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Ask Dave: When is a Small Dent Considered Serious?

Bruce Hembd
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Mark K. asks:

When is a dent in the tubing considered serious enough to affect the playing qualities of a horn? Does the location of the damage have any effect as well?

Dave replies:
Like most things in life the answer is, “well, it all depends.” As a rule of thumb (and I have seen different percentages here), a dent is beginning to be of concern when it reduces the diameter by 15% or more, and should absolutely be taken out when it collapses the tube over 25% of the diameter of the tube.

Why have I seen different percentages in this rule of thumb? Because, it depends! The second question is the key because, yes, the location of the indentation plays a big part in just how much effect even a small dent might have on the horn.

The creation of a standing sound wave in the horn results in changes in pressures. Some points in the tubing are critical to maintaining the pressure, and therefore the sound wave. If the dent is at that critical point then notes can waiver, can play flat, or just chip on attack. The tricky part is that as you change the harmonic series, those critical points in the horn are in different locations! So, a dent might be at one of those critical points for one series of overtones, but not others.

Those minor dingers on your bell flare are probably of little or no concern.

But that tiny dent in your leadpipe may really mess up your horn. If your horn is not playing correctly after a dent, then get the dent removed.

A Look at Óscar Sala’s Warm Up and Ricardo Matosinhos’ Pocket Guide

Bruce Hembd
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From our colleagues in Spain and Portugal we have two new horn-related items for consideration: one is a warm-up routine and the other, a pocket reference guide.

I highly recommend both and as you will see, the proof is in the pudding.

Warming Up for French Horn

Óscar Sala is the principal horn of the Orchestra of Granada. Here is a video clip of Mr. Sala performing the opening to Richard Strauss’ tone poem, Ein Heldenleben.

He also teaches at the Música Antigua en el Conservatorio Superior de Música del País Vasco (MUSIKENE).

In the introduction to his eBook, Warming Up for French Horn, Mr. Sala states his goal upfront and clearly:

Thank you for choosing my compilation of horn technique exercises. I have been collecting them ever since I began studying this marvelous instrument.

By following the explanation in this book, you will learn how to organize a warm-up of fifteen minutes or less, using the warm-up table provided.

The book is written in three languages – Spanish, English and Chinese – and it covers a lot of ground.

Numerous examples of scale passages, arpeggios, lip slurs and long tones are illustrated in multiple keys and multiple modes. Along the way photographs here-and-there illustrate important concepts of embouchure, hand position and posture.

Oh…did I mention that it is free? Check it out for yourself!

Óscar Sala Minguet: Warming Up for French Horn

https://issuu.com/brucehembd/docs/calentamiento_para_trompa

Notes

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Horn’s Pocket Guide

Ricardo Matosinhos teaches ARTAVE/CCM and at Academia de Música de Costa Cabral in Portugal. He has written several teaching materials for horn, published by AvA Musical Editions and Phoenix Music Publications. In 2004, he created the www.trompista.com, a Portuguese horn-related website.

In his very compact Horn’s Pocket Guide, practical tips, charts and graphs, and other useful reference material are plentiful. As a graphic designer in the day-time, I can appreciate the time and effort that most likely went into making it look so clean and simple-to-comprehend.

In the final pages of the booklet for example, an picto-graphic guide with large images and number-by-number steps clearly illustrates the complicated process of valve re-stringing.

Myself, I picked up the little tip on how to make the string lace into the tiny stop arm hole much easier by using a match to singe the end of the string. It is not very fun to needle a thread with a frayed end and this trick helps to make that process a little easier.

The price of Mr. Matosinhos Pocket Guide is very affordable – just $7.50.

I bought mine from Ken Pope’s web site and it arrived at my house in about three days. Beyond this I do not need to say much more; Mr. Matosinhos has produced this excellent video that accurately gives you all the details.

For English subtitles, be sure to hit the Closed Caption (CC) button that is at bottom right.

Notes

Hornmasters: Farkas and Reynolds on Sforzando

John Ericson
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For those following this series on tonguing closely, while many fine horn players do play with the tongue at the bottom of the teeth and near the lip opening at most or all times, Farkas was strongly against that type of approach.

The sforzando exception

However, in The Art of French Horn Playing he does allow for the tongue being further forward in certain situations.

The sforzando or forced attack is made by completely sealing the air column, with the tongue placed very near the lip-opening, perhaps even touching the lips but not protruding between them. Break this hermetic seal violently by sharply removing the tongue at the same time “shoving” with the diaphragm.

