A live Horn Hangout all about the first years of the horn featuring Annie Bosler in LA and Heidi Wessel in Berlin. Invaluable advice and tips on playing and teaching in those very important early years from these two expert teachers - horn players and teachers of any age and ability will benefit from this - as did Stefan Dohr and Sarah Willis, who were both taken back to their very first horn lesson. Unmissable!
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
Hi everybody good afternoon from Berlin good evening from Melbourne hansom Tim hello good morning to any buzz ler in LA oh my goodness Andy how early is it for you there um it’s currently 6 a.m. so thank you yeah thank you Annie Heidi you’re in Berlin with us everybody meet Heidi vessel and Annie Basler our two star guests for today so great that you guys could join us you gals happy to be here come on
Stefon door of course Stefon how was your how was your weekend your week busy busy what what did you do what did you cook a lot yeah I’m really excited for today’s hangout because Heidi and Annie are two of my favorite teachers in the entire world but I’ve never actually taken a lesson from them and Stefan and
I we’re talking about beginners and the first years of horn playing and talking about how important it is to get that right at the beginning because otherwise later in life so many people get embouchure problems back problems muscle problems all sorts of things and they come to us and we think gosh if only they’ve done this right from the beginning and this is what
Heidi and Annie do and I’m in total awe of it Stefan I’m sure I know you are as well I am absolutely I can’t be minimum they’re first let’s say I really I’m happy to go back yeah me too okay so you’ve all got your horns welcome to all of you on the website I’ve got your questions here if you have questions
I will get to some a bit later we thought we’d structure it like this we’re going to have a little virtual lesson from Heidi and Annie about what they think is important in the very first hours and weeks of playing the horn and then after about 30 minutes we’re going to talk about what’s important for teaching these these beginning steps and the the first things that you do so at the beginning
I hope all of you have your horns and you’re welcome to try out these exercises with chef anh and myself and we’re a bit nervous about what we have to do because yeah we haven’t done exercises like this in a long time right so let us know where you’re watching from how long you’ve been playing the horn it would be great know that if you’re watching on
Facebook welcome let us know the same how long have you been playing and what do you play maybe you don’t play the horn and where where you’re watching from we love that but get your questions in here on the website and I’d say let’s go vamos okay who’s going first Annie sure um I would actually ask both of y’all question is start is what when you first took your first lesson had you already had like were you already in band or did you just show up to a horn teacher with a horn
I just showed up to a my horn teacher who was a trombone teacher and we didn’t have a horn teacher in the school and I showed up but I had one of these little hunting horns before so I was able to bring up quite a lot of notes so that’s why I was taken to a home teacher - not another family anymore so
I would say at least in the States we we see at least I see two different types of situations one word where the student just comes in for the first day they’ve never played a lesson most likely they never even put their horn together and the mom and dad are just like here Annie we want them to take horn the second version
I see is art you know students who may be a bad band for a couple weeks and then they come in maybe their directors gotten him to play it you know their first note their first scale and so I see kind of both sides of the coin so no matter where they come in the first thing we do is we learn to take them or not the case and and so so just making sure that the first step is laying the case flat on the ground and then figuring out most of my young students will have you know buckles on their case to eat we
Lay it flat and then we open it with the the buckles going up so you open the case and the horns not rolling out the case that that’s big step one if you do have a screw Bellhorn for some very few beginners - but I’ve seen it I’m I’ve seen one sling the horn bail across the room and literally we were back at the horn repair man in the first lesson enjoying me trying to learn to screw on the
Bible I still can’t do it properly and anyway that we’ve got that we’ve got the old original one today so screwballs but the trick that if the student does have it for the students to mark a spot on the bell so therefore you can line it up so if you haven’t done that mark that spot so then after we get the horn out were you ready to go
I usually try to fit the student to a chair so for all the students look at your chairs sit in your chair are your feet touching the ground are they hanging and so I actually keep in our studio here I keep three different size chairs to fit the students so my youngest I’ve ever taught is an 8 year old and the horn didn’t even they couldn’t even hold the horn so in ilnur their lap so we actually had two tiers next to each other and you put the bell on the chair literally and that’s how we get going so after after that we
I always remark an around the student that’s a big big thing because as you grow and change that’s checking things out but the next step for for all our beginners out there is to make sure that your you’ve got your feet not too close together and not too wide apart I tell the young ladies to please not wear dresses in the lesson especially short skirts that’s kind of awkward so so our feet are usually about 45 degrees apart and the bells on on there so if y’all don’t mind go and put your horns up to your faces it’s great no so what obviously what y’all
I hope everyone is watching is doing this and if you don’t you got to pretend okay ready in quote so yeah so if you look at we’ve got stuff on it his if his stand was directly in front of him and one of the the things to check is are your your hips in the chair square with the chair so you’re not sitting you know sitting in an angle compared to your chair so how are your hips and then sorry no and so and then the next thing is that your stand is square in front of you so your hips and your chair and your
