Thoughtful Retreat

Currently, I am in Portland, Oregon playing Swan Lake with Oregon Ballet Theater. We had our dress rehearsal last night - first night in the pit - and I think it's going to be a good show! The horn section has never sounded better, IMO, even though a lot of what we're playing is footballs and offbeats! 

I don't have much else on my schedule other than the ballet services so that leaves a lot of time on my hands for practice and other projects. Crummy projects like taxes and also fun projects like working on my method book! 🤓

As some of you know, I'm developing a method book specifically for horn players who need to structure their own time (like someone is just out of school) and want to keep up their skills. Let's face it; it's also a routine book that "routine nerds" are going to enjoy. :)

Here's how it works:

A key a day

Each day of the month is assigned a key, major or one variation of a minor. There is also a transposition (or natural horn) key that corresponds to that day for exercises that are meant to be played on natural horn. For example, today's key is F Major and the the transposition key is Bb alto. Yesterday was d harmonic minor and also Bb alto transposition. Tomorrow will be c# melodic minor with a transposition key of A.

Four routines

 I have put together four different warm up routines to choose from - a choose your own adventure of warming up. Every exercise in the routine is done in the key (or transposition) of the day. The routines are similar in format; they each include the following:

  • pre-warm-up
  • flexibility exercises
  • scale pattern
  • tonguing or interval practice
  • longtone study

Etudes and Excerpts

At the end of the book will be recommended etudes to be transposed in to the key of the day as well as orchestral excerpts for each key. This is by no means an excerpt book but instead, the excerpts are a way of further exploring a key and its possibilities.

Leander Star