looking closer at air at the end of a diminuendo

Fred Fox in Essentials of Brass Playing focuses the function of air in the technical side of playing a diminuendo.

One of the most consistent problems found with students on brass instruments is a weakening in the fullness of the sound as the player runs out of air. It shows up most strongly in the playing of a crescendo-diminuendo—four beats up, four beats down. Invariably there is a collapse of the body of the sound on the diminuendo part….

To pinpoint the problem, try the following: Take a deep breath, then blow a steady stream of air into your hand. Keep the flow of air steady until you are completely out of air. Notice that towards the end the lungs are exerting much more effort to retain that steady stream of air. Why does one have to work so much harder toward the end than at the start to retain the same flow of air into the palm of the hand? …

Review blowing a stream of air onto your hand. Get the feeling of how much greater the effort becomes as the lung capacity decreases. Hold out a long note on your instrument. In order for the note to remain identical in sound quality, notice how much more effort there is towards the end of the note.

I’ve been tempted to cut this quote, and it is shortened from what I once had posted. On one hand, Fox does clearly articulate what one problem is — people do better at the crescendo than the diminuendo. On the other hand, I don’t agree with it taking much more effort toward the end of a diminuendo, it seems to me like I’m being more gentle with the air at the end, which is balancing the size of the lip opening and the lip tension. Which is one way to read it when he continues below.

Keep the lips soft

In the addendum to Essentials of Brass Playing Fox also has this suggestion on achieving a better pianissimo.

We, on the brass instruments, tend to tamper too much. We not only blow less air, but we also make the lips harder, we help (we think) the pianissimo by pressing them together more, making them stiffer and thus less resilient—less pliable. It would be similar to a red player using a medium hard reed for a mezzo-forte passage and changing to a hard reed for a pianissimo passage! Obviously that wouldn’t work out well for the woodwind player. Making the lips harder doesn’t work out too well for the brass player either!

Blow a note forte and diminuendo it in your usual way. Try it again. This time, as you get softer, simply blow less air, do nothing to the lips. Let them alone as if they were a double reed. You will find a greater pianissimo can be achieved, and a purer sound too.

The essential things to do: smaller aperture, slower air

In A Creative Approach to the French Horn Harry Berv speaks to aperture control in relation to soft and loud dynamics. In terms of soft dynamics he notes that “the aperture is much smaller and the speed of the airstream slower.”

Douglas Hill also notes in Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance that

To play very softly you must develop super-sensitive control of a tiny aperture with a slower, solid, and steady airstream. Do not let the gentle, mellow quality of the softer sounds mislead you into being too physically passive with your airstream. Think of the air as if it were a laser beam projected through the horn.

This is one of those topics for which, if you have troubles, the solution may be somewhat individualized.

Watch your pitch, and another tip

One final point I would suggest watching is pitch, as the tendency is to go sharp, especially at the end of pianissimo phrases. And see this article for another tip on soft playing.

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Continuing from the ideas presented in part I of this series, this time we have a few more practical suggestions.

Finding the balance of building stamina and conversation of energy

For Barry Tuckwell in Playing the Horn stamina “is a combination of muscular development and conservation of energy.”

Immensely strong people may not have to worry so much, but the average player does and should give a lot of thought and attention to saving every scrap of energy. We are all provided with a certain amount of built-in stamina, but we can also develop our muscles with careful and intelligent training. Many players waste their hard-won physical condition by carelessly and needlessly squandering energy. With only a little attention it is possible to increase stamina by 100% ….

Another important point that needs considering is that good physical stamina is quite useless if it is handicapped by poor co-ordination, pressing, bad posture, or defective breathing. Training and practice are methods of clearing the channels through which energy flows. When most have been removed, energy is immediately available for any purpose desired and the player is able to make full use of his body. Provided training is not on faulty lines, stamina can be enhanced beyond belief.

Don’t damage your face muscles by over-straining them

In terms of training toward the goal of better playing Tuckwell notes

One can be sure of one thing: nothing remains constant. Either there is progress or there is deterioration, mostly the latter….

A student stands a far greater risk of damaging his face muscles by over-straining them. An experiences player in tip-top condition runs less of a risk, as he has a much bigger reserve to fall back on. He also knows how to recognize the danger signs and with his far greater experience is more able to cope with the situation.

Introducing a solution, the assistant first horn

Finally, in his later publication Horn, Tuckwell brings up the topic of the use of an assistant first horn.