Standard square and then you’re putting your horn up now it Stephon looks like he points his leap right maybe a little bit more towards a stand and stare yours is a little bit your shoulders are square and either option is fine just as long as you’re not feeling lots of tension through the back and obviously in the back of the neck um this is all that makes sense so far yep okay fantastic and then
I’m actually really curious how Heidi does hand position because there’s so many schools of thought on hand position I don’t even want to go down that rabbit hole today but I usually just make sure that the student with the hand position and I know y’all talked about this on one of the recent horn hangouts as well but um with the hand position
I just try to check with them to make sure they’re getting a good opening in the in the Bell my favorite is is when I actually learned from John’s herbal which he he’s he’s kind of going in you know what you’re shaking hands with someone and kind of cupping just a sliver like you’re swimming for young students it’s a good good start and then we put the horn the hand in the
Bell you put the head in the Bell on the right side sometimes I’ve seen it on the left so we’ve got to move it to the right um it’s important we see that sometimes even in like school school those people playing like that that’s not and and so the one of the biggest things I find with students and myself is that we can all get lazy with the hand position so
I’m constantly walking around how’s that hand position Heather’s aren’t the fiscal on the right side and I try to have them make sure the depending on how large their hand is and and how old they are you know the hands going in a little bit farther so that we’re just making sure we’re keeping the circle the opening you know open to get the sound out yes and um and the last thing
I’m making sure is that they’re not I see a lot of chicken arm so you know so basically I crawl the chicken arm with your hands in the Bell and they’re there sometimes bringing the chicken arm out and obviously that that takes the hand to a different side of the of the Bell and so I try to make sure they’re inserting the
Bell basically I call it like perpendicular to the floor and so as long as they’re taking the hand in there usually we’re getting a good good hand position to start from the get-go you have a particular trick you do at the beginning with with with your students I mean I love this this is exactly when we have the most incredible hand positions in master classes
I mean and everyone thinks we’re amazing teachers because all we do is open up them a little bit and they sound so much better it’s like they’re really good teachers but actually not we’re doing the the oldest trick basic yeah the basics and this is why it’s important at the beginning but Heidi what about what about you with your students when they have a really little hand um that’s interesting first thing
I do when I get my student I guess I do standing up I’m not into sitting down I’m a real nasty teacher and I make them all stand except unless they have a broken arm or a broken leg then they’re allowed to sit they know it’s very short periods time so I really prefer to do a lot of setup stuff before the first note so one of the things as you said is holding the horn first
I get them to hold the horn and as though they say good you know hello to my horn and I push it against the wall and the next thing I like is I make them go for a dance with the horn that they wiggle it around so they get a good body feeling they can even move around the shoulders so they feel like the horn is around extension
I like the roundness of my arms going through the horn so I can feel like it’s rounds like an energy exactly we were up and down yeah that’s really great you know a little bit of samba you know a little styles are you got I like really this being free for you the elbows and then I let my shoulders just fall and so you’re not flying and not too close and just as natural a body position as possible that’s for me really important standing up straight
I tell my kids all the time to imagine they’re in Star Trek you know where you go and you say beam me up Scotty you’re in these big yeah exactly so you’re in this flow of air and your body’s straight everything’s hanging and I bring the horn up to me so I make sure that I’m by Center with myself
I start with myself and then I bring the horn to me and I go samba I go dancing so I don’t know yeah I love bringing the horn to you I say that all the time because I was just being say sorry coming back now I was just saying that I love the concept of bringing the horn to you because
I see so many people bringing themself to the horn and that it you know it can cause so many problems down yeah so many bright you because you know we would see this a lot as well here and then we go and play it yeah look exactly and that’s something I learned I did a warm-up class with
Andrew Bain the other day and he had the the PE PE teacher from Colburn on it Janice and she showed us a track he track have you got see more there can you show us we’re not quite there yet Seymour I use them when I teach and how my students come super because you can be more I know it’s very very hilarious but yes so so in here and she was telling us that if this is is connecting or in any way not straight it’s taking away our ability to play the horn so we literally can’t play well if we’re doing that like oh absolutely
Absolutely my experience is when kids start with a bad posture at the beginning they fight years with this year’s me if I live five lessons at the beginning be sloppy they have five years of stress you know and so I’m extremely extremely picky about this and I get them to practice bringing the horn to their body before they even play a note they hate this they really hate it because they just want to blow but
I always get them to just stand up straight look where they feel where is their middle and they’ll bring the horn to me great and then back down and then again many many times so they put it right at the right spot and then down so this would be absolutely unconscious I feel my experience is that the first few lessons these are just the basics that will accompany them for the rest of their lives yeah and otherwise they have to change it but this first touches are so important so standing up straight feel the room feel myself and bring the horn to me and then
