The Italian Horn Website

Il Club del Corno is promoting an opinion survey among professional horn players, based on a list of questions. The answers will be published on the site in English and in Italian.

Answers by Lowell Greer

1) What where the turning points in your development as a horn player? List any factor that was important to your progression as a musician (e.g. which conservatory/music school attended, influential teacher/s, particular events). The most important influences in my professional life were my first and last teachers. The first convinced me that I could become a hornplayer, showed me how to use the hand in the bell to play a scale, and gave me free lessons! The last teacher was Helen Kotes Hirsch who helped me learn most of the literature for the horn at the level of a soloist. Any successes in international competitions I have had can be attributed to her. 2) Do you think that your professional success could have been essentially different (either greater or lesser) if you had had other teachers? Had I studied with different teachers, I would have still been a professional player, but I would have gone in a different direction, playing only in the orchestra, probably as 4th horn! Teachers have a tendency to make clones of themselves. 3) How much does the possibility of becoming a competent horn player depend on a) Facial structure, b) Inborn talent, c) Application/study? I feel facial structure is least important, talent very important, but intensive study most important of all. 4) Should a student who is having serious problems in the fundamentals, after studying the horn for some years, abandon the idea of becoming a professional at all, or could he/she be still brought to a level of competency by appropriate teaching metods (that is, by finding a new teacher)? It is easy to become discouraged in music, so I think our period of study must be divided up into "dedicated periods" of, say, four or five years. After that dedicated period is finished, then one may evaluate, based on the successes/failures of the dedicated period, the amount of progress made, and determine if more study with the same or different teacher is worth considering. 5) What is, in your opinion, the importance and use of a) Mouthpiece buzzing, b) Handled rim (rim on a stick) buzzing, c) Free lip buzzing ? In my opinion buzzing the mouthpiece is extremely valuable. Rim buzzing should be used to visualize the lip function and free buzzing should not be done at all. The latter practise has nothing to do with playing the horn at all. 6) Do you know, use, recommend the "inspiron" and/or other breathing devices? From time to time. 7) Do you think that progresses in one's playing happens steadily, by constant application, or by leaps? Constant. 8) Should a teacher give precise embouchure directions? And how precise? General directives are necessary, but the teacher saves both himself and the student much time if he urges the student to discover for himself which lip settings yields the best result. 9) Are there special directions/techniques for mastering the low and high registers? Yes, the aperture size and direction of air flow are both important considerations for the study of extremes of range. 10) How was your experience in auditioning and what advice on this matter can you give to aspiring professionals? Those who prepare for auditions do well to carry out their study from the perspective of both the auditioner and auditionee. The use of very good recording equipment is invaluable to check the intonation and rythmic aspects of performance. Successful execution of excerpts on the tape will also give the player much more confidence during the audition, since the player already knows what their audition will sound like to the ears of the audition committee.