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Brief review: Harmony Kopprasch by Jeffrey Agrell
The second publication in the Millennium Kopprasch series by Jeffrey Agrell is Harmony Kopprasch. For me personally this volume is much more fun to play than was Rhythm Kopprasch (reviewed here). Why...
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PSA: Why did my horn come with two main tuning slides?
Owners of Hoyer 6800 series horns may have noted that the horn is supplied with long and short main tuning slides. I noted in lessons last year that among my students several were using the shorter...
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Episodes 25-27 of the Horn Notes Podcast, interesting new horn products and...
Episode 27 of the Horn Notes Podcast was recently posted, an interview with Ion Balu and Dan Vidican focusing on their new horns but also much more (Oil your valves! Don’t hike without water!). As with...
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Brief Review: Richard Deane, Mid-Century Sonatas for Horn and Piano
Last year Richard Deane, who serves currently as associate principal horn of the New York Philharmonic, released a new CD. I was interested to hear it for not only the repertoire recorded but also...
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Where to get printable horn excerpts
One thing I have heard mentioned more than a few times recently are issues with printing excerpts from Hornexcerpts.org. There is no “printable” version generated by the site (there used to be, but not...
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Brief review: New publication, Keys to Transposition
New for 2018 is Keys to Transposition: A Method for the Teaching & Learning of Transposition on the Horn by Pete Nowlen with Brian O’Donnell and Heidi Oros. One of the key tasks for a horn teacher...
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PSA: How long should that mute string be?
One thing you need to do periodically as a hornist is hang your mute from your wrist to make a quick switch from open to closed or closed to open. Closed to open it probably does not matter much how...
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Brief Review: New book on Multiphonics
One work that many hornists are interested to work on is the Weber Concertino, which contains multiphonics in the cadenza. How do you learn the technique? One great answer is the new book by Michaeal...
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The Top Three Horn Podcasts
Podcasts are a great way to follow your interests. There are three primary horn-related podcasts to know about as of 2018, all of which have hit their stride in recent episodes, and all come out...
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Talking about Horn Etudes
Etudes. Studied systematically or in more of a free form manner they a great way to work on technique and to keep your chops healthy. They are the topic of a conversation with Gabriel Kovach, principal...
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Injury, pressure, dystonia, other playing problems
In episode 29 of the Horn Notes Podcast the topic centers around injury, including focal dystonia, mouthpiece pressure, and various playing problems, with some equipment tips. Joining me for the...
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From the Mailbag: How to finger second line G on a single B-flat horn
This question actually came in now several years ago, and I answered it by e-mail, but it is worth noting here in Horn Matters as well. The question had to do with fingering G on the second line on a...
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Brief review: Preparatory Kopprasch by Jeffrey Agrell
A very significant new publication aimed at the younger horn player (and their teachers) is Preparatory Kopprasch by Jeffrey Agrell. What Agrell has done is take the familiar Kopprasch melodies and...
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We sure use a lot of old resources in the horn world
Periodically I will see people on social media referencing Morley-Pegge for definitive information on horn history. As great a book as it was, the book is dated, as is the Farkas book as a horn...
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Bad horn practice advice, holiday edition
One topic that always comes up is what to practice after things wind down in December. My personal answer when I was a student was to work on excerpts. I have addressed this more than one time in Horn...
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Apprenticeship: Practice and teaching insights
One thing you have to keep looking for as a teacher are insights into how to teach better and how to help students learn better. I recently was reading a number of things related to studio teaching...
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Looking ahead in the online world of horn
As the year ends and it is always a good time to look back and look ahead, and especially so the online world of the horn as we approach the tenth anniversary of Horn Matters. Not long ago, of course,...
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Does your lip touch your mouthpiece cup?
I had heard trombone players speak of this, their upper lip does enter the cup a bit and touches the cup when they vibrate. How about horn? In short, with the typical older, deeper horn cup models this...
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PSA: How many mouthpieces should you own?
In my recent article of bad horn advice I suggested that a serious student of the horn needs to own at least 5 mouthpieces. To test my theory a bit I ran a Twitter survey that got a good number of...
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Brief review: Duet Kopprasch by Jeffrey Agrell
Continuing with his Millennium Kopprasch series, the latest installment from Jeffrey Agrell is Duet Kopprasch. Stepping back a second, I believe many people have imagined duet parts to Kopprasch over...
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