James Boldin's Horn World

Thoughts on Teaching and Playing the Horn

Posts tagged with recordings of kopprasch etudes

Kopprasch Project Continued, No. 44 (45)

January 21, 2013

This week’s installment is labeled No. 45 in the Gumpert/Frehse edition, so it is included in parenthesis above. Suggested tempo in my edition is half note=80-100. For me, a tempo of half note=92 -95 worked the best without sounding too frantic. Consider using some B-flat fingerings below the staff in the first section (through mm. 22) to get really clean articulations. One other note about this video is that I’m experimenting with some different video editing software. I’ve used Camtasia Studio by TechSmith in the past, and while very easy to operate, it’s a little limited in what you can do. For this video I used an older edition of Adobe Premiere, which is much more flexible than Camtasia but has a steeper learning curve. At this point I’m not sure if I’ll keep using Premiere or return to Camtasia, but it’s interesting to compare the two.

Kopprasch Project continued, No. 42

November 12, 2012

As with No. 13 and No. 21  (0r No. 22, depending on the edition), this study is an exercise in consistency and flexibility. Slurring through this etude slowly can help with centering each note. Suggested tempo range in my edition is quarter note=104-160, although 144 seemed fast enough to me for Allegro Moderato.  If you’ve seen the last several videos in this series you’ll notice that I’m sitting in a different position for this recording. Normally my bell points towards the curtains in my practice room at home, but this time I thought it would be interesting to face a different direction. The sound is ok with this setup, but the flat, hard surface directly behind the bell created some undesirable echoes.

Kopprasch Project Continued, No. 41

November 5, 2012

Here’s another Kopprasch video to start off the week. Suggested tempo in my edition is quarter note=63-88; this recording is somewhere around quarter=72. In preparing this study it was helpful to think of it less as a technical exercise and more as a melodic – albeit disjunct – one. To that end, I tried to approach everything as linearly as possible, rather than vertically, no matter how wide the skips. Making sure that the second note of a group of slurred sixteenths remains full value and isn’t clipped helps achieve this effect.

Summer Project: Kopprasch Project continued, No. 35

June 20, 2012

Another project for this summer is to record some more Kopprasch etude videos, continuing from where I left off back in October of 2011 (Etude No. 34). It was great to take a little break from Kopprasch, but I’m excited about getting into etudes 35-60. If you’ve seen the other videos, much has remained the same – live, unedited video recordings (though with multiple takes as necessary) – but there are a few changes for this summer.

  • Recording at home instead of at the office – a different acoustic than at work, but suitable for the purposes of this project
  • Different background color on the credits screen
  • I’m using a new edition(!) Instead of the Chambers edition I used for etudes 1-34, I decided to switch (with the publisher’s permission) to Corbin Wagner’s Kopprasch Complete. I really like this edition, and highly recommend it for anyone working on these etudes. The engraving is clear and easy to read, and the spiral binding is very handy. The paper quality is excellent, and should stand up to years of use.
  • I’ll be taking longer between etudes. This should give me additional time to practice the more difficult etudes in this set, as well as time to pursue other projects this summer and fall. If you want to stay up to date when new videos are posted, just subscribe to my YouTube Channel and/or this blog.

No. 35 continues in the same vein as the previous studies, but is longer and more involved, as are all of the later ones. Slow metronome work is very helpful in getting this one under your fingers.

Kopprasch Project Continued, No. 33

October 3, 2011

The end (of Book 1) is in sight!  No. 33 (No. 30 in the Cornopub edition), is another test of flexibility and accuracy over large intervals.  Suggested tempo is eighth note=88 for the Adagio sections, and quarter note=108+ for the Allegro sections. Finding a suitable place to breath in the final Allegro can be tough, but it is possible to grab a quick breath where necessary in order to finish the last line strongly. In The Horn Handbook, Verne Reynolds describes another great way to practice this one.

No. 33 uses the same notes again and again, with only a little relief in the middle section. We could pencil in changes of transposition every two measures in preparation for playing the Prelude to the third act of Lohengrin by Richard Wagner. [p. 61]

Kopprasch Project Continued, No. 32

September 26, 2011

No. 32 (No. 33 in the Cornopub edition) is great for working on general flexibility, and especially large tongued leaps.  My tempo settled somewhere around quarter note=92, and the Cornopub edition lists a tempo range of 84-108. Verne Reynolds gives the following advice for this one in The Horn Handbook.

Etude No. 32 is a wonderful exercise for getting the low notes to speak on time after a large leap downward. Check the mirror occasionally to see whether there is excessive motion on the leap downward. There is good reason to practice this etude in all dynamic levels, including the extremes. The Gumpert-Frehse edition has no suggested volume level; the Chambers edition suggests mezzo-forte. Both suggest sempre staccato, but that does not preclude using a longer tongue stroke also. (p. 61)

One idea that may help is to find a sort of midway point between high and low settings, and work on playing this etude with the most efficient shift possible. I seemed to run into problems when I overcompensated on the leaps, and also when I tried to play the lower notes too loudly.

Kopprasch Project Continued, No. 31

September 19, 2011

No. 31 brings together in one study many of the elements already presented earlier in the book: moving quickly in and out of the mid/low register, rapid slurred/tongued patterns, and both sudden and gradual dynamic changes.  I settled at a tempo somewhere around quarter=96, and my Cornopub edition suggests a tempo range of 84-112.  Verne Reynolds goes even further in The Horn Handbook, noting that No. 31 “is still another two-slurred, two-tongued exercise that can be practiced at various speeds, including a speed fast enough to justify using the double tongue.” (p. 61)

Kopprasch Project Continued, No. 30

September 12, 2011

No. 30 can be practiced at a variety of tempos, although I settled somewhere around quarter note =54-60.  The Cornopub edition suggests eighth note=92-126, and also numbers this particular etude as 31 rather than 30. In fact, No. 30 in the Cornopub edition is No. 33 (Adagio) in the Chambers edition.  Looking a bit further into this discrepancy, the IMSLP copy of the first edition follows the same order as the Chambers edition. Perhaps Cornopub changed the order to give the player a break between etudes with large interval leaps?

Kopprasch Project Continued, No. 29

September 5, 2011

No. 29 is less technically challenging than some of the other etudes, but still takes some time to work out because of the sudden changes in register and dynamics. One possible way to practice this is to play only the loud passages – counting the rests in between – then play only the soft passages, putting them together once they’re mastered individually.  On a personal note this etude demanded more concentration than many of the other studies because of its length.  Although I decided from the beginning of this project not to record the repeats, with No. 29 I thought it was important to include the Da Capo – if for no other reason than to end in the home key!  Suggested tempo is quarter=60-72, although the Cornopub Edition has a faster recommendation of quarter=92-112.  I think both tempo ranges can work.

Kopprasch Project Continued, No. 28

August 29, 2011

And now we have the famous “dotted-eighth/sixteenth” etude, No. 28.  I highly recommend playing repeated sixteenth notes on these rhythms, beginning slowly and then working up to your target tempo.  After you’ve done this several times you should start to get a good feel for an accurate dotted-eighth/sixteenth rhythm.  Strive for clarity on the isolated sixteenths as well as accurate rhythm. Suggested tempo is quarter note=84-90, although Verne Reynolds notes in The Horn Handbook that “Etude No. 28 should be practiced slowly enough that we can feel the four sixteenth-notes contained in the dotted eighth and sixteenth figure. It should also be practiced quite rapidly.” (p. 60-61)

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