Tenor horn beginner

[u/mothsworld]

Hi! I've just picked up tenor horn again (I played for about 3 years when I was 8-11 ish, I'm 22 now) and I've joined a local beginners band - however open rehearsal doesn't start until October, and I'm wondering if anyone had any advice on practising until then, as I don't have the sheet music yet? I've just sort of been playing scales haha

TIA!

[u/Imaginary_Ad2461]

Scales is the best thing you can be practicing since music is just scales in a different order but if you want to develop your playing you can combine scales with rhythm exercises to get used to playing technical stuff, it’s also a good idea to practice your articulation of notes.

[u/JudsonJay]

Learn to blow to maximum resonance—resonance, not volume. Chicowitz flow studies would be perfect. Make every note sound exactly the same. Scales would work for this as well.

Focus on tone not notes.

[u/speedikat → u/JudsonJay]

Amen to this. It's the foundation to most everything brass.

[u/Mike_Hagedorn]

Mouthpiece work and freebuzzing - boring at first, but it separates the wheat from the chaff.

Long tones and swells - go for the smoothest, most even tone.

Breath and tongue articulations - make em clean!

That’s everything.

[u/Roll-for-Frack]

If you only played at an elementary level in the past that might be where you want to jump back in. You could go to your local music store and buy a book 1 and book 2 of whatever method book they stock. I’d recommend a trumpet book for ease of play and an alto sax book work on range.

If you don’t want to buy books, the Arban book is freely available on imslp and has a lifetime’s worth of exercises plus some enjoyable melodies for practicing playing musically.

[u/Ok-Difficulty-1839]

See if you can find an old hymn book and work on some of those. They are bloody boring, but really do help build stamina and nice tone.

While, I have never played horn before, it's a very underrated and under appreciated instrument. Awesome job for picking it back up again.

[u/melbmegera]

You can pick up the “standard of excellence” books, they have an Eb horn specific book and have a couple different levels. There are also websites like MuseScore and TomPlay where you can find tenor horn music (or even alto sax parts that aren’t in the stratosphere).

I get what everyone says about scales being the foundation etc but boy, you’re going to be bored if that’s all you’re playing for the next month.

Enjoy!

[u/larryherzogjr]

The term “tenor horn” seems to be pretty ambiguous…depending on what country you live in. There is the definition that is similar to a baritone horn (typically an oval. Same range as euph, trombone, etc). And there is the definition of a higher-ranged instrument that is often called an “alto horn” in the US. :)

[u/Ok-Difficulty-1839 → u/larryherzogjr]

If he has joined a brass band, I'll bet $10 it's an Eb horn that British style brass bands use.

[u/larryherzogjr → u/Ok-Difficulty-1839]

Which most state side refer to as an “alto horn”.

[u/melbmegera → u/larryherzogjr]

Except surprisingly not everyone on reddit is American… It is a tenor horn almost everywhere else.

[u/larryherzogjr → u/melbmegera]

Exactly. Hence the qualifications in my comments. (And, to be fair… German-based Thomann uses the same naming familiar to US residents, so not exclusively a US thing.)