Clik here to view.
Taking Inventory
When you first start out on the horn, just about everything is a struggle. If you survive and continue a couple years, you acquire some skills and begin to find that there are some things that you can...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shortcut Culture
Higher! Faster! Louder! Sooner! Now! One of the selling points of music study is – or used to be – that it teaches disciplined hard work over a long period of time. But in this age of instant...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Power (of) Play
The fact is, we don’t play our horns. We serious them. Although the Ur-roots of music making undoubtedly sprang from vibrant, playful, spontaneous expressions of emotion and storytelling, since the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Of Myelin, Smart Homework, Interleaving, and the Horn
A lot has come to light in the past decade since I began looking beyond tradition and started thinking. Thinking about different ways to learn the instrument, more efficient ways, ways that are more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tech Project #3: OTS 8-12 Essential Control Zone
This project is exclusively focused on the overtone series numbers 8 – 12 (click here if you need a refresher on OTS numbers). The basis of control of the horn is establishing control of the overtone...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Notes from the Past (on horn playing)
When I first started playing professionally in an orchestra many years ago, some interesting things happened. Life was a little different than I had imagined before that. Everyone’s experience is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Notes from the Past, Part 3
(Photo credit: cloois) More notes from long ago…. The two sides of the brain interfere with each other. Therefore, a real artist (in sports or music or dance etc) has no thought because he is totally...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Shoot the Ground Hog
(Photo credit: paloetic) Funny thing about horn players. As students we get introduced to a warm-up/workout routine in high school or college and we learn it (a good thing) and then proceed to repeat...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Excellence = Strength + Skill
(Photo credit: Atos International) Olympic records of a hundred years ago resemble high school records of today. What is different is that today athletes know what to work on and how to train, as well...
View Article