If the first horn might become over-tired in particularly testing pieces an assistant player is sometimes used to take some of the strain. Concert-goers are puzzled to see five horn players sitting in the orchestra to play a work in which the composer only asks for four. The fifth, sitting outside the first horn, is there to increase the volume in fortissimo passages and play occasional passages while the first horn recovers his strength.

Wise use of the assistant horn is an important topic for the aspiring orchestral player to understand. For more on typical use of the assistant first horn please see my article on the topic.

Keep the mouthpiece pressure even

David Bushouse in Practical Hints on Playing the French Horn touches at the same time on the topics of mouthpiece pressure and endurance. For him a key was for mouthpiece pressure to be evenly divided between the upper and lower lips.

Uneven mouthpiece pressure is a common cause of excessive pressure and a lack of endurance. The usual symptom is too much pressure on the upper lip. Equalize the pressure in this case by adjusting the angle of the mouthpiece downward. This adjustment is easier if the player will change the bell position toward the rear, lower the left hand and arm, and turn more to the left with the upper body. Equal pressure will feel at first as though the pressure is all on the lower lip. However, the bottom lip is very strong (unless the mouthpiece is set inside, too far on the red inner part of the lip) and is able to resist more pressure, while the upper lip needs less pressure for easy vibration and tone control.

“Interval training” is another method to apply

Frøydis Ree Wekre in Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well believes that strength (endurance) is “gained by QUANTITY practising.” But also practice with quality and quantity. This combination “on the horn means up early and late to bed; use interval training to avoid the danger of ruining or overworking the face muscles.” She also advises that “The other side of endurance is SMARTNESS.” By this she means that one will apply principles such as:

1) Use a flexible and dynamic embouchure, as opposed to a static one, with minimum mouthpiece pressure on the upper lip….
2) Be conscious of the advantages of using AIR….
3) Be conscious and take advantage of your lower abdominal muscles….
4) In addition: RELAX your face quickly and totally in every possible mini-second of rest, especially whenever you inhale.

Be smart! And some practical suggestions

In short it is an important topic but one where the answer will be somewhat individualized. Be smart! Endurance will tend to come with time and the overall building of strength. But I would offer these three suggestions to close, that were of help to me in my studies, and a tip that could make a huge difference if your struggle is with endurance.

1. Warm up a bit. Don’t do an overlong warm-up before a playing session (practice, rehearsal, or concert) but don’t underplay either. You need to set your face up; without a decent warm-up my endurance falls dramatically.
2. Realize there is only so much you can play in a day. I find three sessions pretty manageable day after day, but if you start going over into four or five solid playing sessions you will pay the price. When those days come (they will) try to take it easy the day before and the day after if possible.
3. Warm down too. It does not need to be long but it will set up your lips better to recover.

See also this article, Practice and perform effectively with the “three session a day” plan, which expands on ideas presented above.

A tip on rim shapes for endurance

The tip is this. Endurance can be greatly impacted by rim shape. Traditionally people would say that narrow rims take more out of you compared to a wider rim. For me personally, a rim can be somewhat narrow and work well, but it has to have some flat area and a little bit of “bite.” If it is too round, no matter how wide it is, might as well just punch me in the face, my endurance will suffer. Some people can play great on very different rims than you or me might be able to use successfully. Don’t feel like a failure if you can’t use the rim that some famous person can use. They have different lips than you! Look patiently for the rim that works for you.

When the Hornmasters series returns the topic will be dynamics.

Continue in Hornmasters Series

The topics addressed in this Hornmasters series generally follow in the order of the chapters in The Art of French Horn Playing.

Two types of endurance

By the time that we arrive at chapter 14 the topic of endurance is not a new one. However, Farkas does find one new angle to discuss, as he describes two types of endurance.

Some players have the strength to continue playing all day, provided they have frequent momentary pauses during the performance: a five bar rest or a chance to lick the lips quickly. But given a long, continuous solo, they tire long before the end. From this fact, it can be observed that horn playing requires two kinds of endurance. There is a general endurance, the kind which enables a player to continue playing intermittently for many hours a day, which has just been discussed. The “page long” solo requires quite a different type of endurance.

To develop both types of endurance for Farkas the answer was practice and staying relaxed.