I let them blow air I don’t let them blow a note yet so they just feel hey where am I and get the air out because that’s really the absolute core is that the air has to be nice and free that’s the star trek open channel and blowing the air out and I’m standing up straight and that’s hard work for the kids to do this first step and after they do that only then do
I allow it home grumpy here watching hangouts today I can already play I’m sure we’ve got some beginners let us know if you’re you know on what stage I’ve got succeed some great things of people that have been playing for a long time Hannah from Bavaria’s when she was seven when she started now she’s 15 more and is from
Switzerland currently in his sixth in her his sixth year of playing the horn more and I think that’s a her Samwell is in Dijon in France been playing the horn for twelve years so there’s people that can actually play the horn but I still think it’s really important to see how teachers like yourselves who start with beginners start because we can all really benefit from that so
Annie what would you eat that now do we brought the horn to us we’re sitting or standing straight we have a good hand position on this side of the Bell not that side of the Bell what should we do now I usually have the students find what I call our favorite notes so usually every student can then you know they they if usually in the first lesson we will find at least one note and it’s usually a c e or g i’m talking all written pitches here and so we’ll find whatever their favorite pitch is and then from there see how far we can get
With that usually in the first few lessons I like to start to incorporates and some exercises and the one that is my favorite is one that actually my high school teacher gave to me and I’ve just been using ever since and some variations on it but I steal the herberto clark’s from the chunk of the trumpet book and throw the
Bharati dadada those and this re trumpet players but you’ll hear hear my students claim all the time and what we do is we work up over time to get to get it so that you can actually do it in one breath and then you can do it multiple times in one breath and I find that if the students can play you know with nice great air and um you know and get that stuff going that we can actually work it through all the keys and if you can play a c-sharp pyramidal
Clark you know a 2 a 2 times circle you’re doing pretty well so actually what you guys probably haven’t realized that if you’re watching on Facebook you haven’t seen this yet if you’re watching on the website you will have maybe seen this under the under the video box if you’re on Facebook hop on over we have amazing resources for you today
Heidi and Annie have put together some of their favorite attitudes some of their favorites solos for beginners and school horn players and and there’s there’s some really special stuff over there so get on over there download it while it’s up it’s only up for a day we have another special download for you coming up but get on over there the
Herbert Clark one is there any what can we do can Stefan and I can we play it I would you want to do a face off on a Roberto Clark how far their wonderful mess stop a mess okay you go first how long so so basically once you get to the end of the exercise loop it back to the beginning and and the goal is to see how many times through the herberto
Clark you can you can make it one breath and the win alright but it’s still be fun to see how many times are you also playing have you given up it like me or you or you can do it in any any key and the idea is to see how far you can get without taking a breath and octave down the octave double-tongued slurred tongue
I mean there’s that I just think they’re amazing cuz they’ll take you through every key so I don’t worry you’re a high D but can I just have a question or question because I can’t remember how my teacher told me where to put the mouthpiece uh-huh like if someone comes the first lesson and he’s never played the horn how would you like tell him to put that in your face somewhere usually on the mouth but like now you both have very interesting things to say about this
I I’m gonna help Heidi demonstrate hers it’s cuz it’s quite it’s not that easy any you tell us yours it gets tough on to do yours and then I’ll try and demonstrate honey to be honest I just try to you know just I like Heidi’s a lot I kind of want to start incorporating what a little bit
I’ve seen so far is but I just usually try to find you know this just a place where they’re feeling free about getting the air out and then we we usually just start there usually sometimes I have them you know just blow air through their mouths and just even put the put the horn there usually trying to get it right underneath the nose um but
I use also looking feet we work of redirecting your air so it’s a little bit more focused but yeah got it don’t it would be great why don’t you guys tell us how you started your first notes that would be really interesting I’d love to know we’d love to read that to you know what did your teachers do with you how did you get your first dose
Heidi has I mean I hope we’re not giving away any state secrets here Heidi you’ve seen I’ve zoomed right in I’m sorry about that huh oh yeah um but it’s because look do you like my earrings if you can’t wear horn earrings on the horn hang out where can you wear horrid horn earrings Heidi tell us about this method well well first
I have a few steps that I would go before I never had a student that actually could start off with one of those exercises that Stefan just played a hundred times my students always have to start with playing a node and figure out where the mouthpiece goes how does the buzzing so I would go back a couple steps
I always start again before a lot of steps before they start playing the horn the one is I start with the mouthpiece and I set the mouthpiece first on the ridge of the white and the lips see that do you see that right here and I get them to just go exactly yeah so they get right away the feeling of
