Tag Archives: embouchure

The first year, a retrospective

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May marks my first year anniversary of re-learning the horn. I’ve been thinking about how far I’ve come and what I did right and what I would do differently now that I know more.

I spent from May to August trying to learn on my own. Looking back, I should have gotten a teacher sooner. I did a lot of random playing during those months but other than getting sound out of the horn and then developing about an octave and a half range, I didn’t really improve. I played the same stuff over and over. I think I would be farther along now if I’d spent those months more productively.

Without a teacher I spent my time playing, not practicing. There really is a huge difference. I’d play everything from start to finish. Occasionally I’d repeat a measure that I messed up and inevitably I would repeat the same mistake. You’d think it would be obvious to slow the measures down to the point where they are playable correctly, to break the tricky passages into tiny chunks until they were right, but no, I’d just plow through everything. Now I’m close to meticulous about practicing correctly and, lo and behold, it works.

Of course there are always two sides to everything and if I had gotten a teacher before August I wouldn’t have the teacher I have now and that would be a shame. Lynn, the teacher I see every week is perfect for me. I learn a lot and I have fun. For an adult who is not trying to get a principle horn position I think fun needs to be part of the equation.

A year ago my sightreading was atrocious. The pieces that I played over and over again I played because I knew what they sounded like. I rarely tried something new. I avoided 16th notes like the plague. At first, when Lynn and I used to play duets she would say, “It’ll be ok, you can do it.” Then I couldn’t get through more than a few measures without stopping. Now I’m much, much better at sightreading. I think playing in the band had a lot to do with that but I’m also much more confident about what I can do and I’ve learned just to keep going and play through the missed notes.

I’m very happy with my new horn but I wouldn’t recommend anyone buy one so early in the learning process. I was convinced that my Yamaha was causing a lot of my problems and it probably was to some extent but I should have dealt with it until I was capable of trying horns myself so I could make a more informed selection. On the other hand, maybe sticking with the Yamaha would have slowed down my progress. My new Hoyer is definitely easier for me to play but maybe there is something out there that is even easier.

I am also still having intonation problems with the Hoyer. I think this is most likely me but I tend to play sharp on the Hoyer even with the slides pulled almost all the way out. In particular middle C and third space C are very sharp. I don’t remember having those issues with the Yamaha. I didn’t play the Yamaha at all after I got the Hoyer but I should have. Once I did pick it up to try it the valves were stuck solid so it’s been up at Siegfried’s Call for repair. I am going to try it once I get it back. I’m hoping that I will still find it harder to play. I’m also hoping that the intonation isn’t as good as I remember.

One thing I can say with absolute certainty is to never buy a horn if you can’t play it at all during the trial period when it’s still returnable. I had surgery in my neck four days before I bought my horn. I was under doctor’s orders not to play for two weeks. This surgery was scheduled for months and I had told the doctor that I played the horn. He never mentioned anything about his ‘don’t play’ order before the surgery and it didn’t occur to me that playing would be a problem though clearly it should have. I had special ordered the horn based on recommendations that it was the right horn for me before the surgery and I felt pretty obligated to buy it (and I really wanted a new horn) and I don’t really like conflict. I’m not saying that it isn’t the right horn for me, just that I should have tried a few others first and I’ll always have that nagging question in the back of my mind.

At my lesson with Scott Bacon a few weeks ago I tried a geyer wrap Hoyer that he had just gotten in. I didn’t really notice anything that different except that it’s above the staff Ab was really, really flat and I couldn’t lip it into tune. When I went back to my Hoyer it was like putting on that comfy old flannel shirt that feels so good. This was a very reassuring feeling.

I am glad that I tried different mouthpieces. (See My Mouthpiece Saga.) The custom one that I bought from Tom Greer is excellent for me. It really feels good and I am playing better. I got one with a screw on rim so I can change shanks without changing rims. The custom shank I got from Tom is slightly fatter than a standard mouthpiece to try to help with the sharpness of the Hoyer. I think it helps just a tad. It’s interesting that the Hoyer mouthpiece is a touch sharper. I don’t really know if it’s the mouthpiece that is making the difference with my playing, I could just be getting better.