Long tones can help

Milan Yancich had a very specific exercise in mind related to the topic of endurance. In A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing he suggests “The Great Scale,” which was a routine “practiced by Lilli Lehmann, the great German soprano.” It is a long tone exercise of which Yancich states “I know of no other exercise more tiring and more boring, yet more beneficial to the performer.” He also had these three suggestions

…as good ways to acquire endurance on a brass instrument:

1) Playing long stretches of music without stopping.
2) Repeating a melody or an etude many times over without stopping.
3) Playing a page of a concerto, an etude, or a song at two, three, or four times slower than the proper tempo.

I find that method No. 3 is as good as any for developing not only endurance, but also control over dynamics and the execution of notes.

Until one has arrived at the point where his lip is really tired, he can never know what his endurance capability really is. Of course, to pursue continually to a state of exhaustion is foolhardy and can cause irreparable harm, but to test one’s limit of endurance occasionally is a wise thing to do. It enables the player to measure his own strength and endurance capabilities.

The “tough guy” approach to building endurance

For Harry Berv in A Creative Approach to the French Horn, mouthpiece pressure has much to do with endurance. “The more you relax mouthpiece pressure, the greater your endurance will be.” As to specifics as to how to build endurance he suggests taking

…the eight Belloli Etudes and play them all in succession—resting when necessary, but not for too long a period. When finally, after days of practice, I am ready to play all eight etudes within a period of fifty minutes I know that I am ready for the heaviest orchestral playing. Another method of building up endurance is to play the Strauss First Concerto, for example, repeating it in its entirety without too much of a break. Eventually it should be possible to play it through four times…..

Always remember the more you relax mouthpiece pressure and tension the longer your endurance will be.

You will find that after you are able to repeat a solo many times, once or twice through will not tax your endurance at all. Once you have acquired strength and endurance, your overall playing will sound and be very secure. It is gratifying when you walk out on stage and you know you have more than sufficient strength for the performance.

Be forewarned: there are no easy routes to endurance. There is indeed only one—concentrated and intelligent practice with constant discipline and patience.

All eight Belloli Etudes! Or Strauss 1 repeated four times! Berv for sure has a classic, old school approach to the topic. But actually there is a context to this. As I wrote in a prior article that looked at this quotation,

Sounds a little extreme at first—kind of the “tough guy” approach to building up the embouchure–but really, you need that kind of endurance to sell a full recital. Also, to offer a little more context, Berv also suggests never warming up over fifteen minutes, with that including only ten minutes of actual playing. It wasn’t like he is suggesting dong the “heavy routine” out of the Singer book right before playing all eight Belloli etudes in a row!

When we continue this series we will look at some more modern approaches to development of endurance.

Continue Reading Hornmasters Series

In part I of this series on the low range, quotations from a number of older horn texts were presented that in brief give an overview of some of the most frequently made suggestions for low range improvement. But what might also have been noted by readers is that no one older source is particularly comprehensive on the topic. That was left for later publications to address.

In this series our goal is to highlight older and newer publications on the horn, with typically longer quotations from some of the older sources. In deference to the publishers and authors of newer sources however, quotations have been more sparse, and will be in this article as well. The purpose being to point you to those resources that you might explore them more fully yourself, as each one has more to offer.

The “rubber face” concept and more

Frøydis Ree Wekre in Thoughts on Playing the Horn Well offers a lot of insights and practical solutions to low range production issues. I would love to quote extensively from this text, but instead must point out it is still in print, and interested readers can track it down and read more. The following bullet points give some of the flavor.

• In the category of dynamics, she notes that at extreme loud dynamics the low range requires a “big aperture and lots of air!” Also “Sometimes for special effect one can place the lower teeth under the mouthpiece,” a note I very much appreciated as I know my jaw goes into that position for very low notes. At extreme soft dynamics she notes “I have found that good contact (you may call it pressure) between the mouthpiece and the lower lip (teeth) is necessary for satisfying control,” another very important point to make.
• In the category of articulations Wekre comments that in legato passages “Generosity of air is required” and that the “muscles can be somewhat relaxed.” In staccato “the lips need to be less relaxed, more firm, with less ‘flesh’ around the mouthpiece, and good contact with the lower teeth.” Firmness is important.
• In the category of context, when going from high to low “speed is the key element; the change of facial muscle work can be quite drastic as long as it happens very quickly.” She notes also that she has found pivoting “(angling the horn somewhat up, putting more contact on the upper lip)” to be helpful. As to low to high a key is to “be as ready as possible for the next (ascending) notes.”

Another large topic is that of changes in the embouchure from register to register. Wekre has a most interesting discussion of the two major lines of thought on this topic. One approach is the “poker-face-concept” and the other is the “rubber-face-concept.”

