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Brief reviews: New publications on the blues and creativity by Agrell

John Ericson
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I’ve been doing few reviews here lately, but Jeff Agrell was kind enough to send two of his recent publications, which I would like to highlight for the horn world.

365 Creativity Quotes

One of my ASU colleagues likes to post a quote (outside his door) for his students every week, and this new publication, 365 Creativity Quotes, is a gold mine of great quotes. Subtitled “Wit and wisdom for daily inspiration,” a wide variety of sources are quoted, and I also love the Asian-inspired art featured in the book as well.

Anyone who reads far in to Horn Matters knows I love quotes, and this book really is one to have if you love quotes. Picking just one to share here, I chose the one from my birthday: Trust that little voice in your head that says “Wouldn’t it be interesting if …”; And then do it. –Duane Michals

French Horn Player’s Guide to the Blues and Beyond

I’m also a fan of the blues. I’m not a jazzer, but I can fake it reasonably convincingly when needed. It is a fundamental skill every hornist really should explore, and Agrell has provided us a great resource for this study.

It is sort of maybe the ultimate natural-horn-geek thing to do, but one thing I like to do occasionally, when nobody is around, is play “blues” on the natural horn. Thus, I was really interested to see the chapter “Natural Horn Blues(y) Warm-Ups.” Agrell has given me even more reason to play the blues on natural horn!

The book is structured well for a horn player that wants to explore, as the book says, the blues and beyond. Check it out! Search for these publications and much more from Agrell on Amazon.

BONUS: As a bit of random inspiration (?) for your blues work, check out this blues video that my son enjoys quite a bit.

Fundamentals 5. Embouchure: mouthpiece placement, muscular focus, relationship to air, various ranges

John Ericson
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Before turning to all these topics, I would like to remind readers that this series is based on a list of fundamentals found in the Douglas Hill book (page 92-93). The title of each article is the prompt from his list.

Which is also to say that everything to do with the embouchure is a massive topic that I simply can’t hope to cover in this article. But there are several basics that I have some perspective to offer readers. Speaking of perspective,

There are three things that all relate, that we should not separate so much

Three things? I would propose that breathing, embouchure, and tonguing are all very substantially related. They are all part of the process of playing any note on the horn. Especially for first notes (which we play a lot!) these three elements must synchronize effortlessly. But how?

A horn resource from way back in 1939 suggests a simple way to synchronize your breathing, embouchure, and tonguing. The quote is found on page 4 of Primary Studies for the French Horn by Anton Horner, where it may be found right before study No. 1.

Attack each note with your tongue as though you had a small hair or tiny piece of thread on the end of your tongue and wanted to force it out of your mouth.

Anton Horner (1877-1971) was a big name teacher of that time, Principal horn in the Philadelphia Orchestra, horn faculty at Curtis, and he is the man behind the Kruspe design that became the Conn 8D.

Notice how his simple instruction is in a way all that you need to think about. You set up your face, inhale, and tongue the note all in one motion, effortlessly synchronized! Try it.

Mouthpiece placement

The short version, that should be mentioned especially to people who may be starting new beginners, is that the mouthpiece really should be placed more on the upper lip. In my own case, I played into college 2/3 lower lip, which limited my ability to play into the low range.

I’ll add this as well. Conventional wisdom is that the horn embouchure is 2/3 upper lip, but if you actually look at a number of fine horn players you will find that many if not most play closer to 3/4 upper lip — and many of those more than 3/4 upper lip. Check out the photo of my embouchure, for example. Food for thought. More upper lip is really better.

Muscular focus

Among the topics in the prompt from Hill there is one final one I would like to highlight today. Take your mouthpiece and buzz up and down. As you go higher, the sensation that you feel is of your lips rolling in. That is a feeling you would be wise to cultivate in your playing.

Although not mentioned in his main publications, horn embouchure icon Philip Farkas in his later years was experimenting with the idea of lip “curling,” which is just another way to say lip rolling. If you want to read more of his take on this topic, check this article. 

When the series continues we will look at another giant topic (already touched on in this installment), tonguing.

