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A Horn Player's Study Guide

by Thomas Bacon

Level 3

By Level 3, a player should be practicing at least one hour each day, along with ensemble rehearsals. As we learned at Level 2, practice is most effective when divided into three different areas of concentration:

1. Tone-building, scales and other technical exercises.

2. Etudes or other assignments from method books.

3. Solo and ensemble music.

Some of the same exercises used at Levels 1 & 2 can still be very effective in furthering development of tone and technique. But remember to practice for improvement, not just to get through the exercise. Technical exercises that we memorize and play every day, like long tones, slurs, arpeggios, scales, etc. can easily become nothing more than a sequence of notes that we have to get through before we can practice our real music. The danger then comes in playing these exercises with the same mistakes every time, thereby reaffirming those mistakes. Remember that practice makes perfect, and if you practice with mistakes, you will perform with mistakes.

To progress from Level 3 to Level 4, the player must not only increase the amount of time spent practicing, but also increase the effectiveness of the time spent. Concentration levels need to be raised and each note should be played with utmost conviction and scrutiny. You should ask yourself about every note: "Is that exactly the way I want it to be?"

During Level 3, the player should:

1) develop range to at least 2 1/2 octaves, and know chromatic fingerings throughout that range;

2) know major and minor scales and arpeggios up to four sharps and four flats;

3) be introduced to and begin practicing: lip trills, double and triple tonguing, stopped horn, transposition, and bass clef (old and new notation);

4) develop dynamics still further so that even at extremes of pp and ff, tone is still warm, full, and relaxed sounding.

RECOMMENDED READING

Tuckwell -- Horn

LEVEL 3 - ETUDES AND STUDIES

Horner-Meek -- Exercises and Etudes

Kopprasch -- 50 Etudes, opus 6

SUPPLEMENTARY -

Pottag-Andraud 335 Selected Melodious and Progressive Technical Studies, Book II (the "Red Book")

Contains warm-up exercises, technical studies, etudes by Gallay, Gugel, Hoss and others, and solo pieces by many composers including the solo part to all four Mozart Concertos. This book provides material for the player through Level 6.

LEVEL 3 SOLOS

Beethoven/Andraud -- Adagio Cantabile

Danburg -- Poeme

Dubois/Voxman -- Cavatina

Grazioli/Reynolds -- Adagio

Mozart/Sansone -- Adagio

Mozart/Sansone -- Concerto No. 3

Perrini -- Legend

Schumann -- Wanderer's Song (from Selected Songs Vol.1, Thomas Bacon, editor)

Solomon -- Sonatina

Strauss, Franz -- Seaside Impressions

Uber -- Summer Nocturne

LEVEL 3 HORN ENSEMBLES

DUETS

Henning -- 59 Duets

Mayer -- Suite No. 2

TRIO

Schubert/Voxman -- Three Songs

QUARTETS

Bacon, editor -- 88 German Quartets

Davis -- Andante and Fanfare

Hoffman -- Cornocopia

Mayer -- Four Little Pieces for Horn Quartet

Mendelssohn/Reynolds -- Four Quartets

Mendelssohn/Voxman -- Three Choruses

Michiels -- Reverie

Mozart/Howe -- Divertimento No. 8

Schubert/Reynolds -- Six Quartets

Stout -- Folk Song Suite

Levels: Intro | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six