The “poker-face” theory according to Wekre “says that the player should find one position and one specific muscle tension which changes as little as possible while playing.” She points out that Farkas made statements in support of this theory in The Art of French Horn Playing.

The other extreme is the “rubber-face” approach, which Farkas discouraged. These players have

…a slightly different viewpoint. A quote from Dale Clevenger, principal horn of the Chicago Symphony, illustrates this more pragmatic view: “Just do what you have to do.”

I think the rubber face approach is one to embrace for many players, the problem is not too much movement, but rather too little. She has a thorough summary of this approach, which certainly is more aligned with my own personal approach. In summary Wekre notes that “Firmer muscles and less motion are needed when extremely precise attacks, extreme pianissimo, and extreme high range are called for” but also that “situations can come up where a little (controlled!) use of air in the cheeks can save the day for the sound or endurance.” In short, this approach is more creative and open and result oriented. “And maybe needless to say, in my own playing and teaching, I tend to use and recommend the dynamic approach much more than the static.”

Becoming comfortable with breaks

David Kaslow in Living Dangerously with the Horn also has some good practical comments on the topic of the low range and breaking the embouchure. He points out that while an embouchure with no break may be possible, it is not the goal.

A beautiful musical line requires movement from the most resonant part of a note to the same part of the next. This movement frequently produces breaks in the embouchure with which, given sufficient practice, we can become comfortable. Players seeking beautiful tone often allow breaks in their embouchure, realizing that air, not the lips, produces their tone, and that their embouchure regulates, but is not, the air—just as a faucet regulates, but is not, the water.

A break is likely

So while that lines up with the “rubber-face” concept, Verne Reynolds in The Horn Handbook recommends generally that visible motion of the embouchure be kept to a minimum. However, into the low register Reynolds suggests keeping the embouchure as closed as possible but explains that a break is likely, because

… no two embouchures are exactly alike…. A few players are blessed with no discernable break. For others, the maneuvers described above will provide a smooth and reliable way to connect the registers, since the setting of the mouthpiece on the lips never changes. This takes practice. We do train the lower jaw and the corners muscles to control aperture size and tension. We do not have a separate embouchure setting for each register.

A shift of jaw position is needed by most players

Douglas Hill also notes that a shift of jaw position is needed by most players in the low range Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance.

Somewhere near the written G below middle C, most horn players must undergo a shift of jaw position. Here is where a protruding and dropped jaw often becomes necessary (as if you are singing your lowest pitch)…. Along with this shift of jaw (made as slight as possible), you will also notice, or need to create, an even larger vowel formation inside your mouth, moving from awe toward oh or uh as you descend into the lowest octave. These shifts will also require a visible ascending movement of the mouthpiece and mouthpipe. This will be necessary and quite natural because you must keep equal pressure on the lips that have shifted along with the jaw.

Don’t “pook” out the lips

Hill offers a list of ways that the low embouchure may differ from the embouchure in the mid-range, which are elements of what this shift would entail. As to common problems,

The most common low range problems involve a pooking out of the lips. It is not exactly a pucker, but is more of a rolling out of the lips, based on largely an instinctual need to get to the inside of the bottom lip….

Another problem involves too little or no mouthpipe angle change, which results in too much pressure on the bottom lip as the jaw drops and projects forward. In the mid and upper registers, the top lip is the primary vibrator. In the low range the bottom lip becomes much more active. To exert extra pressure on the bottom lip in the low range is as problematic as too much pressure on the top lip in the high range. The unnecessary stresses against the lip eventually stifle the vibration while overly challenging one’s endurance.

What sound quality to aim for?

Hill also warns against striving for a “tuba-like quality” to the sound in the lower two octaves, as the center of the best low horn sound is “brighter than a tuba but warmer than a trombone.” He also recommends a slightly more open hand position in the low range.

An important tip from my book

Most people THINK they are dropping their jaw. The important tip is to take your right hand out of your bell, put your thumb on your chin, and play into and out of the low register. Are you dropping your jaw like you thought you were?

As it is a bit of a hot button issue, I would also point toward this earlier article on breaking the embouchure, which includes a video and more discussion of the point. Please take the time to follow that link. I would suggest that the vast majority of fine horn players have a break of some sort– but not a change of basic mouthpiece position, it is instead a break involving change of jaw position– and if you have trouble with low range production in general a break is certainly a topic to explore.

