As mentioned in this post, I think my Solo Training for Horn book can be used as a source of effective warm-up and daily practice routine materials. See the link below for a free sample routine drawn from a small portion of the contents in Solo Training. The exercises are based (some closely, some more loosely) on the following works:
Sonata, Op. 17 – Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto No. 1, Hob. VIId:3 – Franz Joseph Haydn
Concerto, K. 495 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Morceau de Concert – Camille Saint-Saëns
Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70 – Robert Schumann
This brief packet addresses the traditional topics you would find in most warm-ups:
First notes
Legato/Staccato Playing
Scales/Arpeggios
High Range/Low Range
Lip Trills/Flexibility
Stopped Horn
But the bonus is that all of the exercises can be clearly related back to major solo works in the horn’s repertoire. If you’re looking for an alternative warm-up routine to add to your toolbox, feel free to download the PDF, and let me know what you think in the comments or an email.
AND, if you find this material interesting and/or useful, please do check out the entire book, available on the Mountain Peak Music website. It contains much more material than this 15-page sample, as the entire book is over 100 pages.
In looking over some year-end tax information from Mountain Peak Music, the publisher of my two books, I noticed a couple of things:
Horn players like Duet Books! Solo Training Duets did pretty well in 2019, probably because of the recently released 2nd edition, and also because duets are an enjoyable way to package useful content (fundamentals, long tones, solo repertoire, etc.) Thinking about this generated some interesting ideas for future publications…more on that in the future!
People might not know about my other book, Solo Training for Horn: This book is actually more recent than the first edition of the duet collection, although it has been far less popular. There are probably a couple of causes for this, number one being that it was published in 2016 and horn players might have forgotten about it, and also because it isn’t something you can necessarily pull out and sight-read with a student or colleague. However, I would still encourage anyone who enjoys Solo Training Duets to check out the solo book. There are several pieces covered in the one-horn book that don’t appear in the duet book, and I think there are some very useful exercises and derivative etudes. One could even put together a comprehensive warm-up/fundamentals routine by picking and choosing certain excerpts. This is a topic I plan to explore further in a future post.
Meanwhile, feel free to visit the Mountain Peak Music website and view the samples from Solo Training for Horn.I also recorded a brief promo/demo video for the book back in 2016. Take a look and listen, and let me know what you think. I would be happy to answer any questions you have about it!
I’m pleased to announce that my new book, Solo Training for Horn, is now available from Mountain Peak Music. If you follow my blog you probably have heard about this project already, but in case you haven’t, here is a brief summary of the book and its contents.
Solo Training for Horn is designed to help you meet challenges found in eight popular solo works. When practiced regularly and intelligently, these studies will provide the foundation for successful performance of the works on which they are based, and other repertoire as well.
This collection consists of 12-15 studies per solo, each one focused on a relatively short passage or collection of passages. Literal repetition is generally avoided in favor of varied and progressive repetition. Most studies begin from a point of ease, and gradually progress to extremes, often going above and beyond what is required in the original works.
Works include: Sonata, Op. 17 by Ludwig van Beethoven, Villanelle by Paul Dukas, Concerto No. 1, Hob. VIId:3 by Franz Joseph Haydn, Concerto, K. 495 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Morceau de Concert, Op. 94 by Camille Saint-Saëns, Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70 by Robert Schumann, Concerto, Op. 8 by Franz Strauss, and Concerto in D, TWV 51:D8 by Georg Philipp Telemann.
And if you would like to hear a few excerpts from the book, here are two promotional videos.
As with my previous publication for Mountain Peak Music, writing Solo Training for Horn was an incredible learning experience. I hope that teachers and students of the horn find it a practical and effective addition to their repertoire of etudes and exercises. If you have any questions about the book or the writing process I would love to hear from you.
What’s next? Once the semester begins I will return to at least semi-regular blogging, and continue preparations for a recital coming up in early October (more on that later). I have a few bigger projects on the horizon, but for now am gearing up for the new academic year.
