Professional Documents
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that. Starting on the single B-flat hom has many advantages over starting on
A Fun & Easy Approach to Playing a single F hom. the most common first hom for young players. I know this
approach deviatesfii^mcommon practice but there are advantages in doing so.
and Teaching the French Horn Advantage No. 1; The single B-flat hom is smaller, lighter, and easier to hold,
carry, and blow through. If a student moves from tmmpet to B-flat hom, the
fingering are very similar. It took me only a day to figure it out.
Joan Watson
Advantage No. 2: The single B-flat hom is shorter and is much easier to play
"Of all the orchestral instruments, the hom, probably the most difficult to play. high on than the F hom. Most young players have difficulty playing above a
is one of Ihe most useftil," suggests the Hatyard Brief Dictionary of Music. third-space C. On the F hom, they face two obstacles:findingthe notes among
Widely considered a challenge to be taken up by only the most diligent students, harmonics that are close together, and fingerings that are not helpful (moving
the hom can also be a curiosity, if not a source of confusion, in the band room. stepwise from C to G on the F hom isfingered0,1,0,1,0, but on the Bb hom
isO, l&2,2,0,1).
If the hom were as difficult as people think it is, I wouldn't be playing it! The
first thing I get my students to do is to make a sign for their music stand that Advantage No. 3: Students' confidence comes faster on the B-flat hom because
says, "FUN and EASY." 1 got that advice from Phillip Farkas, author of The die fingerings help them know what note they are on, and they have better
.4rt of French Hom Playing {Evanston: Summy-Birchard, 1956). If those two control ofthe range issue. They advance faster and have more ftin doing it.
elements are missing, something is wrong.
Advantage No. 4: When they are ready to move to a double hom. the switch is
A basic understanding of how the hom evolved can be helpful. Consider easy. Adding the F hom to the B-fiat is much easier than adding the B-flat hom
the brief history below as a prequel to the subsequent outline of the teaching to the F. More notes are actually used by the B-flat hom {e.g., most pros switch
approach 1 have developed over the last thirty-five years. to the B-flat hom on middle G-sharp (Thumb-2-3), so every note above that is
on the B-flat hom. If you use the B-flat hom to play below middle C, the notes
Short History of the Hom speak better and are clearer and easier to hit.
Starts off as a signalling device made irom animal homs
Bronze Age: develops into a metal instrument, with a longer tube and more Disadvantage No. 1: The B-flat hom lacks notes fi\)m low B (bass-clef second
notes line) to pedal F-sharp below that, then it provides the remaining range down to
Continues as a signalling instrument for hunting. Thus, the bell faces pedal B. You need an F hom to play these notes but, to my knowledge, most
backwards because homists had to signal to the hunters behind. school-band parts will never require them; by the time they are required, the
One of the first wind instruments in the orchestra. By lowering the bell a student will most likely be on a double hom.
bit and placing a hand in it, the sound quality and range improved (the tube is
lengthened or shortened slightly by closing or opening the bell with the right Disadvantage No, 2 (Not): Many will say you can't get a characteristic sound
hand). on the B-flat hom but this is a red herring since every pro player has a double
The "crook," our tuning-slide equivalent, is developed. Homists could change (F/B-flat) hom and plays on the B-flat hom much ofthe time.
key when needed by using different length crooks. But it was still considered
the "hand hom," and scales were obtained by manipulating the right hand in I am not advocating tossing out all the single F homs, but if the opportunity
the bell. arises to purchase or rent a hom for a student, consider the single B-flat.
The orchestra goes fh)m two to four horns. While one duet fumbled for especially for beginners. Yamaha makes both types, and most band metliod
different crooks, the other pair could be ready to go in whatever key was needed. books include both sets of fingerings.
To this day, homs are usually written in two pairs, first and second in a high/low
duet and third and fourth in a high/low duet. Understanding How to Play
The development of valves in the industrial age ended the era of the hand The basics are simple: without a wami, sonorous sound, the hom has little else
hom. Today we have three or four valves manipulated by the left hand, with to ofFer an ensemble. Someone playing out of tune and missing notes with a
the right hand used to colour the sound and adjust intonation slightly. At some bad sound is so much harder to take than someone missing notes with a great
point in time, a single tonality won out, hence F hom parts. sound. And a great sound is easier to play in tune. So, that is the number one
thing to achieve. Everything else comes afler that.
This instrument developed as a compromise, and the hom we all play actually
consists of seven homs (i.e., seven different valve combinations or lengths Some Observations and Conclusions
of tubing, just like the trombone, trumpet, and tuba), with all seven sharing Most brass teachers focus on "buzzing" the lips to create sound but there is a
the same bell and mouthpiece. The longer the tube, the bigger the bell and big difference between tensing one's lips to buzz and feeling the air moving
mouthpiece need to be to work optimally; the opposite is tme for the shorter past your lips with a relaxed jaw that allows for a healthy, resonant vibration.
homs (smaller bell and mouthpiece). Since they all share the same bell and The best "buzz" I ever heard was produced by my two-year-old son, Max. who
mouthpiece, none ofthe seven homs is quite right. And the double (F/B-flat) pushed my hom up to his mouth and blew. He sounded fantastic! That is the
hom has fourteen sets of tube lengths! kind of buzz we are all looking for: the effortless result of having your lips just
close enough together to vibrate when you push air across them. Youngsters at
Starting to Piay the Hom two also have the advantage of breathing properly from their diaphragms and
I started on B-fat trumpet in Grades 3-6 and moved to a single B-flat hom after then blowing out from there.
As they advance, this can be extended, as in Music Example 2 below: If the big muscles in the body keep the air flowing correctly, the little muscles
ofthe lips only need to vibrate. There is no need to increase the pressure on the
lips to squeeze notes out. The power ofthe stomach and back muscles do all the
work of creating the right air speed and amount for each note's vibrations. The
lips only vibrate in response to that air They don't have to woric hard at all.
Music Examine 2. More advanced version of a long-tone exercise.
If you take a rock and throw it into water, concentric circles spread out on Music Example 3a. "Moving down" version of Leuba's Interval Study.
the surface. If we create vibrations with our lips by blowing air past them,
those vibrations go out into the brass instrument. But they also go in all other
- M J I I I I I I . t J 1.1 I J I .i I - I I J 1-i^t^^tr^
directions, as in our water analogy, including travelling back into the body that
created them; now the whole body is vibrating that note. Music Example 3b "Moving up" version of Leuba's Interval Study.
To take this one step further, the true instmment is the player's own body. How Students who do these exercises every day will enjoy the hom at a much higher
the body vibrates creates the quality of sound that goes into the instrument. Try level. Knowing where a "leap" to another note comes is quite confidence-
playing a wind instrument with your body tense; at best, you will get a tight, raising. The distance of a major third interval is the same in every key. Leuba
hard-to-produce, out-of-tune sound. If the body stays relaxed and open, and suggests playing the interval study in a different key each day. For beginners,
you use only the stomach and back muscles to push out the air at the speeds and this may be only two keys to an interval of a perfect fifth, but they will start the
amounts required, playing becomes effortless. habit of thinking this way, and can expand the interval and the keys later, as
needed. It is also a much more interesting way to practice scales.
Following this line of thinking, the instrument's range also gets reflected in how
the body vibrates. Achieving high notes is purely a matter of speeding up the Also, in interval practice, the student comes to understandftirtherhow to produce
air from the stomach muscles, using a bit less ofit, and, since the vibration of a the vibration for each note, and how that changes how they feel inside. They
higher note is faster and shorter, then the corresponding vibration comes from