Helpful Resources for Horn Playing and Teaching

The school is winding down. We have about two weeks to go here at Wright State. I couldn't be happier about choosing this school. I'm hoping that next year is even better.Hopefully summer will leave a little more time for blogging as well!

The following is a handout I'm working on for my brass methods course. I hope it's useful for them as they start to think like teachers. If any educators/horn players out there have anything I should I add please comment. If you found something you might use you should comment as well.

Helpful Resources for Horn Playing and Teaching

Compiled by Mr. Kyle Freesen

Wright State University Brass Methods

Method Books for Individual Study:

Skornicka  -  “Rubank Elementary Method”

Pottag/Hovey  - “Method for French Horn - Book 2”

Reynolds  -  “The Horn Handbook”

Kopprasch – “50 Etudes, opus 6” (HS/College)

Farkas  - “The Art of French Horn Playing”(not really a method book, but important reading)

Schuller – “Studies for Unaccompanied Horn” (Advanced players)

Ericson - Introducing the Horn: Essentials for New Hornists and Their Teachers

Websites:

www.hornsociety.org

- A website featuring a wealth of information. This includes an index of their journal, Horncall and tips of the month. You can find recordings, podcasts, and much more here.

http://hornplayer.net/index.asp

- There is a searchable message board here covering a wide range of topics.

www.hornplanet.com

- A site by hornist and professor, Thomas Bacon, there’s a lot here, but most importantly go to the “Study Guide” as it outlines goals for players of all abilities and recommends method books, supplementary materials, and appropriate solos/ensembles to reach those goals. There’s even horn trivia!!

http://hornmatters.com/

- A blog of sorts run by John Ericson and Bruce Hembd. New content is added daily. They even have a list of horn youtube channels.(A great way to get world class players into your classroom)

Resource Recordings:

“Mozart: Horn Concertos” - Dennis Brain, horn

“The London Horn Sound” - Horn ensemble music performed by 32 of London’s top players

“Perspectives” -Hermann Baumann, horn

“Next Mode”  - Vincent Chancey, jazz horn(they do exist!)

“Brahms and Beethoven: Music for Horn” - Lowell Greer, natural horn

“20th Century Settings” Gail Williams, horn

Equipment:

Good Brands:

Conn(8D), Holton, and Yamaha(667)

Mouthpieces: Remember, this is just a starting point, result may vary.

Yamaha 30C4(Beginner)

Schillke 30(Beginner)

Holton-Farkas MC or MDC (Intermediate)

Laskey 75G(Advanced)

Laskey 80J(Advanced, larger lips)

Mutes:

Humes and Berg Straight Mute(basic)

Trumcor 45T Tuneable Straight Mute(advanced)

I'm hoping Dr. Randall Faust would be proud...CORdially...

It's Really February?

Well the post below is the February Blog Carnival so I guess it must be true. I can't tell you how quickly January came and went. I really enjoyed the challenges of January after the LONG break. Wright State takes a break from Thanksgiving to New Years, so other than the basketball games I didn't have a whole lot going on. Then these three events hit!

Conducting the Fight Song after the Win over Butler

First the biggest weekend(so far) of college basketball where we played Valpo and Butler on our home court. Have I mentioned that I love being the Athletic Band Director for a Div I basketball team? How many grad students get that wonderful opportunity? Anyway we split the weekend losing to Valpo and beating Butler. The win against conference rivals, Butler was something I'll remember. We combined both bands and had almost 70 members all in uniform, playing and cheering all night. There were just 9,000 fans in attendance. The feeling of raising my hands for the Star Spangled Banner and having all those people come to their feet was amazing. The whole game was electric really, all the way down to the Vaughn Duggins buzzer beater and the crowd rushing the court. I hope an NCAA or NIT bid is on the way...I would love to take my band on that adventure. I have such a vision for where I can take this group in my two year appointment.

Dr. Booth, Myself, and Professor Ponto 

Then we had Tri-State Honor Band. I had been putting the details of the honor band in place since October, but this weekend it all came together. Professor Robert Ponto was in From Oregon to work with kids from Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio on our campus. I loved hanging with the guest conductor and organizing the event as well as playing for the HS kids in the Wind Symphony. Dr. Booth may call me a nerd, but I'm glad I'm detailed, the whole thing seemed to go off without a hitch. I'm working on making a handbook to TSHB to pass down after next year.

After TSHB 2011 was capped off by a 5AM drive with Ponto to the airport, I focused on IMEA. The return to Illinois to present a clinic with Keith Ozsvath was great. We spoke to a room of fellow music educators about how to use Twitter and Facebook to have your own 24/7 Professional Development. Not everyone got into it, remember that "acquaintance" lady? Overall, the reception was great and I need to start looking into what I am going to propose for next year. It's like an addiction, I just can't get enough time to praise the use of technology to make us better teachers. Of course the other side is I got to go to all kinds of clinics and learn for myself. I really loved two of the clinics that had demonstration bands, one about new approaches to ensemble tuning, and the other about teaching musicality and expression. Inspiring! Seeing friends with Jes was a lot fun and it makes me wonder where will land after these couple of years in Ohio. What should I propose for the session next year? Ideas?