I sank err on the bottom my top lip is free exactly exactly yeah so I start here’s some easy exercises I use the piano right and I first get to see ya first like that try that just for like that playing if you know it’s Stefan hey you guys try to [Music] you know so you can do like easy ones like that see what works and then
I do the next step where I start on the bottom and I roll lightly onto the top lip and so that I learn to not play right away with the pressure and more present in the bottle exactly like that sorry yeah so so that’s important for me also from my experiences I get students is with a too much tension in the top lip and the chin in the corner that the sides are just really flubber
II you know that was my problem I started out wrong and to get them wrong all right the next so that is important from the thing Sarah was talking about is I get my students at the very beginning and said they play it and then they blow out their whole face and then they come back and this is for me the place where the face is the most relaxed that’s what
I want the place where it’s the least amount of resistance so I don’t I start out of them are relaxed positions do you want to show what I mean Sarah which green shots are forbidden right now forbidden no Stefan forbidden right yes I think this is what Heidi means stop it Stefan [Music] exactly yeah it looks very funny look know you’re all doing this stop it immediately you’re doing this because from me the shits in your face and then after a kid can learn to blow out and come back and forth and then they have to start feeling the bottom of the bottom bottom lip
Again bringing tension out of the chin what note is a good note to start see you straight yeah that’s the direction I mean you guys can play you don’t need this but for a young student that’s starting the first time and they need to find out where am i relaxed and then wink and what muscles feed and then
I start bringing in the bottom lip and then I can do light little scales little slurs say ec and health Plaza so they learn to make the changes from the bottom instead of the top because that for my really good advice for you guys make the changes from the bottom lip not from the top because at the end when you’re as old and as beautiful as we are and you’re putting too much pressure on your top lip forget it it’s over right
Stefan yeah you are not very flexible if you’d like yeah I mean my experience is that the top lip works usually quite easily by itself it’s very nimble and it wants to do a lot the corners want to do this thing what’s lazy is the chin muscles and if I can access that and separate them as early as possible then
I think that’s really important and what’s also important yeah exactly what’s important is I think there’s a top I say I was a little rip in the top lip and you see lots of cracks in the lips out and I’m trying to look where is the most natural crack in the bottom lip not the most natural crack in the top lid the natural crack in the bottom lip and that’s really for me the basis of building everything out of this bottom crack in the bottom lip and that’s where
I try and find it two questions once once from you we’re gonna talk about the Oh Gail is watching hey Gail we can we she’s just mentioned the brophy book which we’ll get back to straightaway Gail fantastic the brophy book is I think how do you even put a link to we have proof lemon rises Matthew James
Alex G says his roommates are like what the hell are you listening to Heidi Matthew Jane Jamis asked what would you suggest for students with larger lips who may not be able to start I don’t quite know what that mean be large ellipsis is it a problem to not be able to get that low I guess I think you do you need a very big mouth because your comments yeah yeah that’s that’s a big thing a big discussion often my experience is
I’ve had different students that have set into the bottom lip I’ve always found that had limitations my experience is to go anyways for the bottom on the break between the top and sometimes they roll the bottom lip a little bit in in the end what’s important to me is that they find the little crack in the bottom lip and they work with there and then
I let nature kind of work its owns way yeah a little bit rolling in my experience has never been good to go in but you know Fergus McVeigh and great horn player he sits inside you know who am I to say everyone has to go their own journey now I’d say I would say also based on what
Stefan was just saying to is it’s all about inner diameter of the mouthpiece like making sure that you’ve got like you know the JK’s obviously have a lot of options and and not like shulkie 31 be for a lot of us players and play that like has a you know bigger inner diameter but that that to me
I find is really important from the get-go with with folks with larger lips let’s get back to the to the to the technical stuff then later like the mouthpiece I went on sap but let’s play a little bit for us because I can I just said I’m selling everybody’s here with their horns and we want to play something so after getting the right place for the mouthpiece we’re standing straight we’re hora standing or sitting straight we’re pick week we picked the horn up brought it to us we found the good position we blowing can you give us a little bit a few exercises maybe a
Little bit later what would you do Annie have you got these on your list or you yeah that one the ones that I would it’s like I said the ones I would I would find their first note we I usually try to teach a chromatic scale as quick as humanly possible just you know hopefully within the first month or a month and a half plus the herberto clark’s
I mean that’s definitely not lesson number one but I will cheerful quick one of the things I do in lesson number one is after we figure out how many notes that they can play I actually had them take home I’ve made a set of flashcards and I have them take home whatever the pitches are that they’ve got plus a few extra on either side and
I have the B flat and F fingerings written on the back and then we start working on both both sides you know learning both sides of the horn but the students have to name the note and show the fingering because I find some students will memorize the note to the fingering or they might sometimes not be you know reading the music so we take those and and from there we just might my two big things chromatic scale and the verbal clark’s and then we jump into etudes and solos and