I’m really glad that I joined a band. It has given me a lot more confidence and I should have joined sooner. Lynn always told me that I played better than I thought I did and she was right. I was terrified that I would screw up at the first rehearsal but it went reasonably well. I got better at each rehearsal and now I can play almost all of the music we are working on. One of my big problems when playing something is starting, messing up the first few notes and stopping and starting again. Band has almost cured me of that bad habit.

I wish I could say that I’ve worked on lots of music over the year but I really haven’t. It takes me awhile to learn new music. I’ve been working on Mozart 3 for months. I worked on Nocturno for months before that. I’m close to finishing with Mozart 3 now which is a good thing because I’m pretty sick of it. I’m also working on Strauss 1. I’m progressing slowly but steadily with the Strauss. Now that I’ve put lots of breaks into my daily practice sessions I can practice longer each day and I’m improving more quickly.

I’ve learned a lot this year and I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished. I hope that I can take what I’ve learned and use that knowledge to continue to improve throughout the coming year. Mostly I hope there are a lot more good days than bad days.

Practice gone wrong –>

Nocturno

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When I first started taking lessons back in August 2008 I was playing some etudes from Practical Studies book 1, some pieces from the Rubank Soloist Folio for F Horn book, Traumerai in the Master Solos Intermediate Level book by Louis Stout and I had a few other easy books that I looked at now and then.

I played, or more appropriately tried to play, these pieces for Lynn, my new teacher, at my first lesson. The first thing she did, in addition to setting up a warm-up routine, was have me start working on exercises 1 and 2 in Preparatory Melodies by Pottag and to stop playing all these different things and just focus on The Victor in the Rubank book and Traumerai in the Stout book.

After about a month or two of this – including moving on in the Pottag book and the Stout book – she suggested starting on Franz Strauss’ Nocturno. I jumped on the chance to work on what I considered a ‘real’ piece.

When we first started working on the piece I had trouble with both the notes and the rhythm. Rhythm has always been a bugaboo for me. In fact, early on in my lessons when we were playing duets she said, “You do know how to count in 6/8 don’t you?” Well of course I do. (She actually asked me that same question at my lesson the other day but before we started the duet rather than during it. Yikes. Fortunately I did just fine.) I just tend to worry more about the notes than the rhythm. This is not a good thing and I try hard to pay attention to both the rhythm and the notes at the same time. Of course there is always something that suffers and when I focus too hard on notes and rhythm the musicality tends to go into the toilet.

I have since learned from Scott Bacon to divide up measures into the smallest beat and play all notes at that beat when I practice. For example, in Mozart 3 second movement first measure – play, not think but actually play, three eighth notes in series instead of the dotted quarter note and continue on like that with the metronome on set at eighths. This method works very well for me.

As far as the notes go in Nocturno, I consistently had trouble with the first measure. (Not that I didn’t have trouble elsewhere, this just annoyed me the most because I knew that I could play those notes correctly.) The opening notes are Ab – G – Ab. I couldn’t seem to play this without missing either the Ab to G or the G to Ab. It was never clean. It was this measure that got me to ask Lynn to try her Hill (I had to blame my Yahama of course, not me) and ultimately purchase a new horn. See “Buying a horn” for more on that. In this case, I finally played the measure correctly with the Hill. It immediately felt easier.

I worked on Nocturno for months. I think I was driving Lynn crazy. I tend toward being a perfectionist (why, oh why, am I playing the horn?) and I didn’t want to stop working on it until it was ‘perfect’. Well that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon (still hasn’t, LOL) but I was getting much better with it and Lynn tried hard to get me to move on to something else which eventually I did.

So why am I writing about Nocturno? I use it as my litmus test for both gauging improvement and how I am playing that day. As far as improvement goes, I recorded it back in November and I record it once every six weeks or so. When I play the recordings back in sequence I can actually hear the difference. I am really improving. It’s a really good feeling to actually know this for myself rather than having Lynn or someone else tell me this.

As far as the daily practice grind, I’ll pull out Nocturno and I’ll know pretty quickly how the day is going to go. I don’t do this every day but If I’m struggling, for example, through Mozart 3 or Strauss 1 and then I struggle through Nocturno I have learned just to chalk it up to a bad day and move on since I know I can play Nocturno well. If Nocturno goes well, I wonder a bit more about what’s going on. I have to admit that if this is the day’s scenario, I have to work a lot harder emotionally to stay calm (almost wrote clam there) and not go through the change the mouthpiece or add a gadget mentality.

