Low Horn - Just 3 Things
Jeff Nelsen talks about low horn playing. Click to play the video.
The Technician – Process – How
The Person – Purpose – Why
The Musician – Product – What
In this video “Low Horn – Just 3 Things” Jeff gives you three ideas for each of the above factors of performance. He’s sharing general concepts and approaches to them, through which some discoveries and growth can be found. Experiment freely with these concepts, and contact Jeff through email anytime with your questions. Download the accompanying PDF here.
Pedagogy - Takeshi Hidaka
by Takeshi Hidaka
Greetings to the readers of IHS digital newsletter. It is a privilege and I would like to express my appreciation to Prof. Ab Koster for the opportunity to contribute the article.
I currently work for the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) and I teach and learn horn and music together with the talented young people. Geidai, celebrating its 130th anniversary this year, meaning 130 years have passed since we, the Japanese, have started to move forward with full-scale implementation of western music into our Japanese educational system. Until then, many Japanese studied abroad to learn classical music, which was not familiar in Japanese society back then. With the spread of the Internet, we are able to access to any information easily; however, I strongly feel it is essential for musicians to encounter live music and feel music in their hearts. I would like to extend my gratitude to fruitful articles written by horn players in the past, and I will try my best to provide new information.
When playing the horn, I believe improving one’s ensemble abilities with other musicians through chamber music and learning the basics such as musical styles are important; moreover, I feel it is essential to develop vibrancy of the sound. In addition to this, listening to your own sound with your ears and finding the right point of resonance are the necessary steps to improve horn playing.
Acoustically speaking, we all know how the "dents" on our instrument and its structure prevent us from playing the right pitch and sound. The movement and the position of rotary valves affect the vibrancy of the sound, and we all need to be aware of both the structure of the instrument and the maintenance methods. Parallel to the musical approach to the horn, I invite and work closely with a licensed physical therapist, implementing a physical therapy approach to horn playing at the university.
There is an important relationship between the breathing, posture, and attitude, when playing the horn. When we are able to breathe smoothly as we play the horn, it has a positive impact both physically and mentally.
In order to acquire knowledge of basic medicine, we learn from kinematics, physiology, anatomy, posture, circulation (heart) and respiration (lung), sensory system, etc. Surprisingly, there are many students who are not aware of the right position of the diaphragm and/or how it moves. In our classes, students learn about the position and center of gravity responsible for balancing our bodies. The students not only learn from texts and figures, but they actually feel their bodies by moving their bodies through exercise and stretching. Somatic sensory awareness plays an important role in order to realize the relationship between the body movements and center of gravity.
Somatic sensory awareness is one of the most important elements in order to control and keep the good posture, and I believe that developing somatic sensory awareness is very important when playing the horn. This physical therapy approach is very simple, reproducible, and universal. We also learn about “self-care,” which helps musicians to care for themselves in order to continue stable performance.
Through the classes I have given in the past two years, changes of students’ postures and attitudes are seen with improvements of the sounds and techniques. By developing the somatic sensory awareness and forming the good habit of listening to the vibrancy of sound, the level in which students realize and feel the quality and color of sounds seems to increase greatly. I strongly believe that working on educational research, not only from the musical approach, but also with a special team of physical therapists and instrument makers, are inevitable for the future improvement of horn performance and expression.
Takeshi Hidaka studied economics at Nagasaki University and horn in Tokyo and Maastricht. His teachers include E. Penzel, W. Sanders, Kozo Moriyama, Makoto Yamada, and Yasunori Tahara. He joined the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and became acting principal in 2008. Since 2013, he is associate professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts and has had a distinguished solo, chamber music, and recording career.
http://hidaka.conmoto.jp
Pedagogy - Takeshi Hidaka
English versionIHSニュースレターをご覧の皆様こんにちは。今回アプ・コスター教授より、寄稿する機会を賜りましたこと、深く感謝申し上げます。
私は現在、東京藝術大学に勤めています。ホルンを通じて才能豊かな学生達と音楽を学び、楽しんでいます。東京藝術大学は藝大（Geidai）という略称で愛され、創立１３０年目を迎えます。私たち日本人が本格的に西洋音楽を教育機関で体系的に取り組み始めて１３０年過ぎたということになります。その前まであまりなじみの無かったクラシック音楽を知るために、沢山の日本人が海外に留学しました。今ではインターネットも普及して、情報を得ることが簡単になりましたが、音楽家はやはりライブで直接音楽に触れることや体感することが最も大切だと、近年より一層感じるようになりました。
これまで沢山のホルン奏者の皆様からニュースレターに寄せられた寄稿文はとても重要で、内容が豊富です。深く感謝すると共に、なるだけ重複しないように努めたいと思います。
ホルンを演奏する上で、仲間と一緒に室内楽を通じてアンサンブル能力を高めること、様式感などの音楽の基礎を学ぶことはもちろん大切ですが、楽器の響きをつかむことが重要だと考えています。
それに加えて、音の響きを自分の耳で良く聴いて、うまく共鳴するポイントを見つけ出すことが上達への一歩だと考えています。
楽器の「凹み」が音響学上正しい音程や響きを阻害することは明らかにされています。ロータリーの動きの良し悪しや位置のずれが響きに影響することから、私たちが楽器の構造やメンテナンス方法を勉強することは大切です。
演奏家からの音楽的なアプローチと並行して、国家資格を持った理学療法士を大学にお招きして、理学療法アプローチも導入しています。
演奏する際の姿勢（体位：Postureと構え：Attitude）は「呼吸」と深い関係があります。
私たちが演奏する際にスムーズに呼吸ができることで、身体的のみならず精神的にも良い影響を及ぼします。
From The Munsters to the New York Philharmonic
I have played 4th horn professionally in 4 different orchestras for almost 45 years now. I didn't start out meaning to be a low horn player. My horn teachers never steered me in the direction of being a high or low horn player. It just happened that my first successful audition was for a 4th horn position. I believe I was fortunate to have found my niche.
