Natural Horn/Valve Horn Technical Etudes

by Bruce Atwell

$26

Many of the exercises in this book are designed to target the most difficult hand stopping combinations, such as the transition from open b-flat′ to fully stopped a-flat′. It turns out that many of the more difficult hand stopping transitions are also difficult valve combinations, so it is very useful to play these exercises on natural horn and Valved Horn.

For further information on hand stopping and Natural Horn in general, Dauprat’s Method for Cor Alto and Cor Basse is the most complete reference work. Oscar Franz’s Method also extols the virtues of hand horn study and contains a few natural horn etudes. For more advanced study, practice Gallay’s etudes and preludes on hand horn. It is my hope that these exercises will serve as a starting point for horn players and teachers to incorporate hand horn study into their playing and teaching to provide a solid foundation for valve horn study and to carry on the wonderful history and tradition of this noble instrument.