Continue in the Fundamentals Series

A Quick Look at Mozart Horn Concerto Reconstructions

John Ericson
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A large topic that seems little discussed these days is the topic of the unfinished Mozart horn concertos.

Unfinished? Concertos!? What?!?

A movement of one of the unfinished concertos has been widely performed for many years, and is commonly known as the Concert Rondo. This is the last movement of was to be another E-flat major concerto – for which there is a matching first movement with the same, incomplete orchestration, but with pages or portions of pages of the score missing today. This work is the Concerto in E Flat Major, K.370b/371.

And Mozart also started an E major concerto, the Concerto in E Major, K.494a, that would have been an amazing work if completed.

Reconstructions of both of these works have been recorded, and they are available as sheet music.

What? Where do I find these pieces?!?

James Nicholas has to be the leading exponent of reconstructing these works, in addition to his composition of other works for natural horn. His reconstruction work was done largely years ago, with versions available through Birdalone Music, which I have performed from and always mention to my repertoire class. But in these last several years, Nicholas has been working on updates and has posted extensive information on these concertos and more in his website. Check at the link for much more!

Check out his site first, but if you want to purchase these works, in the versions by James Nicholas, they are available from Birdalone Music at this link.

A teaser of what you are missing

I mentioned the incomplete E major concerto movement. Barry Tuckwell made this fascinating, even iconic, recording years ago of exactly what Mozart wrote. The exposition of this work is completely orchestrated, and the first section of the solo is partially orchestrated to the point that the work sadly ends. I tend to agree with the theory that the work was deemed too difficult by the soloist and was abandoned. Which is really sad, but that is also what makes it such a great project for the player of today to perform from an edition such as the one by Nicholas. Do check it out.

Fundamentals 4. Breathing: efficiency, control, capacity

John Ericson
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Continuing our look at fundamentals (based on a list in the Douglas Hill book), the next topic has to do with the whole topic of breathing. A rather important fundamental!

Capacity

Working backwards in the prompt, breathing capacity is important to consider. Some horn players have smaller lungs, some have larger. While I would propose all players should aim to use their full capacity, it is vitally important for players with smaller lungs to get comfortable with taking very full breaths, to make that their habit.

I’ve heard it said that while you can’t physically increase your lung capacity, with practice you can increase the effective capacity, as you are using it better.

And now let’s make breathing difficult

I will also say, some teachers seem to want to make a natural process into a complicated process. It’s not complicated! Just take a large breath. Don’t worry about your back expanding, filling your lungs from the bottom (which is not possible to do!), etc.

But I think there is a final item that is part of what makes breathing harder for some …

Where are your lungs?

The surprising answer is that many people visualize their lungs being lower in the body than they really are.

I’m not sure why this is, but asking students this question over many years now I know that people often think their lungs are in roughly the middle of their torso, and perhaps even lower – but actually they are behind your rib cage and extend up into your shoulder blades.

With that in mind, take a deep breath. Can you now feel the air filling a space higher in your body? And do you also feel, with the large breath, your shoulders rise as part of the natural expansion that occurs?

Take a large breath

Myself, I take a large breath for everything I play, even a single note by itself. It is a good habit, and gets at what underlies the concept of “support.” Exercises to work on taking a large breath abound, but if you are looking for a couple, check out the one in my warmup book.

Bonus: On getting old

It should be mentioned that there is an aging process that reduces the elasticity of your lungs. I’m sure I can’t quite make the breaths I used to make, but I do still get close! Periodically I’ll do some serious breathing practice using Breathing Gym exercises. It is worth doing as it will help in maintaining your best lung capacity.

When the series continues, the topic is the embouchure.

Continue reading Fundamentals Series

A Quick Look at a Nickel Silver Kruspe Single F

John Ericson
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Recently I was able to borrow locally this great nickel silver Kruspe single F. It is in the collection, for now, of one of my current students (Jesse Boyd), who provided the nice photos.

Kruspe? Single F? Nickel Silver?

First, I should mention that the word “Kruspe” has become firmly associated in an American context today with a specific type of double horn. Which is unfortunate, as Kruspe the firm made a number of different models of horns, the Horner Model that was copied by Conn (for their 8D) is just one of them.