I’ve got a whole list of you’re watching on the website you can download these not all of them because we don’t want to breach any copyright but we’ve got some we’ve got some really yes stuff on get over there you’ll get them all I might send them to you later I’m on my way sorry it was just like frozen for a second oh you’re here yeah so yeah you’re watching on
Facebook get over to the website that’s where they are and they’ll be up there for the rest of the day so Annie tell us which one shall I um I I have to start with the Horner book which I think Sarah might be the same book you started with is that right I’m told her primary studies the blue cover and if
I mean it’s just a great great place to start it kind of you know starts in a smaller range and then builds out I know Heidi has a few that that you use specifically as well I made a list of mine there’s a PDF with all the all the ones I use for beginners yeah I this one we all know
Oh No there’s no that’s a good one what else we’ve got we’ve got um we’ve got Wilder we got their diesel that would come a bit later wouldn’t it because that’s like four sharps yeah so so what I often do is I find the students also you know they they are excited about the fundamentals are excited about the etudes but they really just want to play stuff they can they they they know and and so
I often start my using my very first alone a piano version of this so they can do it even in a recital is ode to joy’ so you know from Beethoven and and so we start with that one omit it you know covers I think it goes it has an octave in it total and so we’ll go to that one and then you know many months down the road we’ll start to go through other other solo works to you do you want me to go through this now
Ciara come back to this a little let’s just do right at the beginning to make sure that we’re set up straight yes so I I have to use a straw and I’ve seen like Andrew Bain and Colburn he uses Jesus a lot but I often will use a straw to help kind of reiterate what Heidi was saying so for me um you know
I’m it’s the chin the chin is very very important making sure that the two muscles here are really attached down to here and then I I talked about four quadrants and making sure you know those are everything’s coming so everything’s coming forward and down then making sure yeah and so though and then it’s like mighty thing about the tablet yes you can use the back of the mouthpiece to you can use a pencil if you don’t miss draw our mouthpiece worst-case scenario stuff or a pen but yeah you’re just forming the shape that’s really important so that what’s in the mouthpiece is actually all blowing
Forward and so that’s you know just making sure that this there’s not I always find a lot of students at the top lip is independent of the quarter the corners or the quadrants out here and so I’m trying to really make sure happening in the in the mouthpiece is free and blowing like this can see more chefs one of my favorite things to tell students which they’re always like whoa in the first lesson is that so
I’m sorry I you see more quite a bit but so this muscle is called navicular a bit better it’s too early the morning a peculiar sort so it’s running you know in a circle or behind the lips and it my favorite thing is that it’s the only muscle in the whole body that’s not directly attached to bone so that’s why you can go you know way off your face with it and so this muscle isn’t attached a lot of other muscles so if you really look like down here these are the muscles
Heidi’s talking about that one underneath there and it’s obvious it’s layers of muscles and there’s another one here and then if you look the reason the quadrants out here is so important is because they’re all coming in to the to the you know our lips on either side so all the weight of your embouchure is here in you know in here and that’s why then you know we are not really built this poor muscle this lip muscles not really built to handle all this weight that a lot of people put on it though so that’s where we’re kind of coming from so interesting is no
Stefan very much so but now let’s go back a step because we just started the home Heidi like easy exercises for the very beginners what would you recommend oh I would go see in G on the F horn I’m a big fan and play that normal yeah I will first start just tone for tone I’m a big fan of looking for a great sound first of all look where it sounds well and then shake change to the next sound when they both sound good then move back and forth
I think that’s a quickest way between the notes just play C slowly without I would do with fine without the tone I would just flirt mr. Dora have a go yeah but but in the beginning I would even take more time to find each gnome feel them with your you with it right down to your belly button just feel that no no that’s a bit much [Music] yeah yeah so when
I think is important it is I always like to start it down where’s my middle and then change back and forth lights and slurs and I like to alternate between tonguing and slurring so just the ceg you don’t have to use any vowels really easy yeah you’re a big fan of this Jurgen rumor book aren’t you I said yeah
I am it’s definitely the list of my books my experience is is their kids are as different as us adults and I like to find the best book my jurgen wrong a books are the best ones for having a really solid technique at the end of it there no pretty pictures in it but I think the music is good enough that they that the kids are inspired hurts by music and uh and
I’ll first book sorry we’re losing what it needs more time pardon me we really here means no no sorry okay I I use this book for a solid base but if some kids need more time then I there’s another book I recommend with lots of pictures and duo’s and a much easier and friendlier beginning it’s on my list but wrap are a wrap mister on this one which
I thought I really liked it because I I’m a very visual person you know this don’t you any Karen can’t happens book on how this book called recipes for success and it’s it’s all it’s you know it’s like a recipe book and it’s got all it I like about it is a lot of jewett stuff in there because the sooner you can play together with someone the better