More resources

And of course many readers know there is an entire book on the topic by Randy Gardner, Mastering the Horn’s Low Register. This recent publication covers the topic very thoroughly with text, exercises, and extensive notes on major low horn excerpts. I have quoted from it briefly in a prior article, and would point readers to the full book for much more. It is available from International Opus.

To close, I would also briefly plug my initial low horn publication, Ultimate Low Horn (now out of print), and the successor publication, The Low Horn Boot Camp. I feel this is a very practical publication for the advancing horn player initially working out their low range. It is published by Horn Notes Edition, and is available in print and Kindle formats.

When we return to the Hornmasters series the topic will be endurance.

Continue in Hornmasters Series

Return to Week 10 of Pedagogy Course

Finally in our Hornmasters series we get to the topic of the low range of the horn and changes in the embouchure from register to register. A big topic of real concern to many horn players, it is actually one not discussed in much detail in older horn texts. Perhaps it was because solutions to low range problems tend to be individualized, but maybe also because the authors were more focused on high horn playing?

Breaking in the notes with loud practice

Farkas in The Art of French Horn Playing gets right to it in noting that

The most common difficulty in playing the lower octave seems to be the one of producing the notes powerfully enough. The cure is, of course, much loud practice in this register. These lowest notes have to actually be “broken in”.

Curiously, other than offering a few exercises Farkas offers little else of a specific nature as to how to technically approach the low register except in the context of changes to the embouchure from the high to the low range. He felt that there should be little noticeable change, and he especially wanted players to avoid any

…obvious contortion of the facial expression, sometimes visible all the way across a large auditorium. Most of us feel the need for getting some of the lip out of the mouthpiece when we approach the very low notes. This is a necessary process in obtaining the quite large opening needed for these slow vibrations. This process of getting the lip out of the mouthpiece can be done subtly or crudely. The wrong method is used by the player who lets this desire to change the lip position accumulate as he descends, and then suddenly, when only a few notes from the bottom of the range, makes a tremendous facial grimace in an effort to get his lips into a comfortable playing position. By all means make this change to a comfortable lip setting, but do it gradually, note by note, so that the change is made subtly, with no disturbance to any note.

He adds that this type of gradual change should take place over the full range of the horn; he does not advocate for any type of “break” in the embouchure. This is an entire topic totally missing from his discussion; clearly recent MRI horn studies show that among elite horn players the jaw drops and goes forward in the range below the staff. Perhaps part of his “breaking in” process was finding that best position, but his text does not elaborate.

Old school old notation

Gunther Schuller in Horn Technique does not address the issues of low range tone production directly but he does address two related issues in his section of notes for composers and conductors. One issue is that the low range does not project as well as the high range, as confirmed by VU meter decibel readings. The other issue of note is low range notation in horn parts. Schuller is in favor writing in treble clef down to written low C and of the continued use of “old notation” bass clef.

If notes below F [concert] are used, I personally prefer the so-called ‘old method’ of using the bass clef. Perhaps some day there will be a universally accepted standard bass clef notation. From every point of view, this is to be desired. But in this transitional period in which both methods are still in use, the composer can assure himself of an unequivocal bass class clef notation by using the old method in conjunction with the above mentioned suggestion to use the treble clef down to F.

Jaw and lip position considerations

Milan Yancich in A Practical Guide to French Horn Playing recognized the importance of working on the low range, and points to a technical issue, that of jaw and lip position.

The octave from middle C downward is the difficult register for the majority of horn players. As a rule an adjustment of the jaw and lip (changing the lip) is necessary when entering this range of the horn. Most beginning horn players avoid practicing this part of the range because of the problems they encounter in that register. It is surprising how many young players who have studied the horn for several years cannot even read the ledger lines below the staff. To be able to enter this register and produce a natural sound without distorting the jaw or lip requires time and patience.

Controlled relaxation plus dropping the jaw

William C. Robinson offers a low register drill in An Illustrated Advanced Method for French Horn Playing, and with it notes that

The low register should never be neglected and should be practiced regularly each day. Extremely low tones cannot be well-played without adequate embouchure relaxation; proper daily practice will develop this “controlled relaxation”.

He also notes with his scale exercises that

At some point in the lower octave a “break” in the response may occur. Certain tones may not “speak” with equal ease of response and some may fail to respond at all…. It may be necessary to lower the jaw and move it forward slightly in the low register.