But then a change of approach

Farkas seems to have had some change of thinking in respect to how to this technically in The Art of Brass Playing, it is a bit different approach:

There is one type of attack which does call for the placing of the tip of the tongue between the teeth. That is the sforzando or heavy accent. “Bell tones” are also in this category. Here an audible explosion is actually desirable and the forceful breaking of the hermetic seal immediately back of the lips is most effectively achieved by the sudden backward pull of the tongue against the pent-up air.

The sforzando as one of a group of types of articulation

Verne Reynolds includes a more extended discussion of the sforzando in The Horn Handbook.

There are … occasions when we might use the image of explosion to help with marcato, accent, sforzando, and forte piano. For brass players, these articulations are more effective when they are preceded by silence, even a very short silence. This can be confirmed by trying to play a series of sforzando attacks with a legato tongue stroke. The silence needed to produce the sforzando attack is obtained by allowing the air pressure to build up while the tongue is momentarily held against the teeth. This is precisely what we strive so mightily to avoid in legato tonguing. In a series of fast marcato notes we must hasten to return the tongue to the teeth in order to seal off the air flow sufficiently to produce the next explosion. At a slower speed there is enough time to allow the note its normal decay before the next tongue stroke. In an accent, the same procedure applies…. Accents in sforzando are similar in physical action. Sforzando means forced and is an extension of the accent. It is also modified by the prevailing dynamic level. It is more often used as an orchestral marking than in solo or chamber music literature, and it is very effective when played by four or more horns.

They’re not hard to do

Generally speaking performance of this type of effect is not much of a problem for most players. We still have more tonguing topics to cover, more on those soon.

Continue in Hornmasters Series

Trusted Brand Names of French Horns: Composite and Age Group Results

Bruce Hembd
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This is the first of several documents that will be posted. In this chapter, composite and age group results are reported.

https://issuu.com/brucehembd/docs/brandnamesurvey11-21-2011-345

The next report will include experience level data and a whole host of cross-comparison analysis. [NEXT ARTICLE]

On Prescreening Auditions

John Ericson
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One recent trend in schools of music is that of requiring prescreening auditions. In my own teaching this year the exact requirement is “In order to be considered for a live, in-person audition, applicants for all doctoral performance concentrations at ASU must submit a prescreening recording by October 1 for spring admission and December 1 for fall admission.” As this deadline is common this year for many programs and just around the corner, a few quick notes on prescreening auditions are in order.

For me personally this is a first, but they have been used in other programs for years at ASU and elsewhere. From what I hear from other faculty that have used these before there are a number of advantages to prescreening, but ultimately the process serves talented applicants well and saves everyone time and money.

For example let’s say an applicant wants to pursue a music degree but is far below the performance standards required for admission. This applicant will be weeded out in the prescreening process and early enough that they will have a bit more time to consider other options. But let’s also say the prescreening audition is outstanding. That will leave us even more interested in your live audition than we might have been, and the process of making that outstanding audition is a valuable learning process in itself.

The DMA prescreening requirements for brass at Arizona State are relatively simple:

Doctoral Prescreening Requirements
Please upload separate recordings of your performances of:
1. Two solo works or movements of contrasting style.
2. Three standard excerpts.

Submissions may be in video or audio format, and for my purposes an audio recording is fine. As to what to record, I have seen other schools with very specific prescreening horn requirements, but I would say for my purposes again almost anything is fine, it just needs to be played well.

Which gets at the final point to note: send the best possible recording. It needs to be as close to perfection as you can make it. For any recorded audition (video or audio) you have to realize that we have to assume that the track you sent is absolutely the best you can do. If you miss five notes and were badly out of time and out of tune, we have to assume that the other times you tried to record the selection were even worse! If in doubt be sure to have a teacher or mentor listen to the recording before you send it, clear feedback is really a smart thing to have sooner rather than later.

Mailbag: “Wolf” Notes on the Horn

John Ericson
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A question recently came in relating to “wolf” notes on the natural horn, but it also relates to valved horn as well. The question included also information that in exploring the problem note the owner had the horn and crooks cleaned well and they also made sure the horn had no unrepaired dents, but still there was a major problem note that remained.

It is a problem I have experienced and has been mentioned in this site. In a prior article I wrote for example about the rough high B-flat seen on some Geyer style horns and also I mentioned the bad high F on a vintage Hawkes valved horn, which I was able to mostly fix by choosing the right crook. (And not the one that came with that horn, that crook was about the worst option).