In personal news. The wedding train is chugging along thanks to my diligent future wife. She cuts through her to do list like none other. We've done engagement photos, bought her band, ordered invitations in the last month. I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to mind. Oh and I've got the website up and running.

It's all great and I've enjoyed taking a bit of time this evening to put it together. Next week is a conducting workshop with Dr. Stephen Davis from UMKC at Ball State with Dr. Thomas Caneva. Better get back to studying my Holst and Dello Joio scores! Have a great night and make sure to share your blogs with me. I'd love to read what's going on out there.

Book Review: "The Wind Band" by Richard Franko Goldman

"The Wind Band: It's Literature and Technique" by Richard Franko Goldman. Published by Allyn an Bacon, INC. Boston, 1961



The front page

In my study for the literature of my medium, "The Wind Band" was a text I was instructed to pick up from the library. I'll be honest it took me far too long to complete the 270 pages of this volume by R Goldman (who is the son of bandmaster Edwin Franko Goldman). I enjoyed it more as I read, but it's not something that gripped me from page one.
The book is divided into four parts; "The band as a Musical Insitution", "Technical Problems of the Band", "The Repertoire of the Band", and "Improving the Band". This includes a few chapter under each part, totalling ten in all.

The first 100 pages or so focus on the military band movement and such leader/composers as John Philip Sousa, Edwin Franko Goldman, and Patrick Gilmore. While this is certainly of interest, it was not something that was really touched on by my teacher this past term. This is alarming because we were covering the 1500's through 1909 in Wind Band History and Literature. The "heyday" of the march was 1829-early 1900's. A curious point I will be sure to bring up as classes resume.

Of course the book is outdated in some areas. Chapter 4 talks of "contemporary bands" but this was as of 1961 so there have been some changes. Fennell and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble is discussed by page 140, but this is where the trail ends for modern band.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book were the many lists of programs and instrumentations of various groups. As I program works that were written from earlier periods in our history, the size of ensembles that were playing at the time of composition is useful knowledge.

Part 3, which focuses on the repertoire of the band was the most helpful in terms of my study. I wish I would've skipped ahead and read chapter 8 first. This section has information that is relevant today and valuable in the study of transcriptions vs. original works for the wind band. It seems that an explosion of our "core rep" happened during this time. I am finding Edwin Franko Goldman and Frank Battisti are largely responsible for this fact.

The last part, reads kind of as an after-thought on practical problems of the band. I wish more of the book would've been written on the history of wind works before 1760(especially since I was trying to find info on that anyway) instead of tacking on this small section on teaching and conducting. There are many fine texts written on those subjects.

As someone who is so driven by technology this statement in chapter nine amused me. "The band has tuning devices, tape-recorders, and all manner of equipment that would've been unbelieveable only a short time ago. All this is well and good, provided that it does not become an end in itself, and that all of the equipment is put to some profitable use. It might, on occasion, simply be recalled that band and other musical organizatios did manage to exist, and fairly well, before all of these things appeared on the scene." I wonder what Goldman would have to say to us today(he passed in 1980).

The text does include a nice index, which I'm sure will come in handy when I go to check it out from library again to take a more in depth look at it. For now a once over must be enough as I try to get through at least one more book before break is over. It's an important read, but I don't think it had any information that can't be found in another text. I found the language to be a little stodgy(which accounts for my struggles diving in to the book).

It'll probably sit on my IKEA bookshelves someday, but on the "Grad Assistant getting Married" budget, it's not something I'll run out an buy, especially since it's out of print. I imagine the Dunbar Library will check it out to me a couple of times before I'm done here.

The Score Marking Dilemma

First quarter of Grad School(yes the quarter system is weird) is almost complete. I performed in my first concert in a long time. Still in awe of playing on the Hindemith "Symphony in Bb" and Rodrigo's "Adagio" is one romantic, fiery piece! It's been 5 years I think and my chops have sure let me know it, however I think I'm in better shape now then I ever was in my undergrad...

playing with my iPhone4

Wind Symphony and Chamber Players gave a good concert last night. I was glad to be part of it, but I can't wait to be conducting them next quarter. The piece is still TBA, but I'm starting to score study some options. That brings me to the point of this post. Why can't I find a score study method that is clear, thorough, uncluttered, and makes perfect sense to me???