I think but it’s got its got really yeah it’s got all the pretty pictures and stuff some kids are better with that right it’s beautiful it’s a beautiful book you’ve got it yeah yeah it’s just beautiful I just love it I love it but you got your books and you know they are really very basic do you remember what you played stuff on at the beginning a lots of
F horn and lots of like even with my former teacher together things yeah I I feel I you know I started on on this on the single F form as most of us do and I think it’s a very good school you know just to to know about Airstream and quality of sound or things like this so yeah very easy exercises
I still have I have to say I can have a look and find my books I think I still have them hi Diani can I just ask you something cuz a lot of people are asking about free buzzing yeah and and this is something that the stefan and i were talking about we don’t do that very often at least not now would it would allowing the student to see how their lips but lips buzz allow them to understand what’s going on in their mouthpiece better or what are your opinions on free buzzing visualizable and at the beginning that sort of thing
Andy do you have a mom wow that’s a they’re very different schools of thought on three buzzing and buzzing I I don’t use a lot of buzzing with my students unless they’re really having a really difficult time and I know I know I’m probably setting myself in one camp here but I unless they’re having a full time pick ahead it’s focusing the sound but
I still feel like that’s like air and so um I mean I couldn si I didn’t learn on that system um and so I I don’t use a lot of it so I don’t know if Heidi if you do use a lot of free buzzing I know there’s some great great schools of thought on this out there but it’s just not a system
I actually use when I teach is is with limited amounts I like a little bit at the beginning and I like always to incorporate some buzzing well and playing a song or a piece I think that’s really fabulous you can hear if the intonation is you can clear up a lot of stuff with buzzing I have my experience is if there’s too much buzzing it can make a person a bit tight
I don’t want to do that and the focus is to stay with the air with the instrument but I think it’s a great tester what’s fabulous with buzzing is if you’re late for a gig and you’re on your bike and you’re going really fast and that’ll buzz my lips on the way to the gig exactly if you’re in a rush
I did it then I’m a big fan good okay how are we doing I could I just I would like us to play something what can we play what would be next I think that you know first thing it’s like we think very beginning lessons you might only have a note maybe two maybe three maybe five if we’re lucky it just depends on where the student is so obviously my number one thing is lots and lots of positive repetitions so making sure we get just tons of repetitions so after we get to that point you start maybe work on your head oh
Clark sure your your etudes with when Heidi and then what I usually do move into several Innisfil is falling and I sent Sarah I sent you a few I think they’re up on your site um one of my absolute favorite composers for young horn is Adrian Hallam he’s actually an Australian composer I met him at Australian yhs with the
Peter left hosted and he I just love his his his imagination and his his the quirkiness of his music and I’m creativeness of his music and so one of my absolute favorites is called a piece called haunted which all the students absolute love it’s kind of like a take on a haunted house and you use every new technique you stopped or and
Lissa’s muted horn there’s even some you know effects you do like a shock the horn um a scream even and so a bit nervous because we know what so anyway so that’s one of my favorite pieces and he has a whole ton a slew of great things out there um including another piece called mobsters so Stefano if you do you have haunted there so oh just a second okay
I want to hear the zombies always wait I jump to the Tommies thanks for a while Stefan is jumping to the zombies I was gonna play [Applause] [Music] can use um B Thank You Stefan applause - Stefan from all around the world peace [Music] this is a fantastic piece and Adrian actually a nice pokes from yesterday adrian has we didn’t want to print it because of course we want to support composers and not steal their pieces yeah we’ve just seed will artists just put up will answers just put up the link to his his website and he’s put the piece on sale for us today
So if you go to the website it’s a fantastic piece he’s got a lot of stuff hasn’t he Annie from yeah just amazing amounts of even horn quartets all kind of things and so um yes on sale today so get to the website it’s on it’s on here gets the website I’m going to order it because I wanted as well and and if you want to fly through just a few of their small solos that are great for for beginning but one is called circus suite by
Michael Horvat and he’s it’s like one movements elephants and March and I don’t know if I sent y’all man that one but he’s got clowns and elephants and all kind of fun things I’m in it and then so that one’s great the student it’s just they’re fun for the students or fun for the audiences everybody always loves them and then another great book was actually an la-based foreign player but he does a lot of arranging and he has an entire company of different kinds of arrangements is
Dan Kelly and I there’s a he wrote up a great set of eighteen sacred and spiritual solos and then another set for actually the holidays and one of the ones I love for my students is a arrangement of a zoo because it actually is in the key of E when you know how often do we play in the key of
E and the first few years and it’s in 6/8 so we get to work through that as well and and in it you know and it also uses a lot of you know trigger 2 and 3 it’s got a lot of G sharp you do that um that I mean just like mmm I mean some of my students will take it fairly slow like [Music] and
I would actually say to you this is a great exercise it’s one I learned from a bunch of the pianists you do Hanan techniques but it’s a cop you’re independent so if you put the left and up this is great to check in on your finger but it’s your left hand up like you’re hitchhiking so the hand you born with and then off the horn and then and then try try to put each finger out individually and a lot of mice