Nocturno is now getting pretty easy for me. On a good day I still clam some notes here and there but the gurgles are gone and I almost never miss the opening or subsequent Ab – G – Ab. I usually get through the whole thing where I’m happy with the result. Soon I’m going to need to pick a different piece for my litmus test. Maybe Strauss 1?

The first year, a retrospective –>

Band rehearsal does not equal practice

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Well, my ten days of really good horn playing has come to an end. Bummer. I really can’t play a thing today. I’m trying to figure out why.

Was it band rehearsal? I had band rehearsals both Monday and Tuesday evenings. On Monday the rehearsal was a little over two hours and on Tuesday about an hour and a half. My chops felt okay after both rehearsals. The previous Monday I practiced for an hour in the morning and really didn’t have the chops for the two hour rehearsal that night. I decided that I wouldn’t practice before the rehearsals this time but I got to them early enough to do a warm-up.

When I picked up my horn this morning things seemed okay at first. I do low register arpeggios first and they were good. Nice rich sound, good slurs, clear notes. It was when I got to the middle and high register that I had an inkling that things weren’t up to snuff. The arpeggios starting at middle C felt stiff and lacked tone. I moved on to exercise 1 in the Singer book and those long steady notes just sounded flat – not intonation flat but tone flat. Not a good sign. I took my usual twenty minute break after the Singer exercise.

Starting up again, I moved on to Kopprash. Hmm. Things are going downhill fast. Suffice it to say that the rest of my morning’s horn playing continued moving in the wrong direction. I started to work on scales in the Pares book figuring that at least I could work on those but no such luck.

So was it the lack of practice before the band rehearsals? Possibly. (Hopefully?) I play 4th in both bands so although I play continuously for almost the entire rehearsal I play in a very limited range.  Tons of off beats between middle C and F. Occasionally there will be a melodic line or two and maybe I’ll see a top space Eb. Once in a blue moon there might be a G. I’m guessing but playing within one octave for hours may stress ones chops in very different ways than a good practice session would. Again, this is just a guess. There could be no reason what so ever for my bad day other than it’s just a bad day. They happen.

I have a lesson tomorrow and I will ask my teacher about this. Maybe she’ll have some ideas. If I’m playing poorly again tomorrow maybe she’ll see something that I’ve started doing wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.

So far, I’m not overreacting about this. I’m not going to change mouthpieces or horns or add gadgets or buy new method books describing new embouchures or… (insert any new fangled thing you want here.) It wasn’t that long ago that I would have leaped to the conclusion that I needed some new piece of equipment or needed to make some drastic change. I’d like to think I’m maturing – at least horn wise.

Nocturno –>

Day 7 and counting

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Last week I wrote three posts about my playing during the week. The first two discussed the poor quality of my playing, Today’s Practice Session 😦 and Yesterday’s Practice – Part 2, and the last one, It’s all about the air, talked about a revelation I had about air that lead to two stellar days of horn playing.

Well, yesterday was day 6 of a pretty dramatic improvement. I’ve put together two good days in the past though not very often. When I got to the third day I was pleasantly surprised but skeptical that it would continue. Day 4 was another great day followed by day 5 which was not quite as good as day 4 but pretty decent none the less. I figured that the run of great days was over but, lo and behold, day 6 was another truly stellar day.

So what do I mean by a stellar day? In the context of my capabilities, my tone is excellent, there are very few gurgles, and some missed notes but not too many. The arpeggios, slurs, and scales that I always work on are clean. 16th notes are playable at close to the correct tempo and tongued or slurred properly. The pieces that I’m practicing – Mozart 3, selected solos from the Mason Jones book and the first two movements from Strauss 1 are played well, despite the inevitable clams here and there, all the way through. I’ve been able to play individual passages decently before this but I was never able to string them together into a cohesive unit – i.e. the whole piece.