In an effort to relieve my headache this afternoon. I took a break from marching band rehearsals at Centerville and marking up scores to "google" score study. Here are a few links I found:

Professor VanWinkle(New Mexico State) on Score Study

Kenneth Woods on "Score Questioning"

Tim Reynish website on conducting

WindRep.org's resource list from various wind conductors

Dr. La Rue(Georgetown) handout on score study

Drew Collin's Vocal Score Study Guide-It shows a lot of depth!

A Student Teacher's Score Study Outline for Portfolio

Denise Grant handout on "nuts and bolts" of score study

Last an excerpt from one of my favorite books, Boonshaft's "Teaching Music with Passion"

So I read through these today and I'm just as confused as before I started. I am in grad school to try to find my conducting "voice" or my style, and of course to gain credentials for a good job.

I sit here now with my erasable colored pencils with which I have marked dynamics and time and cues and wonder if I should do less. My score looks cluttered, but I can easily see what's happening. Then again am I too focused on what I've carefully marked in the score?

Should I do a little less and write more in the margins? Should my cues be like ( connecting those I want to cue? How do I make sure I take care of percussion too? Should I use highlighters? my colors? Just a regular pencil? Macro? Micro?? ahh what I'm I supposed to mark to help me help the ensemble? Should I mark spots to listen for common errors? How do I show who's the counter melody together without making broad strokes across the whole page? How do I show phrasing? How to I keep track of rapid fire meter changes.

Looks like I'm going to take this to the www.musicpln.org! Then again I know in the end it's all personal choice. I just don't know how to get there now. What is my method and how do I discover it?

My mentor keeps telling me that everything in life is a conducting lesson. He also says that I will leave our lessons with more questions than answers. The great thing is I didn't even have a lesson today.

20 Minute Update

Grad school isn't a cakewalk, ironically neither is "Cakewalk" from Bennett's Suite of Old American Dances...

We're are halfway through the quarter(I know it's weird to not be on semester's. I think that all the time) and I'm busy, you can tell by my lack of blogging, but I love it. I'm being challenged and depending on when you ask I'm either overwhelmed by, or immersing myself in learning. I'm sure for Jes it's like living Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde. I'd like to come up with creative music names for that, but it's 10:30 and I have trumpet lessons tomorrow so I'm not witty.

Anyway, my schedule is very different based on the day, which is a change from teaching 5-12 band. Somedays are packed with conducting lessons, wind band literature class, trumpet lessons, studio class, and a number of rehearsals(chamber players, wind symphony, symphonic band, pep band). That doesn't include lunch or coffee with my new found mentors. Somedays I don't have anything "official" to do until 1PM. I never seem to have a shortage of things to do, including those random tasks assigned to grad assistants.

I have mentioned my connection to the Centerville Jazz Band and I'm enjoying that as much as I am school. The hours are pretty tough, but I would really miss working with kids like that. It's like taking the best students at my old HS gig and multiplying them in number by 15. The most surreal moment so far: I'm talking to Mr. Wayne Markworth about doing an independent study with him next Fall at a rehearsal last week. I said, "Mr. Markworth, do you think we can use the CJB as part of independent study." He replied, "Not unless you call me Wayne." He has always been a distant legend in my eyes, now I'm standing beside him, calling him Wayne. He also added me on Facebook. Seriously, it blows my mind.

The Pep Band(my ensemble) is taking off. The students are working really hard to make it a more professional group and the numbers are growing. I'm hoping that fans and athletics will take notice. We started with around 20 members and it looks like we're going to break 60 next quarter. I'm learning how to pound the pavement for recruitment, even though it's not something I was comfortable with I know it has to be done. We have volleyball this Friday, but really I can't wait for basketball to start.

My trumpet playing is getting better thanks to a great new trumpet teacher, Dan Zehringer. He actually played a gig this summer with one of my former teachers, Dr. Bruce Briney. Small world. I'm working on the Hindemith Sonate for Trumpet. It's pretty far above me, but the range isn't bad so at least I'm not fighting that demon. After my audition I was told my tone was too bright, I sounded like a jazzer(kudos Dr. John Cooper right?). I'm working, but it's slow. Not sure I'll take trumpet every quarter it's struggle to find time to practice both trumpet and conducting enough. I always feel like I'm short changing something.

The best moments of learning so far have came in informal ways. I had coffee(well both of us drank tea) with Dr. Jagow to talk about how she does score study. I like to use color and so does she so it was great to have her help me articulate why I use color. We spoke about how much we like where we are and how different things are in Canada(her home). We even had a visit with another professor's parents and toddler daughter. It's great to see the teachers as human, with families...you know normal, but awesome like I hope to be someday.