Aria you know it looks like I’m doing something terrible but in that the fourth finger is the one that often times people have a hard time moving by itself and so they it’s so you want to work to get it so you can actually move each it so off the horn so taking the horn off just doing this without the horn and so if you put the horn down and try it
Sara it’s it’s like it yes it’s to try to try to do each finger individually yet without yeah and then do the third the fourth finger and you’ll find a lot of students will find they have to move multiple fingers at the same time and so if you really work to you know to do that one by itself then it then it will actually speed up your third finger it’s it’s hard yeah and then and then you could also work one into two and three you know one and three and maybe one more question to
Heidi because I know you you’ve started very old too to let your pupils play that tree or squad ten stewards or whatever and what age are on what you know when when they’ve started the horn like for a couple of months or whatever when would you recommend to start like playing together oh I mean as soon as possible right it depends on the kid you know some kids are more capable of holding their sound
I would start with duo’s maybe they have a buddy there also plays duo’s and a see if they’re ready I have quartets they can start after a year I mean that’s a very ambitious quartet I had one and or I’ve had several and I am a big fan of horn quartets and horn trios that’s really one of the big bases and inspirations of my class because here’s
F feeling of of class and and they learn to work group nice for the orchestra later it’s really been very very important in inspiring part of my art class absolutely so as soon as possible of any of Heidi’s horn quartet resort Rios watching because they sent me a video for my birthday the CRO is very grateful for that if you’re watching right in
Jimmy are you and Annie there’s a message for you from Dylan and Henry and they say hi mama I’m up my good morning there’s something I would like to say when I practice the etudes I think this is a very good system that works for me for working with kids when they have an etude for teaching one of the first things many kids can’t read notes yet so what
I do is I get them to sing the names of the notes move the fingering so they have the immediately this connection with the names of the notes and the fingerings and and then they sing it right so they have immediately fingerings and then the pitch and as yeah first that and then after I do that with toad where they say toe without saying the names of the notes but then they get right into the phrasing alright and this
I always go through this level to like oh I say toe or I say oh with the bottom lip and I say you with it with the tongue that’s how I separated and then yeah this is a bit based on what Fergus always did right and and also and then I do buzzing right but they have to buzz it on the mouthpiece so they can really hear if they’re buzzing the notes sometimes
I get them to keep the mouthpiece so it’s the more on the bottom lip away from the table again supporting that it comes from the bottom sometimes I get the kids to play all that totally blown out so they are forced to make all the changes again out of the change the chin because it happened so fast that the kids go into the top so they hate that they just hate that all of it and they complain it but
I make them do it anyways furgus recommended America whistling I can’t whistle so I skipped that step but I let them whistle see see he seemed to feel that was good for the tongue position everybody so why are we whistling Heidi he’s I don’t whistle because I can’t wish I have no idea but Fergus always was a fan of that because he said that showed the time position as well yeah whistling a lot it helps it also ups the students like learn to focus their air out of their mouth and so yeah
I actually if they can’t whistle week I actually give them as a homework assignment and I watch a lot of YouTube videos so they figure it out but some people can’t whistle you know they just can’t thanks to youtube there’s a question for you Annie well there’s two there’s Bob Basler - granddad we’ve got the whole family out today oh um fro now horn
Clara is watching great clearly hello Clemmy plays you know what your students Heidi they do a really good job at Christmas they they count in the coldest weather and they play horn quartets never and thinks oh how cute and they give them a lot of money Stefan I think we need to do that or we might have to actually soon
I redo that we’re studying we played odd Hong quartets I’m sure that time we didn’t have this plastic mouthpieces tear was really like yeah freezing mouthpieces are nice nice passing ramp is something really useful with my tree oh yeah I have to say my trio for when our plane that got a 240 euros one time last Christmas 240 you play last
Christmas all the time Frances evolved and I know Annie this is a big thing with you do you have a trick how to learn to transpose quickly um yeah I I actually start working with my students on transposition basically usually within the first year as long as after we get the notes down they can actually really truly read all the notes on the page music and the fingerings are there we’ll start transposing and
I mean there’s there’s a couple different systems some people actually literally change the clef I’m not quite sure I I don’t do that but I usually what I usually say is that you’re holding a French horn and F it shouldn’t act the whole thing is pitched you know we’re taught it pitch to neck and then you’re going to whatever horn you’re going to and so you think of axis is base and you think of the other pitch
G here you know a flight here what’s the fastest way to get there and then and then you know I think of that as the formula and then you so it’s like a math problem and then you apply the math problem to the key and to the notes so you’re always thinking in the key that you’re that you’re going to and