In addition to double horns, they made a variety of single horns. This one is notable not just for being a single F but also being all nickel silver. Nickel silver is an alloy similar to brass but with at least 10% nickel added, which colors the material to look like silver. This horn has a lovely look, from an era when NS horns were a rarity. Only a large shop like Kruspe could have made it in that time frame.

What is up with the main slide?

You might think that is an Eb slide, but actually the horn stands in F. I have found that single horns made with this style of main slide often play much better than you might expect, and this one does play well! Which makes sense, as at the time there were professionals using horns of this design.

How old is it?

There are a few ways to estimate age on Kruspe horns. In the case of this one, the engraving on the bell includes the word “Hoflieferant.” This is a reference to Kruspe being purveyors to the court. This then means the horn has to date to before 1918, as Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918.

UPDATE: As this article will be found on searches about Kruspe horns, I’d add this item from a 2020 article on another Kruspe horn:

The majority of Kruspe horns you will run into were made between the world wars. Several things confirm this a being a post-war product, one prime thing being that the engraving lacks a DRGM number. The use of these numbers (they are the German patent numbers of their horn designs) ended with the fall of the Reich in 1945.

An action item for me

Finally, I would mention that I built a similar horn during my sabbatical – one that I plan to modify to better match this Kruspe. My horn, I eyeballed things too much. I have done the measurements, and my horn with a Mirafone bell is a full 3 inches shorter! No wonder I have to pull the main slide so far. My project will be to make a longer leadpipe and a longer main slide, aiming for the same proportions as the Kruspe.

UPDATE: I made the modifications to better match the Kruspe, happy with the results! More on that here. 

Continue reading about Kruspe horns

Fundamentals 3. Tuning: in general and extremes (use chromatic tuner)

John Ericson
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Tuning is fundamental! In general, to my mind there are two main problems, related often. Your horn is likely not in tune with itself, and you are used to it being out of tune so it doesn’t really sound wrong. With an additional issue of tuning in ensembles ….

Tuning your horn

There is a kind of classic method for tuning your horn in the Farkas book, but it is kind of overkill. I also present my version of a system in the back of my warmup book, which I would suggest for the advancing player as reference. But there is a very short version of how to do it.

The number 1, first thing to do on a double horn is to balance the two sides of your double horn. On third space C, thumb down and open the pitch level should be the same!

At this point people often get stumped as they know the Bb horn is too sharp, but there is no separate Bb horn tuning slide on most horns. The key thing then is to raise the F side to match the Bb side and then pull the whole horn down with the main slide.

In any case, that is the main issue. But also note on most horns all or almost all the valve slides need to be pulled out something like a quarter to a half inch. If they are all pushed in, that can’t be right, horns are not made that way.

Chromatic tuner compared to your ear

Of course, in some ideal world your ear would have such perfect pitch you can hear everything. However, in the real world your ear is easy to fool. You get used to how things sound, especially when practicing by yourself. So the reality is that a tuner app is essential for everyone, so that you get used to being in tune all the time. It will help a lot, as if you are always very close to being in tune, to be exactly in tune is just a fine adjustment you can almost make automatically.

Ranges should match by now

For many players the ranges being in tune is taken care of by the two sides of the horn being in tune with each other. Sometimes, though, there are issues that remain, and sometimes the cause is a mismatch of your horn and mouthpiece. Or, in the context of our present horn world with cheap horns from China all over, just a bad horn!

Thankfully, for most players, again, if you have the two sides of your horn in balance that will totally fix the biggest intonation issues.

What about playing extreme dynamics in tune?

Another important point is that your intonation is or can be impacted by playing very soft and very loud.

The key exercise to work on this is to play crescendo-diminuendo exercises on a single note, preferably around the bottom of treble clef. For example play 12 counts, the first six making a very even crescendo from your softest dynamic to your loudest, and then the second half is a mirror image (with no lumps!) going to your softest note.

To do this there are “adjustments” you make to your embouchure. For the loud note you may feel your lips are more open or more relaxed than for the very soft.

Getting loud you are likely to at first push notes sharp, but with practice you may find that you actually go flat when you are loud, due to subtle overcompensation. It is really important fundamental to master, playing at different dynamics at exactly the same pitch level.