More to the specific point of the question though, I also had an experience last year working out a work on natural horn for a recital that relates to crooks and a wolf tone. At that time I wrote that

…I had at least four reasonable ways that I could put this horn into F, as follows:

1. The E crook mentioned above
2. The F crook actually made for this horn
3. The F crook made for the Hawkes piston horn in this article
4. The G crook and a F coupler as made for the small natural horn.

A few trials showed me that the “E” crook I was using on the small horn made the best F crook for the big horn and had an even better top G on this horn than it had on the little horn.

So what was the problem? On several occasions over the years I have had extended talks with natural horn player and maker Richard Seraphinoff, who made the horn body in the photo, on this very topic. In the case of his horns I know he is very careful about the exact placement of the joint between the first branch and the bell tail as it impacts the E-flat crook. But also there is an element of mystery to it, related to crooks. The way he tells it, sometimes he will make a crook and it will have an unstable note on a certain natural horn corpus. He will hang it on a hook and make another crook for that horn. Later, making another horn, he will try the problem crook again and it will work fine on that horn. In the end the issue was there was some very subtle acoustical unhappiness between that crook and one horn body but not another.

Wolf notes are much less common on modern production valved horns than they were in the past. In particular that high B-flat, makers have made a goal to work that note out, and my recently purchased horn I am happy to say has the best high B-flat of any horn I have ever owned. But again, to close, if it is a natural horn or an early valved horn that takes crooks, try other crooks, this may solve the problem pretty dramatically. Good luck!

Hornmasters on Rapid Tonguing, Part II: Brophy

John Ericson
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Rapid single tonguing is one of the topics covered in depth by William R. Brophy in his Technical Studies for Solving Special Problems on the Horn. He offers a number of very specific suggestions on the topic.

Two things are necessary in fast tonguing. First, the tongue movement must be extremely small, and second (and probably even more important) the air pressure must remain behind the tongue for the duration of the tongued passage.

Here are some suggestions that may help in keeping the tongue movement small:

1. When the tongue withdraws to start the first note, be sure that it moves the smallest possible distance that will allow a free passageway for the air to enter the instrument.

2. Try to feel that the tongue is moving down and forward with the air stream instead of down and back against the compressed air. Whether or not this can be made to happen is debatable, to be sure, but thinking in these terms seems to be helpful.

3. Each time that the tongue returns to its position (usually against the back of the upper teeth) to stop one note in preparation for the start of the next, be sure that it is replaced with no more force than is necessary to stop the air for the shortest possible time—a length of time that would have to be measured in milli-seconds [sic]. Always think in terms of a clean, light attack.

The problem of making the air pressure work for us in rapid articulation, instead of against us, is not easily solved. Blowing a steady air stream … is a must, of course, but equally important is achieving the feeling of the tongue rebounding against the compressed air.

The principle is essentially the same as an air hammer of the type used to break up concrete. Just as the action of the air hammer is much faster than a sledge hammer, so the air pressure inside the mouth can be made to work for us instead of against us in rapid tonguing. This theory is readily proved by players who can tongue rapidly; these players can invariably tongue a series of notes more rapidly than they can say the syllables TATATATA. Obviously they have found a way to make the air pressure which is present in playing, but not in speaking, work for them.

Expanding on that second principle…

Brophy notes that this happens “so rapidly that it almost defies analysis” but he attempts to explain the second principle above as follows:

1. The tongue is held lightly against the back of the upper teeth.

2. Air pressure is created behind the tongue by blowing.

3. The tongue is relaxed slightly so that the tension on it (especially the tip) is no longer sufficient to seal off the compressed air, which escapes through the small opening thus created, setting the lips into vibration and going ultimately, and coincidentally, into the horn.

4. As soon as this air escapes, the pressure within the mouth drops slightly as a consequence.

5. The slight tension held in the tip of the tongue is now sufficient, in the lessened air pressure, to return the tongue to its original starting place, stopping the air stream, allowing the air pressure to again build up so that the entire cycle can be repeated.

In this way the air pressure can be used to help, rather than hinder, the tongue action. If the tongue action can be thought of as a forward and downward action we can get the tongue to rebound against the stream of compressed air.

Information overload is possible at this point

Rapid tonguing, overall, is yet another of those topics that with too much thought you can tie yourself up in knots but at the same time, if you can’t do it, you may need to give it more thought.

Certainly the horn teacher needs to have a lot of information in their toolbox that can be applied thoughtfully to students without causing information overload.

The Hornmasters are not done with tonguing topics yet. More soon.

Continue in Hornmasters Series

Ask Dave: Slide Grease Residue and Finding a Competent Repair Technician

Bruce Hembd
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I can only say, “Wow!”  When I suggested that my repair articles become an “Ask Dave” feature, I had no idea that I’d get such a positive response!  Keep those cards and letters coming, folks!