I spent 10AM-2PM with Dr. Booth today. We conducted, we talked history, then we went to lunch. At Arby's we discussed pieces we thought were cornerstones of wind band lit as well as the "coming of age" composers I have played a lot of and had my students play. Over a market fresh sandwich and curly fries we talked about "La Fiesta"(he was shocked someone my age listed that piece) I really enjoyed that talk today and I hope for many more like it.

Alright Jes is home and it's time for me to get back to work! Hopefully the next one of these posts will happen a little quicker. Until next time...

Grad School: Week One

I am tired. I am asking myself questions about my life and my goals. I'm working very hard to fit in, yet be myself. I'm listening, playing, and conducting all day while teaching all night. I'm drinking coffee(and I don't like it). I am a graduate student, graduate teaching assistant, and adjunct faculty member at Wright State University. I'm earning my Master of Music Performance Degree in Wind Conducting.

Week one started on Tuesday with listening to Wind Symphony auditions. I also did some PDF scanning and organizing. In the afternoon I conducted the non-majors who are hoping for a spot in Symphonic Band while the director listened for who she would select. Then it was off to Centerville for a couple hours where I worked with the marching band. Then right back to school, Jes is singing in the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus and she had rehearsal at Wright State so I rode with her and got more work done.

Wednesday it was more listening to more groups. I'm glad that the band faculty here are seeing me as one of their own so quickly, every time they go to lunch or to get coffee and I'm in earshot I'm invited. I learned a lot sitting at Wendy's with them. Three very different personalities, teachers, and conductors. Even though I'm assigned to the Director of Bands since he is in charge of the graduate wind conducting program, all three of them have been open to me and I feel safe discussing a multitude of things with them. I will be in as many rehearsals as possible. I will try not to let a second of observation and dialogue go by in these two years. I think lunch with them was the only time I eat a meal this week...

The next day was my trumpet audition. I prepared to the best of my ability. I had been telling the professors not to expect much from me. They were shocked by my audition. When we figured it up I hadn't taken a lesson in 5 years or played in an college ensemble in 4. I wish I would've played like that at WIU, I might've had some more respect for myself...but hindsight is 20/20. I played with the trumpet ensemble in preparation for our upcoming performance for Doc Severinsen. I'm thankful Mr. Zehringer chose to include me in that group. I pulled two pieces to read with the non-majors again and both selections were well received by Dr. Jagow, the Associate Director of Bands, so I conducted those in the afternoon.

After the auditions were done, Dr. Booth found me and we headed to Starbucks(I think he practically lives there) to talk about my audition. I missed Wind Symphony by sliver. He knew I was disappointed, but understanding I mean how could I compete with the trumpet grad students and the studio players who were consistently taking lessons? I made the decision there to take lessons if the professor would have me. Who would've thought, me wanting to take trumpet again?

Dr. Booth and I talked for many hours about our stories and why we ended up in this job. He explained to me that we're friends now and we're going to work closely to highlight my strengths and my weaknesses strengths. I wish I had as much confidence in me as he does. He says we put up screens to protect ourselves, but they don't let us grow. He asked how he can get rid of my screen. I feel like he has quite the handle on my psyche already. The stories he shared blow my mind. He compared me to Gary Green, the director at the Frost School of Music. Ironically, one of my mentors, Doug Phillips, is studying with Dr. Green now. I thought I could never be anything great from the middle of nowhere IL...has that all been a lie I've told myself for 26 years? Do I have the ability to be great? Dr. Booth sure think so, I guess I picked the right mentor. It's great to have someone believe in me.

As for that audition, maybe I'll get back in shape...maybe I'll make, or not. I'm so thankful he made me try again.

Today I was tired. Dr. Booth says that all the faculty I work here will charge my batteries so that I go out and set the world on fire. He told me as a 5-12 director I gave a lot of myself and now it's time to refine and replenish. I was tired, but I'm motivated. I worked a few hours at the music table at "Fall Fest" recruiting for my pep band. God help the Pep Band here. We meet Monday night and I have no idea what kind of shape the group is in since I haven't heard a good thing about it yet. It's college teaching experience nonetheless!

After more auditions and a talk with the trumpet professor(by the way the reason I didn't make Wind Symphony? My tone is has too much sizzle, they pegged me a jazz lead player which made a whole lot of sense) The professor says he can easily help me and trumpet lessons start on Wednesday. Then I went to Centerville to get the band practiced up for the big Alter v. Centerville game tonight. The place was packed tonight! On a random note, Wayne Markworth friended me on FB. Look him up if you don't know that name!

I'm glad I had the night away from the game though. It's nice to sit in my shorts and blog. I see this blog evolving a bit into reflections on what I'm studying. I can always pull it up on my BB to remember talking points right? I guess I just don't know how to internalize and study the books he just gave me to read this weekend. Well I better get to reading "Conducting Technique for Beginners and Professionals"

My mind will stretch and tonight I sit here wondering what can I be? What will I be?