BONUS: An important story about tuning in an ensemble

I frequently tell students my philosophy about tuning in orchestra, and how I arrived at it.

The short version of it is, once upon a time, I won the third horn position in the Nashville Symphony. The person before me left without coming up for tenure. The rumor I heard was that they had played persistently sharp among other things. So my goal became to find the best intonation I could.

My solution was to focus for intonation almost entirely on the principal horn and the principal clarinet. I found if I was in tune with both of them, things were all good!

In my position I periodically would play first horn as well, and in that seat, I focused almost exclusively on the principal woodwinds.

What if your woodwind principals are not in tune? Good luck! But you might try to talk to them and mention that you are keying on them and that might help.

What about the trumpets? In Nashville, they seemed to fit into the framework that we formed between the horns and woodwinds. But in some situations, you will find that you, on principal horn, will have to adjust slightly between the pitch levels of the woodwinds and brass depending on context. It’s not ideal, but it is reality.

What about the tubas? Band directors tell you to tune to them all the time but I think reality is you have to tune to high voices and especially the principal woodwinds.

Oh, and never ever tune to the strings in an ensemble! They need to tune to us. I know this may sound a bit undiplomatic, but often the biggest issue creating intonation problems in a group is the principal players drifting upward with the strings. You need to not do that.

Podcast?

For more on the topics of the first three installments of this fundamentals series, check Episode 60 of the Hornnotes Podcast. And be sure to subscribe for more episodes.

A direct link to the podcast is here.

When the series continues the topic is breathing.

Continue reading the Fundamentals series

Fundamentals 2. Fingerings: F horn, B-flat horn, and optional

John Ericson
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In terms of fundamentals and the advancing player, the thing you will need to explore is the world of alternate fingerings.

Alternate fingerings and me, and a fingering chart

Backing up a few steps, I was initially presented (by the horn playing high school band director who helped me switch to horn from trumpet) with a handwritten fingering chart of fingerings for the double horn. The first step is to just know one set of fingerings well! The fingering chart from my Introducing the Horn book will serve well.

In my own case, Verne Reynolds especially (my MM teacher) was not a fan of alternate fingerings. He said something like “a bassoonist would be overjoyed to play all the notes of their instrument with just 4 fingers on the left hand.” And he had a point, you do need to get good at standard fingerings. Confidence and consistency in your fingerings certainly helps accuracy.

But at some point, you want to learn some of the alternates and maybe change your “standard” fingerings as well. Which leads to a story.

Unethical teaching methods and the Bb horn

From multiple sources I have heard stories regarding the late Professor Louis Stout, who was some years ago the horn professor at the University of Michigan. He was a strong advocate of using Bb horn fingerings, and if a student came to his studio that did not know the Bb horn fingerings well, he would take their F horn slides (!) and put them in his desk drawer! They only got them back when they knew the Bb horn fingerings well enough. I don’t think any college teacher would do that today.

Still, that is typically the thing to learn (Bb horn into the typical F horn range), but I have found the opposite happens too – a percentage of students come in very fluent in Bb horn but don’t know F horn. In either case, you really should know both sets of fingerings, and that is a fundamental to master.

When the series continues the topic will be tuning.

Continue reading the Fundamentals series

Fundamentals 1. Playing position/posture: standing and sitting

John Ericson
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To begin this look at fundamentals, the first topic is posture and playing position, which are related.

Keep it simple

The simple answer is to hold the horn in a manner where your body is in the most similar position to a normal standing position, and maintain that basic setup when seated. The positions seen below are from my Introducing the Horn book, and would serve any player well.

What about playing on the leg?

I’m all for being comfortable, and if you are a new and especially if you are a young hornist, you may feel the need to adopt a playing position that is on the leg. Which is fine, I played that way for years.

But if you are too tall to play on the leg, your posture can get kind of wonky, as seen in this illustration.

The very young hornist

The very young hornist will have to work out their own compromise, the illustration below being among the options.

The right hand

The main thing I come back to students about over and over is that over time your playing position and posture needs to be reevaluated. That includes overall posture and the general right-hand position. This final illustration shows a couple generic right-hand positions — which are actually the same position, but rotated around the bell. The one on the bottom is for playing with the bell off the leg and the one on the top is a traditional option for playing on the leg.