I had a lesson yesterday (day 6) and Lynn, my teacher, and I were talking about what’s changed. In addition to my discovery of using air better, two weeks ago she had me add what I call high harmonics to my warm up routine. These start at third space C on F horn and are lipped up to G, then back down. (Not fingered.) Then second valve down B up to F#, first valve down Bb to F and so on. The notes need to be evenly spaced, smooth, and clean. Last week we added Bb horn up from C# to G#, D to A, finishing with F to high C. At first I could barely do the F horn side. Now I can do them all well.

My warm up routine starts with low C slurs up to G back to C, then C to G to middle C and back and so on up to third space C which is a hit or miss affair. After that I do arpeggios starting at middle C. After these I have added the high harmonics to the warm up. Then I go back to another round of low C slurs.  My complete warm up and practice routine, other than the high harmonics, is covered in A lesson and practicing.

I can’t guarantee that adding the high harmonics to my warm up made the difference but it certainly points to that. It could be that all my practicing has finally led to recognizable improvement. The good news is that it didn’t occur because of a change in equipment. It is actually me that improved. I’m cautiously optimistic that this improvement will continue and that this week hasn’t been a fluke. And yes, today, day 7, was another good day.

Horn playing, breathing, and…cancer? –>

A lesson and practicing

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This is the sequel to Practicing May to Dec. 08. It’s late January and nothing seems to be going right. I’ve got the new horn. I keep switching among my eight different mouthpieces (bad idea). I buy a weight that goes on the mouthpiece and is supposed to improve playing (not). I work on the Balanced Embouchure exercises. It’s so frustrating. I have the occasional good day but overall my playing is mediocre or bad.

As I mentioned in After the meltdown and the Balanced Embouchure I decided to take a lesson with Scott Bacon (Siegfried’s Call), who I bought my Hoyer from. I was lost and trying too many different things. I was struggling with endurance. My low range was poor. I was also still worried about the intonation of my new horn.

The first thing we did at the lesson was work on my low range. I could play the G below middle C but nothing lower except pedal notes. After about a half an hour he had me down to low C. My warm-up marching orders were to start every day trying to hit this note as the first note played. Then play long slow slurs from low C to G and back with the goal of increasing the range. C – G – C then C – G – middle C – G – C then repeating up to E, etc. By the end of the lesson I could just eke out C – G – middle C and back.

Scott set the metronome at quarter note = 60. It’s on for the rest of the lesson. The next thing we worked on was Exercise #1 in Embouchure Studies for French Horn by Joseph Singer. This exercise looks deceptively easy and is anything but. It’s a series of half note, half rest, half note, half rest, whole note starting on 1st space F and going to G above the staff. All breath attacks, no tonguing. Brutal.

Then out came Kopprash and we started on #1. I’m not a fan. Another exercise that looks deceptively easy. Well not only is it not easy, it’s a real lip killer. We’ve been working for about an hour and fifteen minutes and we are working in the order that he wants me to practice.

Next up is the 2nd movement of Mozart 3. Scott is meticulous. We worked on the first two measures – only – for about half an hour. By this time my chops are done. Really done. It’s the longest I’ve played since starting up again. The last time we did those two measures it sounded like gibberish.

As I left we reviewed my practice routine – warm-ups starting on the low C. Then Singer #1. Rest for a minimum of 20 minutes. Then Kopprash #1 followed by the Mozart. In addition scales, slurs, and tonguing (I’m sure I’m forgetting something.)

The lesson with Scott was really worthwhile. I didn’t need an embouchure change. Phew. I did have to promise that I wouldn’t switch mouthpieces anymore. I learned how to practice developing my low range. I learned how to get more out of practicing – breaking down the problem areas into the smallest steps and repeating it and repeating it and…..I still had issues with the intonation but I’m pretty convinced it’s me since Scott can play the horn in tune.

By following Scott’s practice routine my low range improved dramatically in about a week. I changed to practicing in twenty minutes chunks followed by twenty minute rests. By doing this I was able to increase my actual practicing time to about two hours. Now there is enough time to actually work on everything I want to work on.

Since my first lesson I’ve had two more lessons with Scott. I ‘graduated’ from exercise 1 to exercise 2 in the Kopprash book. He added exercise 4 in the Singer book – quarter  note slurs starting from G going to C, then A going to D, B to E, etc. – and we’ve gotten to the 16th notes in the 2nd movement of Mozart 3. Boy I really struggle with those. If I set the metronome to eighth note = 110 (really slow) I can just about play them. Usually I’m either lagging behind or rushing ahead or sometimes just tuning out the metronome altogether (my favorite).

