Skip to main content

Etudes

Etudes

Etudes are short studies that are built to make you a more well-rounded horn player and musician. They come in a variety of construction types with many different outcomes. Some are progressive and cover all types of issues, while some are collections that target specific problems head on. If you are just starting to dive into etudes, the following are a great place to begin:

Maxime Alphonse - 200 Progressive Studies
Alphonse created a set of 200 etudes over the course of 6 books. They start simple with a focus on detail and begin to progress and expand in range and difficulty over time. You can find them online for free at: https://imslp.org/wiki/200_%C3%89tudes_nouvelles_m%C3%A9lodiques_et_progressives_pour_cor_(Alphonse,_Maxime)

Max P Pottag - Preparatory Melodies to Solo Work for French Horn
Pottag’s books are also progressive, but move at a quicker pace. His studies are created around challenges faced in our solo and orchestra repertoire. These are great for a more advanced student that is just now looking at etudes for the first time.

Georg Kopprasch - 60 Etudes
Kopprasch is another progressive book, but starts with a wider range and gets fairly hard early on. He focuses a lot on dynamic contrast and articulations across the full range of the horn. They are great because they can serve as studies for further work on the horn such as transposition. The following link is to a free pdf: http://ks.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/6/6a/IMSLP239696-PMLP30686-Kopprasch_60_Selected_Studies.pdf

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Articulations

Articulations When you are playing each note, remember that there is a beginning, middle, and end. Each part of the note requires definition and equal attention. Articulations are often what causes us to make the most mistakes. There are different ways to approach articulations, but we are going to keep it simple with a “too” approach. Start by just slowly saying the word “too.” Feel the shape your mouth makes and where the tip of your tongue makes contact. It should be around the back of your top teeth, just where the roof of your mouth meets the teeth. This creates a well-rounded attack that works great on the horn. The higher in the range you are playing, your tongue will move further up from that position, and the lower you play, your tongue will move further down. This motion should happen naturally, but if you find yourself making unclear beginnings to notes, check in with where your tongue is making the initial attack. Make sure that after you make the attack, your t

The High School Hornist: What to Expect

The High School Hornist: What to Expect Hello! And welcome to my blog! My name is Tracy Bass and I am currently finishing my Doctor of Music Arts degree at the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. Thank you for checking out this blog! This is going to serve as home to projects I did during my time at UMKC and will also be a collective resource for high school students who want to major in music in college. I got a late start to horn and never had private lessons before starting college. My first semester, I was put fourth horn in orchestra and had no idea what I was in for. I was expected to read bass clef and transpose which were two things that I had no idea that the horn did. My goal with this blog is to create a resource for high school students and teachers to use when preparing for what a horn player can expect to see at the collegiate level. Below is a checklist of topics that will be explored. Each item will have its own blog post coming

Women Writing Chamber Music

Women Writing Chamber Music For my Chamber Music Literature class, I created a presentation on chamber music works that have been written by women that include the horn. I wanted to write about works by women because they are so seldom heard. My goal was to find a video performance of each work so that the audience would have an audio and visual representation of the piece. This project was more difficult than expected in some ways. While there are a few resources that highlight chamber music by female composers, they are typically outdated and include pieces that I was not able to find any information on the composer, let alone the piece itself. The project was enjoyable to work on and I hope to be adding more pieces in the future. The current list highlights selections from 1849 to 2018. If you have any suggestions on pieces to add, please comment below! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MMmnOz8YykQakaPRcjYDzzHg0uwH97ch5ClT6KJjK8U