We will talk more about the right hand when we get to the topic of stopped horn.

BONUS: Additional concerns RE: imbalances

A final posture point should be mentioned primarily in relation to adult players. What happens is your overall posture (!) will be influenced by your horn playing, as the horn playing has caused imbalances in your body.

In my own personal case, my shoulders are shifted slightly to the left relative to my hips, and I certainly overarch my back. Not to mention that my left arm/shoulder is much stronger than the right, etc. Working with a physical therapist in recent years has been helpful.

I think body imbalance issues are almost inevitable for the aging hornist. Which also speaks to if you can set up with good posture as a new hornist it will help avoid problems later.

When the series continues the topic is fingering.

Continue reading fundamentals series

Fundamentals: Introducing an Important Topic

John Ericson
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This article introduces a new series looking at fundamentals.

At the end of the spring semester this topic really came to weigh on my heart as a teacher, which continued into the summer. It is not that it was a new topic by any means, but my thinking had changed, as reflected in this article I wrote for the accuracy series (which has stalled for now with that article):

“F is for Fundamentals” remains worth a quick read to introduce the topic further. Fundamentals being very important to some teachers – but often not taught very systematically.

In this new series I plan to present information on fundamentals of use to players of all levels, with a goal of reaching a broad variety of players with helpful information to raise the level of their playing.

Fundamentals and me

I don’t at all blame my own teachers, but none of them presented to me a systematic look at fundamentals. I’m sure they covered them in various ways via etudes especially, and likely they felt I was covering what I needed to. But, looking back, I think what work I did on fundamentals was to a large extent the result of my own personal motivation and was certainly not systematic. Which is OK in a way, as a teacher you want students to be self-motivated and to solve their own problems! But many students need more of a framework, which is a goal of this series and the special focus on the topic this academic year.

Kopprasch vs. fundamentals

I should mention, some (even many) teachers persist in teaching Kopprasch etudes as a method of teaching fundamentals. I personally think this is old fashioned at best. If that is still your system as a teacher, I would encourage you to reconsider and find more effective ways to teach fundamentals. There are so many more materials you could be using today. Yes, there are things Kopprasch is great for, but the reality is that there is only so much you can work on effectively using early 19th century etudes.

Practice your fundamentals! Or, just practice in general?

In the accuracy encyclopedia article on fundamentals I used this meme, which I think represents well the beginnings of my journey with fundamentals. Whatever I did, it was largely related to practice in general and my warmup routine. But you can practice fundamentals specifically, even dedicating practice sessions to them exclusively, which will or at least can improve your overall playing in many ways.

Barrier exams can force a focus on fundamentals

The school I taught at (for three years) before Arizona State was The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. With undergrads they had a system, long established, that included a barrier exam at the end of the sophomore year. It involved playing a solo, scales at prescribed tempos, etudes, and sight-reading. At ASU we don’t have a formal system of this type, although some studios have their own internal systems. In any case, reflecting back, my teaching system is more individualized to actual students and has not been systematic with regard to fundamentals. There is something to be said for that too, but this year I’m going to explore a more systematic approach.

A list from Douglas Hill

On pages 92-93 of Douglas Hill, Collected Thoughts on Teaching and Learning, Creativity, and Horn Performance he presents a list of the areas you might work on as a student of the horn. I know I gave a version of this list to my students at ASU back in 2007, but at that time it was presented more as just something to think about and reflect on. This semester, I plan to work through the list in our studio class with generally a topic each week, with additional comments on each of the topics presented here in Horn Matters.

A warmup book, a technique book …

Some readers might be thinking; didn’t you also publish a warmup book and a technique book? How do those fit in?

The warmup book I don’t use systematically in my teaching, but I plan to use it more systematically this year, as it gets at ways to work on a number of fundamentals. If you can play every exercise in the book you will be ready to play a lot of rep.

The technique book, I used it very systematically basically until the pandemic — but since then less so. I think it also can be effective for certain fundamentals and I will be using it more. Again, if you can play every exercise in this book, you will be equipped with the foundations needed to play a lot of rep.