* * *

Ed asks:

Having oiled my valves inside the rotors with Hetman rotor oil, how do I get rid of the oil from the sides of the slides to prevent the slide grease from being broken down immediately ?

I know you suggest putting oil in the slides but unfortunately I didn’t read that gem before doing it.

Dave replies:  
The best thing to do is pull the slides and wipe the slide legs clean with a paper towel.  Acquire a flute cleaning rod, and put a about a 6 inch (12cm) strip of clean, lint free cloth (preferably cotton) in it.  Use the cleaning rod to clean out the slide leg stocking tubes. (Tip:  test the length of the rod on the outside of the tubes before you insert it so that you don’t push it in too far.  Put your hand at the point at which you want to stop the rod from going any further.)

Now that the slide legs and slide stocking have been wiped, lubricate them sparingly and re-insert the slides.  You should be okay at this point, assuming the heavier lubricant has not already been dissolved and run down into the valves.

* * *

K asks:

How can I tell if a repair person is good or not before I use them?

Dave replies:
The same way you tell if a car repair technician is good or not, namely get references.  Every technician has different experience and different strengths.  Of course, it would be great to go to someone who only works on horns and does it well.

But that’s not an option for some folks, who live far from a specialist.

You can start a search at www.napbirt.org.  The National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians has a code of ethics and supports continuing education for members.

Once you locate a technician, ask other horn players if they’ve used them.  Ask the technician if he or she has worked on horns and rotary valves.  Ask what the technician intends to do to fix your horn.  If you are wary, go elsewhere for a second opinion.  Finally, if you have an expensive custom horn, maybe you should consider a trip with your horn to see a specialist.

7 Tactics to Develop Sight-Reading

John Ericson
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One skill we all know we need is the ability to sight-read music well. Some people are better than others at this. Traditionally part of the answer to the question of how to help sight reading is it will get better over time, but there is more to it than that.

This is a topic I have been asked about several times this fall semester and is one that it is important to develop tactics to master and to help students master. As it was a topic on my mind I noticed in particular a new post last week on Andrew’s Hitz on the topic of “Sight-Reading: Shifting Priorities.” His brief discussion gets at one first import tactic that it is important to apply, that of finding the groove of the rhythm.

It has been my experience that many musicians and especially students focus on the wrong things when sight-reading a piece of music. The main focus for many, whether intentional or not, is hitting the right notes. But from a purely technical standpoint there is another aspect of the music which is significantly more important than note accuracy and that is the rhythms.

If I could choose to sight-read a piece of music with a musician who either plays all of the right pitches or nails all of the rhythms I would choose the latter every single time. A player who sight-reads with great groove and rhythmic confidence will make everyone around them feel more confident. [Emphasis original.]

Hitz goes on in his article to point out a tactic to build groove, that of playing the work to be sight-read on one note. This may be also done very effectively with wind patterns, air only. The idea is to feel the groove first; it can help a great deal.

This brings up two related tips right away as well–don’t stop and start on the right note! The one, giant pet peeve basically everyone hates is hearing people stop when they miss. Keep that groove going, don’t stop. As to the first note, this is a particular issue for horn players as it is frighteningly easy to start on the wrong harmonic. Develop a tactic to find the first note. This may involve using reference notes such as the concert B-flat tuning note as comparison points. But be sure mentally that you have the pitch of the first note visualized very clearly.

When I talk about sight-reading with students I go back to my own experiences as a student working on sight-reading. I am not a great reader of music and never will be. I really don’t like to sight-read. As a professional there are two types of gigs; ones that need sight-reading skills, and ones that don’t. One thing I really liked about playing full time in the Nashville Symphony was that the contract guaranteed that we would have music available well before the first service. The take away being I basically never needed to sight-read on the job there; I could listen to any new work before the rehearsal if needed and could work on anything that looked tricky before the first rehearsal. But I did need to sight-read when I was called for session work. I always managed then but it was the element I least liked about that type of work and is also part of why I am not a big fan of sitting down and reading horn duos and quartets and such. It is not fun. In any event, while not really a tactic to develop sight-reading, it can be a tactic to develop your career: avoid sight-reading on the job if possible.

It has never been my strength. Early on in my college studies a teacher suggested reading a book on speed reading to develop sight-reading, and one general tactic I picked up there was that of looking for groupings of notes. When you have played horn a while you have played a lot of music, and when you see familiar patterns in music those are headlines to hang on to as you read ahead.