And that is exactly what the MRI horn studies confirm, a combination of lowering the jaw and swinging it forward is critical.

Vowel position

Fred Fox was concerned with the vowel position of the tongue in Essentials of Brass Playing. The low range vowel sounds will be large but

There remains another factor that has to be watched for. It is possible to use the “awww” tongue position for the lowest notes and still not be right! It is possible to say “awww” with the back of the tongue up near the palate, or to say the same “awww” with the back of the tongue down. …be sure that on the very low notes, where the largest “awww” is needed, that the back of the tongue is down, and not near the roof of the mouth.

This quote of Fox is great advice. “Awww” is potentially the ideal low range vowel, it gets your mouth open and tongue down in the back, but not everyone will say it in this manner. Be aware: it is possible to say “awww” with a vowel position that is not good for low playing.

It’s a challenge

Harry Berv has a few brief notes about the low range in A Creative Approach to the French Horn — mostly that it is harder than the middle and upper register.

In going to the lower register, the embouchure muscles relax, enlarging the aperture and reducing the intensity of the airstream….

Attacks in the low register, of course, will always be more difficult to produce than in the middle or upper register. In the low register, the embouchure is more open or relaxed; therefore, the tongue action is slower and the air pressure is not as great.

Relax and drop the jaw

The first of the ranges addressed by William R. Brophy in Technical Studies for Solving Special Problems on the Horn is the low range. He notes

The lowest two octaves of the horn (from C just below the staff to the pedal tones of the Bb horn) is probably the most neglected register of the instrument…. young players see little if any need to develop these notes.

It is a valuable range to have under control, however, for two reasons. First, a serious student will some day, sooner or later, need command of these notes when he is confronted with them in music of a more difficult nature. Secondly, and perhaps even more important, learning to “open up” these low tones, developing the ability to play them with a full, free, characteristic horn sound, helps in “opening up” the middle and, to a large extent, the upper registers.

The clue to playing in the lowest register correctly is, of course, relaxation—relaxation particularly of the embouchure and of the neck and throat muscles. This is accomplished by practicing these notes forte, using more air than one might think necessary for the low note, and playing with as full and free a sound as possible with an unrestricted sensation in the air stream.

As to specifics in the exercises, he suggests (correctly!) that “A slight dropping of the lower jaw, and, perhaps a slight forward movement of the jaw may be helpful.” The cheeks should not puff out and the corners remain firm. Brophy highlights this central point as well: “Do not change the position of the mouthpiece on the lips.”

Don’t relax too much

To this I will add, that there is a danger in over-relaxing the lips. What you need ideally is a good “awww” formation of the tongue but the lips firm enough to keep the pitch up so things won’t sag flat.

To break, or not to break?

Barry Tuckwell in Playing the Horn has a brief note about breaks in the embouchure. He feels they should be avoided, but I am not certain authors use the term “break” in the same way. Most would say a break has only to do with changing jaw position by range, not mouthpiece placement; Tuckwell seems to be arguing against a break that has more than one mouthpiece placement..

The horn has an enormous range, and with such a small mouthpiece the lower register can be a problem. If there is a break in the playing range (and this is not unusual), one should try to overcome it by practising over it. A two-embouchure technique is obviously defective; there are so many passages in the repertoire that slur over three octaves.

Open, not too relaxed

In Practical Hints on Playing the French Horn David Bushouse correctly notes that the low embouchure needs to be fairly open and not too relaxed.

Low C, and lower notes, can be played with a full tone easily after the student learns to keep the jaw very open, the corners in a normal puckered position, and the lips open but firm enough to center the tone. Notice that this embouchure for low C is very similar to the embouchure required for C two octaves higher, but more open and relaxed.

The weak area in the low range for horn players is the octave from [written] middle C to low C. Notes above and below may respond freely while part or all of this octave will remain difficult to tongue or to play loudly. The embouchure formation required for this range is that same as that required for lower notes. If the jaw only is opened, then the pitch will go flat. If the lips only are relaxed, the tone will be very muddy and pinched. Therefore, open the jaw, keep the tongue down with taw or toe for a syllable, and keep a round opening with a well-puckered formation. Also, it is helpful to slur when developing tone, as the tongue is very disruptive when approaching limits of range, either high or low.

In short it was, honestly, not a topic addressed in much depth in older resources, but the quotes above certainly give some direction.

More tips, better tips

In part II of this article I will point to some of the newer resources on the topic that present some new ideas, and close with a few final thoughts.

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