I honestly I start my students in the Horner that Horner book Lear Tiger was earlier transposing and so therefore then you know then going to cope rush or an excerpt is not bad but I have I started a student eight years old and he’s now a junior in high school and I mean he can play be natural horn transitions a flat horn transfers and f-sharp its it like crazy fast needs a job how how to practice it’s basically you go to practice it
I mean it’s just yeah yeah it’s just the place I I think of it learning learning to read another language while you so you’re reading English and you’re speaking something else that’s exactly what we’re doing we transpose and so it just takes a lot of practice and just a little bit every day four measures you know turns into eight measures and so on what
I’m really sorry I will have to leave you because I have a student coming up at four oh yeah well we’re gonna die soon stuff on we need a photo though we always have to do a photo and because the girls are wearing go and hang out t-shirts well Stefan is doing that we’re not gonna wrap up to say
I’ve got a few more questions for you oh you are good Oh me Heidi let’s see your t-shirt ready okay ready guys we need your selfies one two three and again great okay fun thank you for joining us I’m gonna finish up Steve see soon thank you thank you we’ve got um we’ve got to wrap up because we been going for an hour can you believe this fast unbelievable but there’s been so many people watching and
I think I would love to do this again with you and we can move on a little bit and you know I know we have so much stuff that we didn’t even get to but I’m who knows how long we’re going to be in this situation so if you’re both up for it I would love that and if for you those of you watching let us know your questions because then we can plan what we can talk about next time do either of you have what would you say are your most like the most important things to watch out for when you’ve got a beginner
And someone in the in the early stages of horn playing what I’m sure you’re both gonna say exactly the same but just just tell me anyway yeah I I think it’s the practicing to be quite honest it’s making sure that it was like I said before just getting lots of positive repetitions it’s something I really believe in and just making sure that you have a good
I feel like students don’t always know how to practice I mean that could be its own entire hour but you know just setting up giving them a really good plan and for the students to having a goal and then that’s what you really focus on in every practice session you know what do you come into the lesson with but just really making sure that you have a plan and a goal in it that you’re positive repetitions are truly positive and that they’re leading you in a great path
I’m really into if it’s this good beginning I’m really watching that the posture is good I’m really watching that they’re centered here and I’m really watching that the kids are singing I really value a lot that there’s always the singing going on or movement and thinking in gestures and I trust that that comes with time in the music and the horn but if those basics are not sitting right at the beginning then it just gets stuck later and they can practice all they want and for maybe amateur players who’ve come back to it later in life it’s exactly the same isn’t it you know you
You want to absolutely keep saying okay it’s just for fun and I maybe I’m 60 and I haven’t played it’s still the same you’ll have so much more fun with the horn if you’re doing it right if you’re relaxed if your posture is right if you’re the chin down Heidi’s been on about the chin for years these you do
I knew you did a screen shot some one of your kids and one of us at the digital concert hall you can watch all of our chins it’s such it’s so right what you’re saying because any muscle and you can see it on Seymour Seymour wouldn’t do that why do we face lifts isn’t it no it’s easy it’s easy yeah you know
Cottage East chin that’s what I call them no cottage cheese you two you’ve really been fantastic Annie I know you have a giveaway for us backwards probably yes yeah did um I was fortunate to get to write a co-authored book with John Green this like performance psychologists and Kathy teaser who’s head of Admissions at Juilliard and I’m in his for high school student so
I think I’ve got five five for Sarah to give away some if you guys want these I want the first five people to write college prep for musicians in the chat and go now and then you have to privately send us a message to the website so go go go the first five and he will send out this book to you which is really really great the system is different in
Germany but Heidi we’re gonna get you one too because I think oh I want to get this book absolutely yeah well I’ll write your name in the chat yeah but I can’t cuz I can’t go into the chatting busy I gotta get it I think we could move on next time to a little bit you know advant advantage but thank you so much for your time and thank you for getting up you both are available for skype lessons or
FaceTime or zoom or whatever it is if any of you want to contact them I think I might it’s just great to go back to the beginnings thank you so much really oh thank you Sarah M has has got it Kelly M Janet Knight and amateur shipping right oh well maybe the first oh no okay you guys well oh
I’ll get in the chat in a sec I’m gonna talk to you guys in the chat so we say goodbye their first and Thank You Annie buzlar Heidi vessel in Berlin Annie Butler in LA who’s gonna go and have breakfast with her her gorgeous has been doing at her gorgeous son Henry and you’re going to go and have tea with your gorgeous husband egg on your gorgeous son
Adrian whose anyway I think Heidi’s frozen so it may be goodbye hey guys Friday night party night we’re having the horns back oh there she is Heidi’s come back there yeah last year so you were just saying goodbye and thank you so much I said my love - Adrian who’s her son and whose place is horn player
I think he prefers video games to practicing but yeah after this hangout he’s gonna be so inspired thank you Friday night is horn hangout night you’ll see all the details of the web site 9:00 p.m. Berlin time you know the time of the party will have some surprises for you we’ll see you then meanwhile girls thank you so much yeah thank you
Sarah thanks Eddie [Music]
Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.
