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Accuracy

Accuracy


Accuracy is a challenge we face as horn players on the daily basis, especially the higher in our range. To combat this, there are some fun ways to work through fundamental exercises and help your accuracy at the same time. The best way to start is just playing scales and arpeggios with different articulations at varying dynamic levels. Work on playing scales in your full range as loud as possible to as soft as possible while playing the notes from slurred all the way to staccato. This will give you some ideas about where you have the biggest holes in accuracy.
Josef Schantl wrote a book of studies called Grand Theoretical and Practical Method for the Valve Horn as a series of over 200 exercises in all major and minor keys. Not only does this book help with the fluency of all key signatures, but can be a resource when working on accuracy issues. He has suggestions on articulations written throughout so feel free to use those as needed, but play around with dynamics more than anything. Once you have an exercise down, play it across a wide dynamic range to help all notes become more comfortable.
There is also an app called Quality Tones that will randomly select one note at a time for you to play. You can customize the range, dynamics, and articulation types that the app can throw at you. Once you hit start, you are timed at various intervals to perform the note before it changes to a new one. This is a fun tool to have literally in your pocket that you can work on for a few minutes a day. You can start with basic concepts and range and then build from there as you become more comfortable.

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