When I was around 12 years old and had been playing for just a couple of years, I was having a horn lesson when all of a sudden my teacher asked me to play the theme from "The Munsters". This was a popular TV show at the time, and I was completely mortified. I had been playing it at school while warming up, and another of my horn teacher's students had heard me and went to my teacher, wanting to know why she wasn't teaching the "The Munsters" to him. I thought I had done something wrong by playing something not assigned, but I guess she was glad to know that I could pick something up on my own.
Playing in the New York Philharmonic horn section is like meeting up with your friends every day and having a great time. I can't believe it's a job. (Don't tell the management). You get to make music with your friends and their wonderful artistry makes your playing better.
Howard Wall has been 4th horn in the NY Phil for 23 years after playing in the Philadelphia Orchestra for almost 19 years. Before this he played 2 years in the Phoenix Symphony and 1 year in the Denver Symphony. He also plays in a duo with his wife former MET concertmaster Elmira Darvarova.
How to Improve Your Low Register
By Denise Tryon
Very few horn players are naturally gifted in the low register of the instrument, but this doesn’t mean you can’t become a great low horn player!! The question I get asked most often is “how can I improve my low register?”. My first answer is always “try practicing more in the low register”! I am perplexed when people tell me they average 15 - 20 minutes a day practicing in the low register, and then wonder why it isn’t as developed as their upper register. I find most people just don’t practice down there enough - for whatever reason - they’re focused on their upper register, they’re worried it will harm their upper register, they don’t sound as good in the low register so they avoid it (just to name a few). My ideal practice session is completely balanced in all fundamental techniques (high/low, loud/soft, slurred/articulated, etc).
The next best way (besides just increasing your time practicing in the low register) to improve is to do some good blasting down there. Yes, blasting!! Sound a bit ugly in the beginning, it’s ok. It helps your air, face and jaw figure out what they need to do. I still do this every day (some days are better than others)! There are 2 exercises I routinely play. One is from the Farkas book, The Art of French Horn Playing on pages 60 - 61. He calls it his “low horn” exercise. I would rename it the “break range” exercise! If you are able to do this all the way through, quite loud - f or ff - both slurred and articulated, the low range will feel much better! The second is from my own daily routine, and it looks like this (half note = 50 - 60):
I start in this key and go down chromatically. I play this as low as I can play, and don’t sacrifice loudness for breath. If you need a breath in the middle of a slur, stop, take a breath, restart on the same note and go on. Play the slurs as smooth as possible.
Good & Low
by Audrey Good
I am Audrey Good, second horn of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and fourth horn in the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse horn quartet.
Twenty years ago, I was a frustrated piano student who wanted something more…something glorious and shiny that leaks spit onto your favourite pants.
My earliest experience with a live horn was the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra’s production of Peter and the Wolf. When the hornists stood up at the end and revealed the full glory of their instruments, I fell in love.
How could something so lovely play such an evil character? So dark and haunting…and low.
Despite my newfound conviction that the horn was the key to unlocking my destiny, it took a bit of time to convince my parents that I was serious. A bit of time…and a rubber hose.
I acknowledge now that it’s cruel to families to teach children that by buzzing on a rubber dishwashing hose, they can achieve a somewhat horn-like stretch of the harmonic series. But armed with this demonstration fresh in my mind, I gained access to our own home’s rubber hose and proceeded to wage psychological warfare on my immediate family.
It’s a passing fling, they said? I wouldn’t continue to practice piano if I played the horn, they said?
My zealous dedication to wrapping the beloved hose around my upper body like a moldy sousaphone proved otherwise. Sometimes I marched around the house with it, and other times I sat with the poise of a queen, but I gargled through the available intervals daily.
I think the general consensus in our household became “Nothing could sound worse than this.” (They had never heard a beginner hornist.) On my 10th birthday, I met my first horn—a yellow brass, single f Yamaha. It was the most beautiful thing in the world.
Three of my Top Berlin Philharmonic Low Horn Memories (so far!)
by Sarah Willis
My audition
In the third round I was asked to play the Shostakovich 5 low excerpt again "this time louder, please". Thank goodness I had practised it louder and still had a bit of forte in reserve!
The first Beethoven 9 with Simon Rattle
My first concert after getting tenure was Beethoven 9 - a no pressure, small concert.... live TV in the Philharmonie! All rather terrifying and funnily enough, I felt more under pressure to play well so as to show my new orchestra they hadn't made a mistake by giving me tenure than I had during the trial! A scary concert. But it went well, and I remember being so grateful at the end of the 3rd movement that Beethoven had written us low horns such a wonderful solo.
Taking over 2nd F Wagner tuba
When Norbert Hauptmann retired, I took over the job of 2nd F tuba. I hadn’t played much Wagner tuba before - one always hears what beasts they are to play...- but from the very first notes on the Berlin Phil Wagner tuba (it had been played in by the late, great Manfred Klier) I absolutely adored it. I love being the bass of a chord and am always happy when I see Bruckner on the schedule. I usually have to do some breathing exercises before... those ends of the 2nd movements need a lot of air!! (And good nerves... unfortunately I never know in advance whether it's going to be a good nerve day or a bad one...but that's life as a horn player, isn't it? :-)