Side note on the University of Horn Matters

As this series on fundamentals goes forward it will certainly reference articles in the University of Horn Matters pedagogy series. However, for the first time in many years I won’t be using that series in my pedagogy class! It has weighed on me for some time that there are too many readings in that class as structured, plus I have a student taking the class now as a MM student that took it as an undergrad. Instead, I’m going to use the Farkas and Hill books as our texts (hard copies please!), going back to something closer to the way I taught pedagogy in the early 2000’s. It will be a nice change honestly, and will also influence this fundamentals series as it unfolds.

The series will continue nearly weekly, be checking for more. The first topic being playing position and posture.

Continue reading the Fundamentals series

Hobbies and the Horn Player

John Ericson
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In a recent article there is a section talking about hobbies, which I know generated at least one comment out there, wondering why I went there. I believe hobbies — real hobbies! — are a key to having a healthy success as a hornist.

Note for amateur hornists

First, if you are an adult amateur especially, I hope sincerely that horn playing is a fun hobby! Because horn playing can and should be fun!

But for the professional or serious student, horn playing and music can be a source of stress.

“I’m too hard core for a hobby”

There is a line of thinking some espouse, that to achieve success in music you need to eat, sleep, and breathe music. I remember the first person I met who really was trying to do this, a flute player at a summer music festival. She puzzled me a great deal and I suspect that she did not ultimately make it in music, the mindset was not healthy.

That summer, in Aspen, I went hiking several times a week. The combination of hard work on the horn and hiking was great, you need that break to reset mentally and the mountains there are just breathtaking. I made tons of progress as a hornist the 3 summers I went to Aspen. To this day I love getting into the mountains when I can. I suspect a lot of the faculty there felt the same way.

Professional musicians, stress, and hobbies

In a recent note from my Horn Matters colleague Bruce Hembd he mentioned that he recalled an article that talked about how outside interests/hobbies can help with stress from work leeching into personal life. The article he pointed me to, “Why They’re Not Smiling: Stress and Discontent in the Orchestral Workplace” by Seymour and Robert Levine, may be accessed here (go to page 10 of the PDF, page 22 of the article). They write that

It is no coincidence, we believe, that musicians gravitate towards hobbies which provide a high degree of control. For example, it appears that far more musicians hold pilot licenses than one would expect in a randomly selected group with similar incomes and educational levels. In some orchestras, five to 10 percent of the members are pilots. Gardening, writing, and home improvement are also pursued with surprising intensity by many orchestra musicians. By contrast, team sports are not as popular with musicians—with the possible exception of serving on membership representation committees, an activity which participants also pursue with a great deal of intensity.

These strategies can successfully reduce the effects of workplace stress in musicians’ lives. However, they are less successful in reducing the levels of stress experienced at work. A very sharp bifurcation can develop, therefore, between work and the rest of life.

Horn players with pilot licenses? How about Philip Farkas. Gardens? How about Verne Reynolds. Etc.

Without revealing the names, years ago I was at a horn conference and two of the featured artists were chatting about birding. I was like, birding? Was this some euphemism? But actually, they both really were deeply interested in bird watching. What a great activity, and total opposite of horn and the stresses of performing.

The list of hobbies not yet mentioned that I have observed in the music world is long and would include especially activities with pets, bike riding, running, photography, model trains, restoring horns, sports cars, collecting various things, etc. Frankly, if you don’t have several hobbies, think about what else you could be doing to expand your interests and friendships beyond your current circle.

The end of the quote above mentions a “very sharp bifurcation can develop.” I think actually some of the healthiest orchestra musicians I know have that division worked out well. Orchestra is orchestra, and life is separate. Outside the orchestra they live like normal people with hobbies and such. Aim for that, rather than eating, sleeping, and breathing music.

Closing thoughts

When I was young, I puzzled about my parents and their hobbies. In particular my dad, a chemistry professor, he spent TONS of time working on our farm, 40 miles south of where we lived. Especially over the summer and on breaks. Now I totally understand, it had to have relieved so much stress of his job and enhanced the quality of his life. I certainly am glad I have developed a number of hobbies and recommend that readers do the same.

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