A book I made some use of later as a student was by hornist Nicholas Perrini (but edited for all treble clef brass) Develop Accuracy Through Sightreading. I recently got it back out and was interested to see the tactics he presents. The central one involves scanning in general and more specifically “a triangular motion at the beginning of each etude” where you start a ways in (at the first logical breathing point), then look back to any markings at the top of the beginning of the etude, then down to the bottom of the opening, and finally track back over the music to the first breathing point. With the idea that you study the beginning a bit and skim over the rest of the work looking at:

  1. Key signature(s)
  2. Time signature(s)
  3. Tempo (Phrases)
  4. Breathing places
  5. Dynamics and articulation
  6. Accidentals or other unusual notations

Perrini explains this tactic further in his text, which also contains 39 etudes suited to sight-reading practice. Of course, you can sight read almost anything and that would be the final tactic; in your warm-up or somewhere in your practice make a specific effort to sight read something. I ultimately when I was a student made the most specific use of the Cafarelli trumpet etudes, but that was mostly related to having a copy and it fit the right groove for me in that context.

It is a skill that must be honed. To review, seven tactics to develop sight-reading are

  1. Find the groove
  2. Don’t stop
  3. Start on the right note
  4. Avoid sight-reading on the job
  5. Look for groupings
  6. Scanning and the triangle
  7. Practice sight-reading

Overview of Trusted Brands in French Horns

Bruce Hembd
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A survey titled “What Brand Names Do You Trust?” collected the opinions of 392 participants. The results are in and while it may take some time to process a full report, here are some overview statistics to think about in the meantime.

The survey

  • Alexander
  • Atkinson
  • Balu
  • Berg
  • Cantesanu
  • Conn (Abilene TX 1969-86)
  • Conn (Eastlake OH 1986-present)
  • Conn (Elkhart IN 1937-1969)
  • Cornford
  • Dieter-Otto
  • Dürk
  • Eastman
  • Finke
  • Geyer
  • Holton
  • Hoyer
  • Jupiter
  • Kalison
  • King
  • Kortesmaki
  • Kruspe
  • Kühn
  • Lawson
  • Lewis
  • McCracken
  • Patterson
  • Paxman
  • Rauch
  • Schmid
  • Schmidt
  • Sorley
  • Willson
  • Yamaha

Participants were asked the simple question of “Do you believe this brand to produce quality French horns?” Four options were given as answers:

  • Yes
  • No
  • I have no opinion
  • I have never heard of it

The term “Quality”

This survey and its results are not intended as a popularity contest or as a list of recommended horns and it should not be viewed as such. In this regard, surveying what people people perceive about a particular brand is a very valid study and when looking at the results, the old axiom of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” should be kept in mind.

However, if I were an existing company whose brand name appears within this study, I would be paying very close attention to its results and also to what might be done to sustain, reinforce or in some cases, rebuild my company’s brand and image.

This all being said, here are some preliminary results to think about.

High and low meta-scores

The top eight most recognized brands:

  1. Holton (100%)
  2. Yamaha (99%)
  3. Conn (98%)
  4. Alexander (98%)
  5. Paxman (98%)
  6. Hoyer (95%)
  7. Jupiter  (95%)
  8. King  (94%)

The bottom eight least recognized brands:

  1. Sorley  (227 votes)
  2. Kortesmaki  (213 votes)
  3. Cornford  (199 votes)
  4. Cantesanu  (196 votes)
  5. Kalison (195 votes)
  6. Willson (180 votes)
  7. McCracken (157 votes)
  8. Eastman (149 votes)

The top eight brands most perceived to produce quality horns:

  1. Alexander (346 votes)
  2. Paxman (346 votes)
  3. Schmid (306 votes)
  4. Conn – Elkhart IN 1937-1969 (305 votes)
  5. Geyer (292 votes)
  6. Hoyer (281 votes)
  7. Yamaha  (280 votes)
  8. Kruspe  (265 votes)

The bottom eight brands least perceived to produce quality horns:

  1. Jupiter  (275 votes)
  2. Conn – Abilene TX 1969-86  (167 votes)
  3. King  (163 votes)
  4. Conn – Eastlake OH 1986-present  (135 votes)
  5. Holton  (133 votes)
  6. Eastman  (102 votes)
  7. Kalison  (76 votes)
  8. Yamaha  (69 votes)

More to come

These results are only a beginning. Since participants were grouped into age and experience sub-sets, there will be plenty of more data to look at and cross-compare in a full report, coming either this Friday or sometime next week. [NEXT ARTICLE]

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