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From the Mailbag: Right Brain, Left Brain, and Connecting with Students
Several years ago a question came in. It was one that I found interesting to ponder at the time and still find interesting to ponder. The left side of the brain is the seat of language and the right...
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Review: the Digital Version of The Horn Call
I have heard it said that “People that hang onto their old ways fall behind.” One of the strong directions of change in the publishing world is toward digital publications. Members of the International...
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PDF: 11 Gallay Etudes, edited by Josef Schantl
Jacques-François Gallay (1795-1864) wrote many great horn etudes that are certainly worthy of use by modern horn players. Standard, published versions are available, but alternate editions can shed new...
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Knopf or Geyer?
One of the perennial favorite articles in Horn Matters is on the topic of Kruspe or Geyer. Both terms reference the names of classic horn makers (Kruspe still being in business), but both terms in a...
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On the single F horn and 19th century low horn playing (and solos)
A major long term interest of mine is the valved horn in the 19th century. It was a time frame dominated by single horns built to take crooks — instruments that are very different than those generally...
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Review and First Impressions: Paxman Academy and Series 4 Horns
One exciting development in the horn world is that Paxman has not only expanded their product line but also has expanded their dealer network. In particular, a store local to me in Arizona, Milano’s...
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An Event to Consider: the IHCA
This summer a horn competition will be held, one that has been around for a while, the International Horn Competition of America. This year the IHCA will be held August 28-30, 2015 on the campus of The...
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An inside look at tonguing (and more) on the horn
One of the big, important topics of horn playing is tonguing. A new video making the rounds this weekend is the newest episode of Sarah´s Music, the classical music program by hornist Sarah Willis from...
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On the single F horn, part II: Mouthpieces for the serious player
Continuing this brief series on the F horn and the 19th century, spending close to two months mostly playing the F horn on period solo literature has been an interesting project and learning...
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Warming-up before Farkas: Basic Technical Studies by Harold Meek
Recently I had a realization that so far as I can tell I don’t recall seeing a warm-up routine described in any horn publication before WWII. You can find random exercises and technical studies of...
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Copyright week, part I: Never take Xerox music into a lesson
“Creative Enterprise” is a major buzz phrase in the musical world today, and relates generally to the idea that you want to actually make money from your musical work. That income can be from a variety...
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Copyright week, part II: Are you a pirate, or a thief?
Students need to clearly realize that creative enterprise is funded by copyright protection, and that sharing musical files (print or audio) is really a bad idea. Photocopy machines have been around...
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Copyright week, part III: The inconvenient truth
Want to kill creative enterprise? One great way to do this is to illegally reproduce copyrighted music and recordings. One of the ways people will justify reproducing portions of copyrighted materials...
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Copyright week, part IV: So where can you legally obtain horn excerpts from...
Perhaps cramping your creative enterprise as a horn player is the fact that some music is not actually in the public domain and likely won’t ever be public domain during your lifetime. At this point an...
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Copyright week, part V: On dissertations, exercises, and other closing thoughts
Creative enterprise comes in many forms, and research/scholarship is certainly a type of creative enterprise impacted by copyright. “Back in the day,” writing my DM dissertation, my committee did not...
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On the single F horn, part III: Gearing up for a recording project
It took over two months but at this point I am fairly comfortable with playing a period single F horn. In part I of this series a topic was my being inspired by the discovery of forgotten horn...
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On attention to detail, accuracy, and tonguing problems
This week a legendary figure in the horn/music world passed away, Gunther Schuller. His name has come up in Horn Matters quite a few times, and I have over the years come to appreciate several things a...
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On the single F horn, part IV: Fun with crooks
As part of ramping up toward the F horn recording project (series starts here) I realized that the crook I was using certainly left the main slide too close to pushed in all the way to be comfortable –...
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Brief review: Kelly 6V mellophone mouthpiece
To kick off a series of short reviews this summer, first up is the Kelly 6V mellophone mouthpiece in lexan plastic. A few years ago I reviewed their horn mouthpieces, and it bears repeating right off...
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Brief review: Monster valve oil
Another item that arrived for review not long ago was Monster valve oil. Backing up, horn players typically use three or four types/grades of oil on their instruments. This “Ask Dave” article explains...
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