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III. On Tone and practice

 
Tone quality was a big issue for me this year (Fall 2007), it wasn’t until I recorded the slow movement of Hindemith's Second Organ sonata for my "Beyond Favoirtes" album, in late November 2007 that I felt I had my tone back after a hard music festival in August.

 
I now have the belief that one must warm up with as beautiful tone as one can achieve. You can always play aggressive and loud with adequate tone, but the sweeter moments don’t just suddenly have beautiful tone. I now recommend starting with the stuff like the Hindemith slow movement and then move on to the flashy stuff, not the other way around!

 

Coming Soon:

My book about horn playing that has lessons for all musicians, not just Natural hornist:

Thoughts on playing the
Natural Horn Well

AND a three volume set of accuarcy studies for Horn Players.

Volume one of the accuracy studies is available here:
accuracy studies for the french hornist

 

More thoughts on tone

Ideally, a French horn player plays just like he or she would sing, however one must sing properly. The use of syllables is quite important and generally we play with and open mouth cavity and breath deeply for the low register. And for the high register, we use a smaller mouth cavity and breath higher in the lungs.

By the way, A relaxed throat and generally body are quite important you definitely do not sing with a tight throat.

 My main point here however is the use of syllables.  I have never been told by a teacher to use the syllable  “TOE”, but I like to syllable for the low register. And then generally, I try to keep my mouth cavity as open as possible for a big tone. “Tee”  syllables in the upper register are understandable, but try to remain relaxed and always keep the air  flowing.

 I was quite surprised when I realized I could hold my breath or play a longer tone if I kept my nose relaxed. I have found that resonance in the high register is quite connected to residents in the nasal passages.

 I will have more thoughts on tone eventually.

 Richard Burdick
 April 7, 2011