I’m now taking lessons with Scott every four to five weeks and with Lynn once a week. I think of lessons with Scott sort of like a master class. Lynn and I work on the nitty gritty stuff that has to be worked on week to week. We also finish each lesson playing some duets which I really enjoy and it helps my sightreading. It also ends each lesson on a positive note – pun intended. Scott is about a three hour drive from my home so weekly lessons with Scott are not an option. If both of them lived near by I would have a really tough time choosing one over the other. They complement each other very well and I learn so much from each of them.

Day 7 and counting –>

Practicing – May to Dec. 08

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When I started playing again last May I didn’t have any routine for practicing. I’d blow (I can’t call it buzzing yet) into the mouthpiece for a minute or so and then just try to play stuff. I tackled the C major scale, just one octave, and I bought the Rubank Soloist Folio book and started with Shenandoah.  My mother, who lives with me, is a well known composer and pianist and we’d just play what I could in the book. Nothing like having a built-in pianist who cheers me on even when I don’t get any notes right. On the other hand, she has perfect pitch. All of you hornists out there have to know what living with that must be like. (Voice from upstairs …. your A is flat… two minutes later….your F is sharp… and so it goes. Today she told me that my F was sharp but only a little bit – progress!)

After the initial weeks of just blow and try to play, I got out my Farkas book and added the first warm-ups he recommends but within the range I could play. At this point I managed about 20 minutes before my chops gave up. I was hoping that in addition to the technical improvement warm-ups would provide that my endurance would also increase. Alas, no such luck.

Over the next two months I did increase my practice time to about 40 minutes a day but only 20 minutes of it was decent. I was using some Farkas warm-ups, The First Practical Book of French Horn Studies and some of the pieces in the Rubank book. The Andante Cantable from the Tchaikovsky 5th was one of my favorites. Who doesn’t try to butcher that when they start playing? Occasionally I’d add some fun stuff from a Beatles book and a Phantom of the Opera book I bought.

After another month or two I felt like I wasn’t making any progress and I decided to get a teacher. My endurance was still at around 20 minutes (of decent playing) and I was still playing the same stuff maybe slightly better. I started taking lessons with Lynn at the end of August. My first two lessons are described in Time for a Teacher.

Around October I was practicing for about 40 to 45 minutes a day before I had to stop. I’d try to do another 15 – 20 minutes later in  the day but usually only managed 10 or less. I really wanted to do more. 70% of this time was spent on long tones, slurs, scales from the Peres book, and etudes from the Preparatory Melodies for Solo Work for Horn book that were relatively easy. I spent a bit of time on some of the easier works in the Mason Jones solo book and I started working on Franz Strauss’ Nocturno. I tried to maintain good air support, a big problem of mine, good tone, and intonation. But most of the time my air support was non-existent, my tone was fuzzy, and my intonation marginal at best. Once upon a time I had a good ear. Nice fairy tale.

By December I was really frustrated. I felt like I was stuck in a rut. No increase in chop time. No improvement in playing that I could detect. I was still working on most of the same etudes. I started blaming equipment instead of me. So I go and buy a new horn and a bunch of mouthpieces. Will this ever get better?

A lesson and practicing –>

It’s all about the air

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A few days ago I posted about one really bad practice day and one mediocre practice day. Today’s Practice Session 😦 and Yesterday’s Practice – Part 2. In fact, the past week or two hasn’t been that good. Kind of plodding along practice days. You keep at it because you know you should but there’s no real sense of accomplishment and it gets discouraging. Fortunately yesterday and today were stellar.

I’ve always had problems with air. In the beginning I just didn’t have enough of it and I had to learn how to breathe properly. Now I have plenty of (hot?) air, I know how to breathe but I frequently forget to do it (horn breathing that is).

My teacher is always harping about air. During my lessons I get reminded frequently and then passages go better. Usually it’s ‘use faster air’. Yesterday I had a revelation. If you’ve read any of my previous posts that talk about my playing you’ll know that I have a problem with ‘gurgling’ between notes during slurs. It drives me crazy.