After a very successful New Music on the Bayou Summer Festival, I’m looking forward to attending the 48th International Horn Symposium, hosted by Alexander Shuhan and the Ithaca College School of Music. As with last year’s symposium, I’ll be posting brief updates each day about concerts, lectures, and other events. The list of Featured Artists is fantastic as usual, including several performers that I’ve not had the opportunity to hear live. For more information, you can consult the official program book, which is available online. In addition to attending as much as possible, I’ll be performing with Trio Mélange on a Contributing Artist recital, and giving a presentation titled Solo Training for Horn: Exercises and Etudes for Standard Solo Repertoire. For more information about the ensemble and our upcoming performance, check out this press release, and for more details about the presentation, check out this post. Although I will of course talk about the forthcoming publication, the presentation will include lots of other helpful tips and hints for practicing some of the most common solo literature. On a personal note, I’ll be staying with relatives in Ithaca, and look forward to spending time with them as well as attending the symposium.
After the symposium I’ll be dialing things back a little bit, although I do have a few reviews and other summer projects in the works. Safe travels to everyone traveling to the IHS Symposium, and I hope to see you there!
I’m long overdue for a new post and an update on my forthcoming publication from Mountain Peak Music, but with the end of the semester now in sight I can finally carve out some time to remedy that! In short, the first draft of Solo Training for Horn is over 50% complete, and I anticipate finishing it by the end of August. Intended as a companion to Solo Duet Training for Horns, this book will contain exercises and routines specifically designed to help players tackle challenges found in eight standard horn solos. As with the previous book, all of the works are in the public domain. There is some overlap with the duets, but there are also plenty of new pieces as well. Here is the list:
Beethoven, Sonata, Op. 17
Dukas, Villanelle
Haydn, Horn Concerto No. 1, Hob. VIId:3
Mozart, Horn Concerto, K. 495
Saint-Säens, Morceau de Concert, Op. 94
Schumann, Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
Telemann, Horn Concerto in D, TWV 51:D8
F. Strauss, Concerto, Op. 8
Though there are some commonalities between the duet book and this one, I found my work on Solo Training to be much more involved and thus slower. While the material is of course largely based on the works listed above, creating these derivative exercises required a different mindset and approach than the earlier book. To help explain and demonstrate some of these exercises, I put together a brief video to accompany this post. FYI, I will be giving an expanded version of this presentation at the 48th International Horn Symposium in Ithaca, NY this summer. The presentation won’t be an advertisement for my book, but will instead focus on ways you can use some of the same techniques to create your own derivative exercises. These are not new ideas, but I think that students and teachers will find them especially useful because they are now organized and collected in one place.
Fragmentation/Transposition: Taking a short motive or motives from a challenging passage and transposing it to different keys. This builds more comprehensive technique and greater awareness of the intervals than simply repeating the same passage at the written pitch level. For example, mm. 96-102 from the first movement of Beethoven’s Horn Sonata, Op. 17…
…can be adapted into the following progressive exercise:
Here’s a demonstration of the complete exercise.
a la Kopprasch: This means taking a familiar pattern and changing the rhythm and/or articulations to create a more engaging and challenging exercise. For example, this triplet passage from the Villanelle by Paul Dukas…
becomes:
And here it is demonstrated.
Flow Study: Removing all but the most important notes from a lyrical or technical passage, and reducing it to a flow study. Notes are gradually added, while maintaining the same basic melodic shape and direction to the air stream. Transposing the exercise to other keys makes it more useful and interesting to practice. The familiar opening of Mozart’s K. 495…
Becomes:
Here’s the video.
Here are two more examples which combine several strategies. Both are based on this passage from K. 495.
The first exercise deals with a small portion of the phrase:
And now the video:
The second exercise deals with the passage as a whole, with varying rhythms and articulations.
And the video.
I hope this brief introduction to Solo Training for Horn has whet your appetite for more, and if you like any of the exercises presented above feel free to print them for your own use. The book will have many more exercises and routines, roughly 12-15 for each solo work. I’m very excited about completing the book, and look forward to sharing it with the horn playing community. Stay tuned for more updates!
…can be adapted into the following progressive exercise:
Here’s a demonstration of the complete exercise.
becomes:
And here it is demonstrated.
James Boldin's Horn World 