For some reason – one of those thoughts that just arrive and you don’t know why but are glad they did – yesterday I thought ‘push’ air instead of ‘faster’ air and lo and behold the gurgle in the measure I was working on went away. The notes didn’t get louder, just nice and clean. So as I played every time I had a gurgle I wrote ‘push’ above the notes. Guess what? All the gurgles went away. I still think ‘faster’ air if I want to play higher.

It’s times like this that make all the plodding along days worth it. The breakthroughs are few and far between but when they happen, oh boy is it a nice feeling.

Missing Blog Entries – Updated 05/02/09

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Note: A list of all my posts in located on top right side of of the page. I will not be updating this page.

The first entries that I wrote for my blog have disappeared from the list on the right. They are:

The Beginning

Time for a Teacher

Progress? Fall 2008

Buying a Horn

The New Horn

The New Horn Part 2

My Mouthpiece Saga

Joining a Band

The Meltdown

A complete list of my posts are at: All My Posts.

Yesterday’s Practice – Part 2

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April 18th, 2009: Yesterday afternoon’s practice session was better than the morning’s session. Not good yet, but better. Instead of working on my usual set of scales and etudes, I just played through some of the pieces I am working on. I also did some work on tonguing, something my teacher was harping on at yesterday’s lesson.

I didn’t play anything really high – nothing higher than Ab above the staff which is not a problem for me. I sometimes have problems with A and Bb. High C happens, but it’s rare except for my first set of scales for the day. My frustration is not with range but with poor attacks and sloppy slurs and in particular gurgly note to note slurs. Those drive me crazy because I know I can play them correctly. If I’m having a good day maybe I’ll gurgle a few notes here and there but most of what I play is clean. It’s the reverse on bad days. My interval slurs – thirds and up – are decent. If I miss one of those it’s more likely because I didn’t hear the interval correctly. I think my problem with note to note slurs is a lack of concentration causing a relaxation of air support. Just because you know what the issues are doesn’t mean that you can fix it right away. Aaargh.

I decided to record yesterday’s practice sessions. What a humbling experience that was. My teacher keeps saying that I’m better than I think I am. Well, that was not the case yesterday. I was definitely worse than I think I am. My ego took a beating. Maybe the morning was so bad because I was nervous. I knew that recorder was on. It shouldn’t bother me and I need to find a way to forget that the recorder is on.

I think recording pratice sessions is important. Not too often, maybe once a month. Between laptops and those handheld recorders it’s an easy thing to do. It is the only surefire way to track improvement. I probably should have stopped recording once I realized how badly I was playing. Yes, I know I just said I was nervous but I really do think it was more than that and the bad playing exacerbated the nervousness.

Today’s another day and I have to put the bad day behind me. It’s a busy day for me so putting in two hours is probably not in the cards. Maybe that’s a good thing – we’ll see.

TAFTO –>

Today’s Practice Session :(

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Friday April 17th: Ugh. I was very surprised that this morning’s practice session was so poor. It’s been a really busy week for me so I didn’t practice as much as usual. Usually I get in about two hours everyday. Tuesday I only played at band rehearsal. Wednesday I didn’t practice at all and yesterday I had a lesson but didn’t play other than that. I didn’t play that well at my lesson but I usually don’t. Something about playing in front of my teacher makes me nervous. It shouldn’t but it does.

I expected to play really well this morning considering that I didn’t play much during the week. Instead it was almost another meltdown day. Major frustration. I practice in chunks of 20 minutes – play, rest, play, rest, play etc. My first 20 minutes was ok but it’s basically a warm-up. Lots of easy low notes and long tones. The second and third 20 minute sessions, not so much. In fact it’s been months since I have played so poorly. I couldn’t even play a scale without clamming a few notes. Nevermind Kopprash. I completely butchered Mozart’s 3rd concerto something I usually play decently.

I am going to resist the temptation to overanalyze this. I’m going to practice for another hour later this afternoon and I’m hoping it will be better. If it’s not then I have to decide to lay off tomorrow, play just a little or just practice as usual and play through the slump. Hmm.

Yesterday’s Practice – Part 2 –>